why so many bread recipes with AP flour?

KA makes an AP flour that is well suited to bread baking because of the higher protein content and so I often use it for my bread baking..the 'Bread' Flour also is great and I like using it to, especially for the some pizza's and breads with nuts, seeds, breads that require a stronger flour.  Regular store AP flour is not the same protein content.  When you see a formula/recipe refering to AP flour for the bread..it means an AP flour with a higher protein content for bread baking.

Sylvia

I use AP flour because I live in a rural community and the small grocery stores here don't carry bread flour. But then again if they did it would probably cost too much and I still wouldn't buy it.

I purchase a 25 pound bag of AP flour at the local farmer's market for $6.50...that comes out to $1.30 per 5 pound bag. It makes up a fairly large portion of our diet since I go through one 25 pound bag a month. So I would not be willing to pay more for bread flour since everyone is happy with the food that I make with the AP flour.

Welcome to the Fresh Loaf Laura!

As for the AP flour, I have seen a lot of people recently discussing that using it makes for a more crisp and/or crackly crust than from using bread flour alone. I have no problem, though, producing a nice crackly crust whether using bread flour or AP flour, so I don't know that using one or the other makes that much of a difference. I think you're seeing a lot of recipes that are reflecting people experimenting with this theory.

And as mentioned above, there are recipes where the higher levels of gluten in bread flour are necessary. Most of the time this will be with higher hydration doughs like pizza dough or rustic baguettes. There are also recipes, like french bread, where you would use AP for a more tender crumb.

Overall, the answer to your question might be that people use different types of flour for variations in texture and that you can make an excellent loaf of bread with almost any type of good quality flour. Either way, technique and patience will give you better results than choice of flour alone.

Hope this helps and have fun baking!

Not all all-purpose flours are the same. I tried First Street all-purpose flour to make French bread. It came out awful. It was hard, dense, and porous. I only use it to make pastries, pies, cookies, and batters.

King Arthur all-purpose flour is different. The bread came out fluffy, crispy, slightly chewy with large irregular holes.

Laura,

Both terms are misleading, because neither exists in true flour taxonomy.  They are, in essense, marketing terms, not flour descriptors. 

SylviaH's recommedation is on target: King Arthur's All Purpose flour is a wonderful flour for breads and especially hearth breads and has a protein content of 11.7%, which produces a thin, crisp crust along with a soft crumb.  (Commercially it's marketed as Sir Galahad, and it's what KA uses to produce their hearth breads that are sold through their store).  Ironically, their "Bread" flour has a higher protein content that puts it at the low end of high-gluten flour.  It's better used for bagels than bread.

Unless you have a good grasp of protein content and the like, stick with Sylvia's advice. You can also, if you search this website, finds lot of other good 'bread' flours that produce great products.

Larry

I think it's simply because recipe developers don't want to scare anybody off, so they make it easier. Most people have AP flour on hand and may not have bread flour on hand. 

If you learn the differences between bread and AP flour, you will know how they impact the final result. I could say they were more or less interchangeable, but sometimes one or the other is absolutely necessary. It might come down to personal preference at times.

I like King Arthur flours (and I prefer their bread flour over their AP flour because I like a solid chew), and their availabilty in bigger groceries nationwide is a big plus for them. But KA is not the end-all and be-all of flours. (Seems like there is a lot of KA cheerleading in the comments above, but KA is not a necessary precurser to great bread.) I'm fortunate to live in an area where I have access to a variety of flours, many even local, so I try different things just for fun and education.

jaywillie

Hi Laura,

Both Jeffrey Hamelman and Dan DiMuzio address protein levels of wheat in their books.

Wheat is usually labeled.  For bread bakers, there's hard red winter or hard red spring wheats.  Hard red winter wheat contains 10-15% protein.   Hard red spring wheat contains 12-18% protein.

A flour with a protein level between 11.5 to 12% is preferred for artisan breads because it has "a good balance of strength and extensibility, tolerance to long mixing, and tolerance to long fermentation."  [DiMuzio]  A good, unbleached and unbromated all purpose flour will fall within that percentage.  The protein level should appear on the bag, or be available from the manufacturer.

Hamelman writes that the higher gluten flours (12-18% protein) will not support long fermentations and the dough will flatten and lose structure.    

So, you'll get great bread using a hard winter red wheat flour with a protein level between 11.5 to 12%.  I don't know about other brands, but I do know that King Arthur Flour's AP label consistently contains 11.7% protein.  Consistency is important.

Now, if you are baking a bread with a lot of heavy grain, or a rye bread, you will need a higher gluten flour because rye doesn't have much gluten forming properties, and the heavy grains need a stronger flour to lift them.   But that's another topic...

KAF bread flour contains 12.7% protein and is milled from hard red spring wheat.  The high gluten KAF Sir Lancelot brand (14.2% protein) is also milled from hard spring wheat and is terrific for bagels.

Since most good bread books will define the type of flour to be used, it's called "bread flour" in the formuals.  If a higher protein flour is required, it will be called "high gluten" flour.   In the end, it's all about the protein level.

Hope this makes sense.

Hi laura seim,

Given the advice you have already received from Lindy and Larry and others, I see you are already in good hands.

However, if you want to make pizza first I just wanted to point something out about Mediterranean wheats from countries such as Italy and France.   The flours from these countries are not generally regarded as strong [high gluten].   Relating to Lindy's comments about protein levels, these flours would typically be around 10.5% protein.   North American wheats produce flour of much greater gluten potential than do Italian/French flours.   A pizza base should be easy to roll out and toss to achieve a thin piece of dough.   High gluten flour will resist this requirement of extensibility, whereas the softer Italian wheats will not.

Best wishes

Andy