Making sourdough starter with bread flour
Since all of the sourdough starter-receipes call for "flour", sometimes ryr flour, sometimes what flour, or "regular" flour, can bread flour be used instead, to accommodate a bread machine?
I ask because the bread machines call for bread flour, and not regular flour. Is mixing the (regular) flour made sourdough, with the bread flour in the machine problematic? Will bread flour work to make a starter, or must regular flour be used?
Best Answer
The difference between flour marketed as Bread Flour and flour marketed as All Purpose (at least in the US) is the type of wheat from which it is milled, and therefore the protein percentage in the flour, a p/l value close to 1 which gives proper plasticity to the dough, and a large enough falling number to allow long fermentations.
At least the US, all flour marketed as either All Purpose or Bread Flour should be suitable for bread making, although bread flour will permit greater gluten development due to the higher protein level.
The yeast or bacteria in a bread starter eat the starch (after it has been converted to sugar by enzymes present in the flour), which is the bulk of the grain, whether the wheat is winter or summer, hard or soft, red or white.
Also, the way the bag is labelled is as much a marketing issue as a technical issue. For example, in the US, King Arthur brand all purpose flour is nearly as "hard" (high in protein) as other common brand's (such as Gold Medal) bread flour.
Use either all purpose or bread flour, as you choose.
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Can you use bread flour in sourdough starter?
Technically, any grain-based flour works for making a sourdough starter. Flours made from rice, rye, spelt, einkorn and wheat all work. However, bread flour works the best and yields the most reliable starter.What type of flour is best for sourdough starter?
Any flour containing starch is suitable for a sourdough starter, since it is the sugar that the microbes feed on. Glutenous flours, such as spelt, einkorn, rye, and wheat, tend to work best.How do you make bread flour starters?
1 cup bread flour, 1/2 cup lukewarm water. The starter should look visibly active, bubbling, rising, hopefully, close to doubling in size. You may need to repeat day 5 until the starter is rising and falling predictably and is close to doubling in size.Can you use white flour for sourdough starter?
This recipe uses regular, everyday all-purpose flour, but you can certainly make sourdough using whole-wheat, rye, or any other kind of flour. Wild yeast is everywhere, after all! If this is your first time making sourdough, I'd recommend starting with all-purpose flour because it tends to behave the most predictably.Making a Hassle-Free Sourdough Starter From Scratch Using Plain Bread Flour | Tropical Sourdough
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