Plain Flour v Self-raising Flour

Plain Flour Vs. Bread Flour

Hello again,

I’m often asked the question, “What is the difference between Plain Flour and Strong or Bread Flour”.

Well, it’s all down to the gluten content of the flour; Cakes require less gluten while things like breads need more gluten, thus, some flours have more than others. I know you are asking yourself “How do I know what the gluten content is”. Take a look at the packet and you will see a panel that tells you the amounts of things such as Salt, Sugar, Fat, Fibre, etc. in that list, usually near the bottom you will see PROTEIN content and it will be somewhere between 8g per 100g (8%) to 12g per 100g (12%), the higher the number the more gluten it contains.  Ordinary Flour used for everyday baking in the home has around 10% protein and Strong or Bread Flour has 12%. Flour with less than 10% is usually used by bakeries, these are special cake flours giving a much lighter texture and the ones with higher than 12% are used to make certain types of artisan breads.

People also ask me what purpose does gluten serve, well, it can have very beneficial effects on your baking or it can have very bad effects too. For instance, making a sponge cake with ordinary flour can still cause serious failure if you over mix the batter, as this will develop the gluten and result in rather tough eating sponge. That’s why when making bread it needs quite a lot of kneading, this develops the gluten to its maximum in this case. Why? Well the yeast or other raising agent form bubbles of carbon dioxide which makes the bread rise and without the tough effect of the gluten the dough would collapse in the oven resulting in a very flat, heavy loaf.

So, for light cakes, sponges, puddings, etc use a low Protein flour and for Breads or heavy cakes, etc use a higher Protein content.

I hope this help you understand a little more about flour and its uses. If you have any questions, comments or tips please leave them in the comments box below, I’ll be please to hear from you.

Until next time ……………..

Category: Blog, Tips, Tricks & Techniques