carbtastic chronicles #17: all-purpose vs. bread flour

Happy weekend! It is grey and icy here, so I can promise you zero beautiful sunrise running photos for the next couple days. BUT, I can deliver some pretty bread photos!

Lately my loaves haven’t been as light and fluffy as they usually are, and I was wondering what I was doing wrong. The bread was turning out well, but definitely on the denser side than usual.

Especially this whole wheat braided sunflower seed bread I made the other week. Delicious flavor, so-so texture!

I used about 1/3 whole wheat, 2/3 white flour for the recipe and then threw in a small handful of sunflower seeds for some crunch.

There’s even some vital wheat gluten to help the dough rise! But despite my efforts, the loaf still turned out a bit on the short side. The slices were perfect for toast, but too small for making proper sandwiches.

My little bread-making heart was about to break because I couldn’t figure out what went wrong. And then I realized that I was using ALL-PURPOSE flour instead of BREAD flour. Mystery solved!!

Just to be sure that the flour was to blame, I made the same loaf a few days later — this time using King Arthur bread flour instead of White Lily all-purpose flour.

Look at that rise!

The loaf still wasn’t super-duper fluffy (might have to do with the weight of the sunflower seeds), but was definitely an improvement from my last attempt.

The slices were a bit more airy and soft — the sunflower seeds seem to distribute more evenly, too.

And that’s that! All purpose flour = foe; bread flour=friend.