The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

French flours

September 22, 2015 - 5:52am
wellbreadalex's picture
wellbreadalex

French flours

I am currently in France and about to host a baking day with friends this coming Saturday.  Decided to do a test bake using Type 80 flour recommended by the local bio-shop but it hasn't turned out so well.  My basic white bread loaf was almost impossible to work - very, very sticky and it didn't rise as I would expect.  Then this morning I tried a Sourdough using my rye starter and the mix has hardly moved in 3 hours.  Can anyone enlighten me re: french flours, which Type would be best to use in place of the UK's Strong White Flour and how to work it?

Share
  • Facebook logo
  • Twitter logo
drogon's picture
drogon
Sep 22 2015 - 6:25am

T80 should be a very strong flour with lots of gluten/protein (~14%) T65 is probably closer to a UK bread flour.

-Gordon

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman
Sep 22 2015 - 7:44am

Calvel's "The Taste Of Bread" has an extensive table on page 4 showing protein and ash content of US and French flours. The most important conclusion from that page (multiply types by 10 for german flours): 

  • Type 45: Ash content below 0.50, extraction rate 67-70
  • Type 55: Ash content 0.50-0.62, extraction rate 75-78
  • Type 65: Ash content 0.62 - 0.75, extraction rate 78-82
  • Type 80: Ash content 0.75 - 0.90, extraction rate 82-85
  • Type 110: Ash content 1 to 1.20, extraction rate 85-90
  • Type 150: Ash content above 1.40, extraction rate 90-98

T-55 or T-65 would be a better choice for white bread but be warndesfthere are many different types of each some for Frech Bread, some for baguettes and some for country loaves dnsome for pastry