How to convert between flours?
As we've seen in previous questions, certain flours have different gluten contents. Time and time again, I find reviews of King Arthur Flour recipes indicating that I really must use their flour if I want the recipe to come out right, as any other flour will make it come out horribly wrong. Is there a way to convert a bread recipe to use a more widely available brand, given that my supermarket actually sells gluten in a bag?
ETA: Also, is there a way to find out what makes a given brand different so I can evaluate it?
Best Answer
If you are simply looking to convert gluten contents then you can certainly always go higher by adding the correct proportion of vital wheat gluten to dough to get the percentage of gluten that you want.
However there are many other differences between flour bags in terms of processing. How is the flour ground? What wheat variety is it from? Is it white or whole? There are a lot of variables.
I do speak as someone who has found that Gold Medal is perfectly acceptable for all my baking needs and also routinely uses store brand flour. Personally I suggest simply trying whatever flour you want to try (not including substituting bread for cake or something along those lines, that definitely will cause issues) and seeing how the recipe goes. Determine if a higher-end flour brand is for you yourself.
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How can I substitute different flours?
For every 1 cup/130 grams of all-purpose flour, substitute 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons/145 grams cake flour. To make your own cake flour substitute, sift together 3/4 cup/95 grams all-purpose flour with 3 tablespoons cornstarch. This is equivalent to 1 cup/115 grams cake flour.Can you combine different flours?
There is no safety issue at all to mixing flour types. Assuming that the flours are safe individually, they will be safe combined.How do I convert all-purpose flour to whole-wheat flour?
Just remember the flavor could vary. When baking, experiment with your ratio of whole wheat to all-purpose. Start by swapping one-third of the amount of flour in your recipe for whole wheat (if your recipe calls for 1 cup flour, use \u2153 cup whole wheat and \u2154 cup all-purpose).How do I convert plain flour to bread flour?
Measure out 1 cup all-purpose flour (4 1/2 ounces or 129 grams). Remove 1 1/2 teaspoons (1/8 ounce or 4 grams). Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten (1/8 ounce or 5 grams). Whisk or sift to combine.🔵 How To Make Self Raising Vs. Self Rising Flour - What Is It?
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Answer 2
King Arthur All Purpose flour is milled from hard winter North Dakota wheat if I remember their website correctly, which gives it a higher typical protein percentage than most all purpose flour brands.
See this great article, which includes a comparison of several popular flour brands:
http://www.theartisan.net/flour_test.htm
Assuming you measure by weight and not volume, its pretty simple to mix two flours to get an intermediate protein level. For example, about 1 part Pillbury AP + 1 to 2 parts Pillsbury Better for Bread is a pretty good approximation of King Arthur All Purpose.
In my limited experience, I find the KA site bread recipes are pretty forgiving, and work with slightly varying results with almost any flour. I have made their English Muffin bread successfully with Pillsbury AP and Pillsbury Better for Bread.
Answer 3
Our Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book (very old), is is a 5 ring binder with stuff written on the inside of the cover--very useful stuff including a generic answer to this question.
Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book "Emergency Substitutions" 1 cup cake flour = 1 cup minus 2 tabelspoons all-puropse flour
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