Can bread be made from all purpose flour? PICS added-Pg. 2

[msgenie516]

Hi,

I decided to make DH a special dinner tonight since he sustained a minor injury on the job and had to stay home today (which he hates--I am so lucky he LOVES to work)!

I would like to make a loaf of homemade bread to go with the dinner but, to my dismay (sometimes I can be a real scatterbrain), I found that I thought I needed all purpose flour when I went shopping (bought a large bag of King Arthur), when, in fact, I have plenty of all purpose flour and NO bread flour! My plans were to just dump everything in the bread machine and now I don't know what to do. I do have plans to attempt to make bread without the machine, but that just wouldn't work today. As you can tell, I'm not an expert.

Could I use the all purpose flour and add some extra vital wheat gluten? I have plenty of that. Would a little extra yeast help? Should I use more or less of the all purpose flour? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Genie

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Yes if you add enough gluten you can use AP flour.

Good luck! I make home made bread every two days. It's all we eat

I buy the bread flour by the 50 lb bags lol

 

[popcornpuppy]

I use all purpose all the time when I make bread. The kids don't like when I use wheat or other grain flour because the bread is too dense. If you use all purpose, I don't think you will need to add anything. It will have the texture and consistancey of Wonder Bread. It will be light, airy and full of holes.
Does that help some?

ETA: I just saw the other post. As you can see opinions differ so both both ways may work. That doens't help now, does it?

 

[saddina]

You can use AP flour, the bread will have a softer texture.

 

[ranchhand]

It'll work just fine with no additions, though if you add a bit of gluten it won't hurt.

 

[bonnylass79]

Good news is that King Arthur All Purpose rises better than some other brands. It won't rise as well as Bread flour, but you can find several bread recipes on the King Arthur website that call for all purpose.

 

[popcornpuppy]

(I'm not trying to hyjack this thread, I just wanted to add something slightly off topic.)

I love that soo many of us are making our own bread!!!!! That stuff from the store is full of junk that I can't pronounce and home made tastes so much better.

ETA: King Auther is the brand I use. Maybe that is why I don't need to add anything

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

"All-purpose flour is made from a blend of high- and low-gluten wheats, and has a bit less protein than bread flour — 11% or 12% vs. 13% or 14%. You can always substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour, although your results may not be as glorious as you had hoped. There are many recipes, however, where the use of bread flour in place of all-purpose will produce a tough, chewy, disappointing result. Cakes, for instance, are often made with all-purpose flour, but would not be nearly as good made with bread flour."

That was a quote I got from a chef's page...I have used ap flour before and found that to be very true.

How do you guys get it to be soft like wonder bread and without adding gluten? Never happened for me

Msgenie if you try this let me know how it works.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I love that soo many of us are making our own bread!!!!! That stuff from the store is full of junk that I can't pronounce and home made tastes so much better.

I SO agree with this

I thought that too when I was reading this...nice to see

And I would love to get your wonder bread recipe cuz my son LOVES the stuff lol​

 

[saddina]

For me, a good bread is all about a chewy crust (think sourdough, french loaves or crusty italian). To get that crispness you want to steam the dough. Put an inch of water into a pryex dish (or a cake pan, whatever) and slide in your water pan when you slide in your loaf. The water will steam up the oven, making for a chewy, crisp crust.