Bread Experiments Chapter 1: Basic Bread Plain Flour vs. Bread Flour

When I first started baking bread about 3 years ago, I started with a bread machine. Bread-making was a little daunting since the only things I made before this were muffins and cookies, things that would depend on a rising agent like bicarbonate of soda or baking powder to rise the oven. And bread, it kind of complicates matters with the gluten and yeast (which is a living thing, not some chemical!). 

It was easy to get bread from the bread machine: just put all the ingredients into the mixer and let the machine do its job. But I started reading up on the whole process and experimenting with different recipes, and I found that the bread machine wasn't always ideal because I could only get bread in one shape!

So I started making bread by hand. However, it was a very disorganized process. Sometimes I used a basic bread recipe, other times I used a brioche recipe. Sometimes I used plain flour, sometimes bread flour and other times I used mixtures of both, to varying proportions. And this leads me to this blog: to make a series of experiments in an organized way... and I hope I can gain more insights and of course, if anyone is reading this, I hope it helps you in your bread-making journey too!

Ok let's get started on the first experiment: Basic bread recipe Plain flour vs. bread flour

I started out making bread only with bread flour. It's quite a no-brainer, right? (bread flour = bread) However I started reading up in books and over on the Internet and there were comments that plain flour could also be used. Also, using plain flour for everything had its advantages, I could just buy and store one type of flour and get cakes, cookies by adding baking soda, baking powder, and also get bread just by adding yeast. Since I made bread with plain flour only and with bread flour only on separate occasions, I couldn't really tell if there was a difference.

The basic bread recipe I used is below:

100g Plain or bread flour

60ml water

1 tablespoon runny honey (sugar is ok too)

a pinch of salt 

2-3g yeast (about 1/2 teaspoon)

If you are just starting out, some basic tools good to have would be:

weighing balance

mixing bowl

spatula

flour sifter (a normal sieve would do, but a flour sifter makes it quick and fun!)

measuring spoons 

measuring cylinder 

After weighing out the flour, I sifted it into a large bowl and added the honey, salt and yeast, as you can see below. The purpose of sifting the flour is to remove lumps in the flour, if any. It's ok if you don't want to sieve it. I was careful to keep the yeast away from the salt and honey as they can kill the yeast prematurely.

Then I mixed in the water bit by bit. It can get a bit messy, so I used a spatula before putting my hands in. 

There seems to be a slight difference in the dough from the 2 flours. The bread flour seems a lot more shaggy while the plain flour just has short bits. That's logical as bread flour is supposed to have a higher gluten content.

After kneading it for about 15 minutes, I put both doughs aside to rest for 1 hour. Here's how they looked after rising. The bread flour seems to puff up a bit more. 

After punching the air out and shaping, it's time for a second proof until it doubles in size. I made slashes in the dough (with a clean dry kitchen knife) to give more space for the gluten to stretch. This is how it looks like after the second proof.

And it's time to bake it! I used 180 deg C for 25-30 minutes for a softer bread. If you would like a bread with crispy crust, use 220 deg C for 20-25 mins. 

And for the great reveal...

The bread made with plain flour has smaller holes, whereas the bread flour had larger holes. Taste-wise and texture-wise there is not much difference.

In my opinion, I feel it's ok to use plain flour or bread flour for a basic bread recipe. :)

Sorry for the rather long introduction and post. It's my first blog! Please give me your comments! Thank you for reading!