Sourdough bread can be made with a variety of flour types, one of which is high-protein white bread flour. However, compared to other flours in the baking section, it’s not nearly as simple to use: oddly, it’s not quite clear what exactly qualifies as “high-protein” flour. Moreover, in my experience, utilizing an excessive amount of this flour or utilizing it improperly might result in bread that has a dense or extremely open crumb structure, neither of which are desirable in a loaf.
Bread bakers aim for maximum volume, a loaf with a lofty rise, and frequently an open and light crumb structure, hence high-protein flour is thought to be ideal for breadmaking. All of these issues can be resolved with a high-protein bread-making flour (certain flours have high protein content, but they don’t trap gasses as well as other current wheat varieties, like Khorasan). I like to compare high-protein white flour to the metal frame used in home construction. It builds a tall, sturdy structure that is resistant to breaking down, especially during the proofing process (and will also help you avoid having a collapsed loaf after baking).
However, in my experience, if a bread formula and procedure are not properly adjusted for the high percentages of this flour (which are frequently found in novice recipes), the resulting texture may suffer—a topic we shall discuss shortly. Lean dough recipes, like those for regular free-form sourdough loaves, can have a rough, chewy crumb and a leathery crust. Lean doughs don’t contain butter, eggs, or sugar. Compare this to a loaf prepared using the same method but medium-protein white flour (flour with 11–12% protein, like all-purpose flour), which has a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Furthermore, the predominant flour available to you may be high-protein white bread flour, depending on where you reside. This is notably true in North America, especially in Canada, where strong wheat accounts for the majority of grain grown. Even all-purpose flour may have a high protein content in some areas. To ensure you know what you’re working with, make sure to check the protein percentage on the flour bag or with the miller. In any case, mastering this type of flour is crucial to working with.
I don’t want this advice to come out as advocating that high-protein flour is terrible and shouldn’t be used—that’s just untrue. When utilized properly, it may be a useful weapon in the bread baker’s toolbox, producing bread with a towering rise, delicate crumb, and mouthwatering flavor (a running joke among us Americans when I was baking in France). Let’s examine how to achieve each of these goals, but first I must clarify what I mean by high-protein white flour.
All white bread flour with added protein was used to make the bread pictured above. My free Sourdough Bread Baker’s Handbook (which includes the formula spreadsheet) contains the recipe and method.
Table of Contents
What Is High-Protein White Bread Flour?
There isn’t a standard proportion that distinguishes between high, medium, and low protein flours. However, in general, I think that a high-protein white bread flour has a protein content of 14% to 12.7 percent, or even more. Typical “bread flour” as labeled in the US is included in this protein range.
Many millers will list the protein percentage of the flour on the bag; if not, you can find the information by sending them an email or conducting a simple web search on their website.
White flour with a high protein content is helpful for recipes calling for doughs with a lot of enrichment, structure, or extra chew. I prefer to use high-protein white bread flour in the following examples:
- Bagels (strong flour and low hydration give bagels their characteristic chew)
- Pretzels (strong flour helps bring chew and makes shaping and handling easier)
- Focaccia (my highly hydrated focaccia benefits from a strong structure)
- Free-form loaves with lots of mix-ins (like my Jalapeño-Cheddar sourdough bread)
- Bomboloni (Sourdough Doughnuts) (highly enriched with butter)
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls (highly enriched with butter and sugar)
“Bread Flour”: What is it?
White flour with a high protein level is referred to as “bread flour” in the United States. Although the exact protein content is unknown, I usually find this flour to be between 12% and 13% protein. Bread flour is basically white bread flour with added protein. With 12.7% protein, King Arthur Baking Bread Flour is the most famous example of this type of flour; King Arthur Baking All-Purpose Flour has 11.7% protein.
Why Is Whole Wheat Flour High-Protein?
Because whole wheat flour contains the complete wheat berry, including the bran, endosperm, and germ, it has a high protein content. Protein content in bran is naturally high. Protein values for whole wheat flour typically range from 13% to 15% or more. (To put this in perspective, 14% of King Arthur Baking Whole Wheat Flour has protein.)
But whole wheat flour won’t yield a loaf with lots of volume and a light, airy interior like high-protein white flour will. Nonetheless, the flavor and increased nutritious content more than make up for the volume loss.
To achieve the best of all worlds, you can blend whole wheat flour with all-purpose or bread flour if you’re using it and still want a tall rise. I get this same result in my recipe for Fifty-Fifty Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread—along with a towering rise and open interior—and bread that is incredibly flavorful and nutritious.
High-Protein White Bread Flour Benefits and Uses
The following are the main advantages of utilizing high-protein white bread flour:
- gives dough additional structure and support.
- creates a dough that is more resistant to disintegration after extended fermentation
- increases the height and volume of the finished product.
- enhances the final product’s chewiness
Every dough that needs more structure, especially ones with lots of fruit or nuts (like my Dark Chocolate-Cherry Sourdough) or doughs heavily enriched with butter, egg, or sugar (shokupan/Japanese milk bread is a great example), I use high-protein white bread flour. This flour’s high protein content results in a high-rising bake by giving the dough more structure to hold onto and sustain these ingredients.
Making bagels is arguably the most well-known application for high-protein flour. You anticipate a product with more chew and high density when you eat a bagel. This is why my bagel recipe calls for 100% high-protein white bread flour (I like Central Milling High Mountain’s), and the chewy texture is definitely achieved.
High-protein flour offers advantages and applications, but it also has disadvantages.
The Top 3 Reasons I Use As Little High-Protein White Bread Flour as Possible
High-protein flour can cause unwanted textural characteristics in the finished loaf of bread if it is used excessively.
When I bake, I usually approach a recipe intending to use the least amount of high-protein white bread flour feasible, depending instead on other formula modifications (such as a decrease in dough hydration) to help add stability and strength to the dough.
I try not to use this flour as much as I used to for the following reasons.
(1) Avoid A Gummy Crumb
My main motivation for using less high-protein white bread flour in my freeform loaves is this. Because of the high protein content of the flour, I found that using large percentages usually results in a gummy crumb, which is another term for a viscous, sticky, and tough interior, especially in a lean dough (one without enrichments like butter, egg, and sugar, like a free-form table loaf). It appears as though the bread has prematurely gone bad.
(2) Avoid A Tough, Chewy Texture
This is related to what was said before, however gummy and tough bread are not the same. Hard, leathery bread is virtually never a desirable texture for a loaf of bread. What I really want is the exact opposite: a loaf that is soft, supple, and melt-in-your-mouth in texture.
A firm texture manifests itself in the same way one might anticipate, impacting both the crumb and the crust: the crumb will feel stiff to the touch and the crust will be difficult to cut through, even with the greatest bread knife.
(3) Can Result In Dense Loaf if Not Properly Hydrated
Because high-protein white bread flour contains so much gluten, if the dough is not adequately hydrated, a loaf baked with a lot of this flour may end up with a dense and tight crumb structure. I generally find that these doughs need additional water added to slacken and soften, allowing for more expansion during fermentation and baking, even though the autolyse approach can help mitigate this issue to some extent.
The Best Way To Bake Sourdough Bread With High-Protein Bread Flour
Here are some of my go-to strategies for creating nutritious, flavorful, and texture-rich sourdough bread—even when using a lot of high-protein white flour.
(1) Increase Dough Hydration
My experience has been that using high-protein white bread flour necessitates increasing the moisture of the dough (i.e., adding extra water to a recipe that did not call for high-protein flour initially). I usually add 5 to 10% water to the total flour weight in the recipe (in baker’s percentages; for instance, if a recipe calls for 1000 grams of all-purpose white flour and 700 grams of water, I would use 1000 grams of high-protein flour and 800 or 850 grams of water for a 10 to 15% increase). There is no universal percentage that works for all flour. Despite the high gluten level, the additional water will assist create bread that is still soft and supple.
Here’s why:
- Gluten Development:a larger proportion of water will result in a more flexible and loosely linked gluten network. A more sensitive and open crumb is the outcome of this.
- Starch Gelatinization: During baking, a dough’s starches become more gelatinous when it contains more water. A softer texture and more thorough gelatinization can be achieved by adding more water to the dough
It’s important to keep in mind that adding more water to your dough can make it stickier and slacker, which will make shaping more difficult. It’s usually better to begin with a little increase in hydration and gradually raise it with further test bakes.
(2) Use The Autolyse Technique
If you come by often, you are aware that I utilize the autolyse method to assist extend the workability of dough and cut down on the amount of time it has to be mixed. I frequently utilize the autolyse process, as I cover in my comprehensive tutorial, even though it’s not a necessary step, particularly when working with hand-mixed doughs.
It’s surprising how much happens when you combine flour and water and then let it sit. However, it gives enzymes—in this case, most significantly, the protease enzyme—time to act, especially when combined with high-protein flour. Protein linkages are broken down by protease, which contributes to a less elastic dough that is less likely to shrink and more extensible dough that can expand without tearing.
This is significant because a highly elastic dough that is extremely tight and difficult to spread out during shaping can be produced when a large percentage of high-protein white flour is used.
(3) Mix and Knead the Dough Less
You won’t need to mix as much as you would if you were using all-purpose or medium-protein white flour to have the same general degree of dough development because the flour includes more gluten. This implies that you can work with the dough for shorter periods of time and still produce a dough that is robust enough to maintain its shape throughout baking.
(4) Ferment Longer
Higher protein doughs generally tolerate longer fermentation times before disintegrating, which causes the dough to spread in the oven rather than rise much. This is particularly true for long-fermented dough that is created with a levain or sourdough starter. This implies that you can extend the dough’s final proof further than you would if it were primarily made of low- or medium-protein white flour.
This is definitely the case, in my opinion, with sourdough pizza dough. While medium-protein white flour, like regular all-purpose, is perfectly good to use for pizza dough, many pizza makers prefer to use higher protein flour and longer fermentation times to achieve stretchy dough, particularly when making New York-style pizza, which has a slightly chewy texture.
Note: It’s a popular myth that Type 00 flour, which home chefs are sometimes advised to use for pizza dough, has a high protein content. This is untrue; the Italian “type” categorization merely designates that the flour is the finest and “whitest” that the mill produces; it makes no mention of the protein content. In actuality, Type 00 flour typically has about the same amount of protein as medium-protein white flour.
High-Protein White Bread Flour FAQs
Which high-protein flour is your favorite to use?
When I require high-protein white flour, I almost usually use King Arthur Baking Bread Flour or Central Milling High Mountain Flour.
1.Is bread flour and high-gluten flour the same thing?
Compared to medium-protein flours, such all-purpose flour, which normally has about 11% protein, they are both regarded as having higher protein content.
2.Is it possible to replace high-gluten flour with bread flour?
In general, sure. The term “bread flour” usually describes flour with at least 12% protein content. Additionally, high-gluten wheat might include 12%, 15%, or more. Generally, when I see the term “high-gluten flour,” I search for flour that has at least 13% to 14% gluten. The miller should indicate the protein percentage on the bag for the majority of flour; if not, you can acquire this information by sending the miller an email or conducting a simple web search.
3.Is “strong flour” and high-gluten flour the same thing?”
It’s true that the flour described by these terminology is stronger than regular all-purpose or medium-protein white flour.
What’s Next?
I hope the next time you’re looking for the ideal flour for your sourdough bread, this guide will help you sort through the complex high-protein white bread flour market. Once more, this flour has definite use in the kitchen, although I personally hesitate to use it unless absolutely necessary.
My sourdough bagels and sourdough pretzels are two excellent uses for high-protein white flour!