Flour quality.

So many baking articles talk about the need for strong flour or special bread making flour. They cry out that you can't make bread without these special flours. Lies. Damned lies.

While it is more difficult and it does take a little more effort to get a decent loaf out if you're inexperienced, it can be done. In fact I can assure you that all the loaves shown in this blog to date do not use strong flour, special flour or anything more than yeast, salt, water, oil and occasionally extra grain left over from brewing or decorative grains that I use in other cooking anyway. The results have been pleasant, flavoursome and very inexpensive.

Think of it this way - 'Defiance' brand flour is up to $3.80 per kilo for plain flour. It's nothing special. It's just flour. Various brands of bread flour are north of $5 per kilo. If you're spending that much on flour then you're not saving any money by making bread at home.

What do I use? Generic plain flour. $0.96 per kilo.


Here's a quick price comparison for a loaf of bread including all ingredients and electricity:

Supermarket plain white loaf	$3.00 (can be as low as $2 or as high as $4)
Premium brand plain flour	$2.20
Bread flour mix	$2.80
Generic plain flour	$1.30

I think we have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!


While baking bread with plain old cheap flour can be done and has been done successfully, by making a small change you can improve the result dramatically.

Plain flour sold in the supermarket is very weak and low in gluten. It has been made as a 'one size fits all' product. After all, it's not just for making bread - it's for making cakes, biscuits, pastries, thickening, etc, etc. It needs to be softer. As a result, rather than getting a good rise, the dough can tend to spread more like cake batter than a firm dough.

Those special flours don't have that problem. They are higher in gluten which assists in giving the dough more structure and therefore more resistance to spreading. This is especially important for free-form loaves. In other words, if it's being baked on a stone or a sheet and doesn't have side-walls holding it up then gluten is the main key to a better result.

I don't like spending money needlessly and I'm sure you like to keep your hard-earned a while longer too. I can only see these flours as an expense which influences how I think about baking. My first priority is quality and less adulterated ingredients. This is achieved. The second priority is cost.

Here's the cheat you need to save money and still have 'strong flour': gluten. Go to the health food shop and buy gluten flour. If you add only 30 grams per loaf (i.e. 60 g per kilo) then you've improved the flour from a basic soft flour to something far closer to a flour made from hard wheat - the wheat which makes high gluten flours which are more prized for bread making. About $6 for 500 grams - enough for 16 loaves.

Experiment. Have fun and enjoy the smell of fresh bread baking in your home.

Cheers!!