Can i use bread flour in place of all purpose

Desperate texts pinged in succession as my friend navigated her first sourdough loaf. It was the great sourdough boom (and subsequent flour shortage) of 2020, but it wasn’t the first time I’d fielded an onslaught of similar questions. As a professional baker, I’m the bread and pastry guru of my friend group, and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked whether there’s a difference between bread flour or all-purpose flour. What if you’ve run out of one and have the other? Can you substitute? The answer: It depends on what you’re making. Bread flour and all-purpose flour are not the same, but knowing what distinguishes one from the other—as well as how to manipulate gluten—will help you become a better and more adaptable baker. Let’s start with the basics:

What is flour?

You can find an assortment of flours in most grocery stores these days, including cake flour, self-rising flour, whole grain flours like rye and spelt, and even gluten-free flours made from coconut, almond, or buckwheat. But we’re here to talk about wheat flour, which is made by milling whole wheat berries (comprised of the endosperm, bran, and germ) into a powder.

To create white flour (a category that includes cake flour, bread flour, and all-purpose flour), the bran and germ are sifted out during the milling process. Although some bakers use freshly milled stone-ground flour, most mass-produced flour is made with large industrial roller mills that crush the wheat berries. This flour is then heat-treated to become shelf-stable and may be bleached with chloride or another additive to quickly dry it out, producing a brighter, whiter flour and prolonging shelf life.

The Power of Fresh Flour

Unbleached flour is technically also bleached, but only through gradual aging and controlled oxidation. The flour slowly dries out and its natural yellow hue fades to a creamy off-white—in bleached flour, chemical additives like benzoyl peroxide make the process go more quickly. Performance-wise, you can substitute bleached and unbleached flours for each other in a pinch, though some recipes may call for one specifically. You may notice subtle differences: Bleached flour is somewhat finer and lighter, whereas unbleached is a little more flavorful.

So, what is all-purpose flour?

Exactly what it sounds like: all-purpose! It’s the baking pantry workhorse, a versatile white flour that can be used in almost any baking application. All-purpose flour is what I reach for when I’m making my favorite treats, like quick breads and cinnamon rolls.

The protein content of all-purpose flour ranges from 9% to 12%, depending on brand (more on that below). My favorite all-purpose flour, King Arthur’s Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, has a protein content of 11.7%—this is on the high end of the AP spectrum, but it’s still considered a midrange percentage. While using cake flour (around 9% protein) or pastry flour (around 8% protein) for the baked goods mentioned above would result in loftier, more tender bakes, the truth is that all-purpose flour will often work just fine. Unless you’re making a delicate, airy cake, such as chiffon, which you plan on serving to a pastry chef, most people will not be able to tell which flour you used.

Okay then, what is bread flour?

Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, ranging from 12% to 14%. That makes this type of flour ideal for all kinds of bread recipes, including hearty sourdoughs, tender brioche, and lacy English muffins. As these doughs proof, the strength and elasticity provided by the high protein content allows the doughs to expand and trap carbon dioxide bubbles produced during fermentation.

Bread flour is also great for chewy noodles—like these easy homemade ones from Epi contributor and cookbook author Hetty McKinnon. King Arthur Flour’s Unbleached Bread Flour has a protein content of 12.7%, which is just a percentage point higher than its all-purpose flour. While bread flour is more than adequate for everyday breads, some professional bakers use high-gluten flour with a 14% protein content to provide extra strength to dense, chewy doughs like bagels and pizza dough.

High-gluten bread flour gives milk bread it’s taut structure and compact (but tender) crumb.

Wait, what is protein content and why does it matter?

Each variety of wheat berry has a different protein content, which is determined by several factors: the variety’s color, the season it’s grown, and hardness. Soft wheats have a lower protein content (around 7% to 9%) and are usually used to make cake or pastry flour. Hard wheats, such as hard red spring or hard red winter, have a protein content in the range of 10.5% to 13.5%, which makes them ideal for all-purpose flour or bread flour. 

Protein content is one of the biggest factors in how a flour performs during baking. For one thing, protein levels determine a flour’s gluten strength: Whereas higher protein wheats produce doughs with more structure and elasticity, lower protein flours are ideal for tender pastries like cookies, cakes, and flaky pie crust.

Can you substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour or vice versa?

According to Trang Tran, a former baker at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, you can successfully use all-purpose flour in place of bread flour, but you won’t get quite the same results. Depending on the type of bread you’re making, she says, all-purpose flour can sometimes even be preferable. “The tender crumb all-purpose flour gives milk bread is pretty nice.” So consider this permission to sub in AP if you’re in a pinch and need a sandwich loaf STAT. For loaves in which a chewy crust is the point, like a hearth bread, she recommends sticking with bread flour.

If you’re making a loaf of bread with all-purpose flour, be extra diligent in the kneading, stretching, or folding stage to strengthen the dough adequately. If you have the time, a long, cold fermentation (think overnight in the fridge) will help your dough develop the gluten it might be missing. This method is used in our popular Shockingly Easy No-Knead Focaccia, which calls for all-purpose flour and relies on an overnight rest for easy handling as well as more robust flavor and structure. Wondering if you can use AP flour instead of bread flour in a bread machine? Absolutely!

Food Processor Pizza Dough

As for the reverse, you probably don’t want to use bread flour in place of AP for cookies, cakes, and tender pastries. But, if you’ve run out of AP and need just a few tablespoons of flour to make a roux, a crumble topping, or to butter and flour a cake pan, bread flour will work just fine.

However, bread recipes that frequently call for all-purpose flour (like Parker house rolls, monkey bread, or challah) can successfully be made with bread flour, although they may be slightly less tender. If you’re desperate to make a dessert with bread flour, I recommend using it in a recipe like the Basque-style Sweet Potato Cheesecake, which has a minimal amount of flour and relies on cream cheese for most of its texture. Likewise, this Skillet Soufflé Pancake only calls for ¼ cup of flour and gets most of its texture from egg whites.

The takeaway

All-purpose flour is versatile and will work for almost anything you want to bake. When making bread dough, pay extra attention during kneading or stretching and folding to strengthen the dough adequately. Bread flour should be avoided when making tender pastries, but it’s fine for cooking purposes in which gluten development is not a concern, such as in high-fat roux and crumble toppings.

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