Please log in with your username or no wheat flour bread to continue. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. How is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together.
Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. How’s Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. This article has been viewed 118,786 times. To the inexperienced baker, “bread flour” and “all-purpose flour” may at first seem to be the same thing. In fact, bread flour is a special type of flour made from hard, high-protein wheat. This gives it a high gluten content and a “stronger,” denser feel once it’s baked.
While bread flour isn’t common in all kitchens, it’s easy to make substitutes from the flour you do have lying around. Buy or order vital wheat gluten. For this recipe, you’ll need only two ingredients: all-purpose flour and vital wheat gluten. All-purpose flour can be purchased at nearly any grocery store. However, you may need to make a trip to a health food store or a baking supply store to find vital wheat gluten. Alternatively, if you can stand to wait, vital wheat gluten is easily available for order online.
You won’t need more than a few teaspoons of vital wheat gluten for most bread recipes. Measure out the all-purpose flour for your recipe. Look at the recipe to see how much bread flour is required. Measure out this much all-purpose flour instead. Pour this flour into a mixing bowl separate from the other ingredients. Add one teaspoon vital wheat gluten per cup of flour. This converts all-purpose flour to a form that can be used just like bread flour.
Add a small amount of whole wheat flour. This step isn’t essential, but a little wheat flour works well as a binding agent and gives the bread a subtle “nutty” flavor. 2 teaspoon per cup of all-purpose flour so as not to affect the total volume of your dry ingredients. Sift the ingredients above together in the bowl.