Polish Flour Types | The Fresh Loaf

Hoping maybe @Breadzik can assist with this one - or anyone else with the knowledge!

My local Polish shop has a decent range of Polish wheat flours from Lubella and Basia. They seem to be of good quality and I buy them quite often, especially the T550, to use as bread flour in German recipes.

But there's also T500, T450 and T405. I know the number relates to ash content, but there is also flour strength to consider. Eg, consider Italian 00 flour - it can have a W index from 180 - 400 and still be 00. The Basia T405 seems very soft and good for cakes, but not fully sure about the rest.

And then there are designations of Tortowa Extra, Tortowa Orkiszowa, Extra Wpiek Drozdzowe, Extra Wpiek Biszkopty and Krupczatka - what do these all mean?

And lastly, is there a Polish equivalent of T997 - light (not white) rye flour?

Lance

Maybe @Breadzik can confirm the accuracy of this ...

Tony

According to ChatGPT:

These are Polish names for different types of wheat flours used in baking. Here's a quick breakdown:

Tortowa Extra – "Tortowa" means "for torts (cakes)"; this is a very fine, low-gluten cake flour, ideal for light and fluffy cakes. "Extra" just emphasizes higher quality or more refined flour.
Tortowa Orkiszowa – Similar to Tortowa, but made from spelt wheat (orkisz in Polish). Spelt flour tends to give a slightly nuttier taste, but this version is still meant for cakes.
Extra Wypiek Drożdżowe – "Wypiek" means "baking", "Drożdżowe" refers to yeast-based doughs (like sweet breads, babkas, challah). So this flour is specially refined for yeast baking – strong enough for dough to rise well but still soft for sweet doughs.
Extra Wypiek Biszkopty – Again "Extra Baking", but this one is for biszkopty, meaning sponge cakes or ladyfingers. It's very fine, light flour, optimized for airy sponge structures.
Krupczatka – A bit different! "Krupczatka" is a granular wheat flour, like a very fine semolina. It's low-gluten and used for shortcrust pastries, butter cookies, and delicate doughs that need to be crumbly, not elastic.

Summary:

Tortowa Extra = cake flour (fine, delicate)
Tortowa Orkiszowa = spelt cake flour
Extra Wypiek Drożdżowe = flour for yeast doughs
Extra Wypiek Biszkopty = flour for sponge cakes
Krupczatka = coarse low-gluten flour for crumbly pastries

In Poland, the equivalent of T997 light rye flour (common in some countries' flour classification systems) is usually:

Mąka żytnia jasna, typ 720.

Here’s how it matches:

T997: This refers to a light rye flour, higher in ash content than white wheat flour but much lighter than dark rye.
Polish Typ 720: It’s a light rye flour too, lighter than the very dark rye (typ 1400 or 2000), and commonly used for breads like jasny chleb żytni (light rye bread).

Here’s a quick table of Polish rye flour types (mąka żytnia) for you:

Polish Type	Ash Content	Color	Typical Use
Typ 580	~0.51–0.58%	Very light	Rare, specialty light rye
Typ 720	~0.65–0.75%	Light gray	Light rye bread, mixed wheat-rye bread, sourdough starter
Typ 1150	~1.0–1.2%	Medium gray-brown	Darker rye breads (e.g., 50% rye breads)
Typ 1400 ("staropolska")	~1.31–1.45%	Darker brownish-gray	Heavy, dense rye breads, rustic styles
Typ 2000 ("całoziarnista")	~1.9–2.0%	Very dark, coarse	Whole-grain rye bread, pumpernickel-like breads

Notes:

Typ 720 is the most common for everyday lighter rye baking.
Typ 1150 is for heavier breads but not quite "wholemeal."
Typ 1400 and 2000 are considered full rye or whole rye ("pełnoziarnista") — very nutritious but trickier to bake because they are heavier and have less gluten.

Visual tip:

The higher the number, the darker and denser the flour and bread.
Lower types (580, 720) are closer to light wheat bread textures, though still with rye flavor.

The ChatGPT translation is pretty accurate. One thing I noticed on the Basia flour web page is that many of the flours don't indicate the type but rather recommended use. The flour types used to be more strictly regulated and were the only ones generally available. Nowadays there seems to be more flexibility in that regard but I think if a flour specifies a type it has to adhere to regulations for that type. Otherwise I'd assume the name would indicate recommended uses but it could also be something of a marketing spiel as it shouldn't preclude the flour from being used in something else.

Just wanted to add the names of the polish rye flours as I know them:

typ 580	luksusowa
typ 720	pytlowa (also known at retail as "chlebowa")
typ 1400	sitkowa
typ 1850	starogardzka
typ 2000	razowa

The most interesting one to me is typ 1850 which apparently is rye equivalent of Graham flour and is used in just one standard recipe but it was deemed important enough to have its own category, even if it was not universally known in Poland. I never came across it but would love to try. It looks like there is also typ 1150 but I haven't seen it mentioned it in the books that I have.

Basia sells flour nowadays? Man, that's tough

(lol jk, Lance)

Jay

Now, specifically about your rye flour question, as rye is my favorite. "Mąka żytnia typ 720" (T720) or "mąka żytnia chlebowa" is the most often used rye flour. It would be closest to the German Roggenmehl Type 997 but maybe a little bit lighter. Maybe you could add a little medium rye if you'd like. I often mix the T720 with medium rye flour 50/50 with good results. American white rye flour would be closer to T580 which is rarely found or used in Poland. What is more popular is "mąka żytnia typ 2000" or "mąka żytnia razowa" or just "mąka razowa" which is whole grain rye flour or sometimes closer to a fine rye meal depending on the mill.

Also, the Polish Wikipedia has a pretty good article about Polish flours and the Firefox translation of it is OK.

As for "krupczatka", even though it's meant for shortcrust pastries and such that didn't stop some madlads from using it in breads. I guess some people just like living on the edge. Same goes for the other flour types: the categories are not strict, just recommended uses. Typ 500 can make pretty good bread, too. It's all in the hands of the baker.

Although "krupczatka" shares the type number with other flours, it is its own category. Here's my version of this table from Wikipedia:

Flour type	Flour name	Intended uses	American equivalent (roughly)
typ 450	tortowa	cakes, pastries	cake flour, pastry flour
typ 500	krupczatka	shortcut pastries	none
typ 500	poznańska	pasta, pierogies, dumplings, kluski	all purpose flour
typ 500	wrocławska	crepes, pancakes, steamed buns	all purpose flour
typ 550	luksusowa	pasta, dumplings, enriched breads	all purpose flour
typ 650	bułkowa	baked goods, bread	bread flour
typ 750	chlebowa	bread, pizza	bread flour
typ 1400	sitkowa	bread	high extraction flour
typ 1850	graham	Graham bread	Graham flour
typ 2000	razowa	bread	whole grain flour

Typ 405 would be a lighter version of typ 450. These categories, as most of others in Europe, are defined by the ash content. In this case, let's say typ 550 would be about 0.55% ash. They were developed to work with the locally available grain and will work for their intended purposes. Even though the protein content is not usually stated I'm sure it's available somewhere if one were to dig deep enough in the standards regulating these flour types but generally the higher the ash content, the higher the protein content as well.

This has given me some useful info and the table is very helpful. I haven't come across T650 or T750 in the UK, but T550 works well enough as a moderate strength bread flour (12% protein/European measurement).

Lance