Having used mostly high protein flour in my first few months of baking sourdough, I recently tried out a tipo '00' "grano tenero" flour with a much lower protein content. I have to say I'm very pleasantly surprised. Not only does it give me a lovely crumb but the flavour is quite lovely.
What are your experiences using the "softer" flours in bread making?
I have used this type of flour several times mixed in with other higher protein flours and I love it.
Yup. I'm definitely adding this to the "repertoire"
I only use low protein flour for my Cinamon buns and Dinner rolls, never used it for Bread of any kind.
Your loaf looks good:)
The bread you're looking at was made with 9.5% tipo "00" di grano tenero, with some wholemeal buckwheat and rye mixed in to get a light brown loaf. I was astonished at the amount of oven spring this produced, and it was great for sanwiches :-)
low protein flour to make bread all the time - no worries. Baguettes require the cheapest AP low protein flour available in the 10% range . If I need more protein than AP than my 11% AP, I add some VWG to it but since most of my breads have pretty high percent home milled flour, anything else with high protein would make the crumb pretty chewy. High protein bread flours aren't needed for most bread baking in my book - way over rated. I would rather have a flour that tastes good. Anything over 11.5 % protein is pretty much not needed and overkill. But others may disagree.
I'm definitely "converted". The crumb I'm getting is plenty good enough for sandwich pans, and I definitely prefer the flavour of the "grano tenero" (at 9.5% protein) over the "organic strong white flour" (at 11.8%) - I like light brown bread, so I tend to mix in 10 to 20 percent rye, buckwheat or wholemeal - depending on what I fancy on the day.
correction - the "strong white flour" I often use is 12.5% protein, not 11.8
I'm actually baking some rolls this morning made with 100% or close to it Caputo 00 flour. Will post soon.
How did they work out for you?
Excellent...post to follow shortly.
Just posted. Let me know what you think.
Love the look on your bread, I think I may try this. I have some type 00 antimo caputo flour, think it will work?
From what I could find online it looks like the antimo tipo '00' has a higher protein content than the 9.5% in the flour I used so I would imagine it will work just fine in breads.