That time I swapped to bread flour on a whim and my sandwich bread finally stood up

I've been using all-purpose flour for years for my weekly sandwich loaves, always getting a kind of flat, dense result. Last Sunday I ran out of AP and only had bread flour, so I figured why not, just swapped it in same recipe. The loaf rose way higher and had this nice chewy crumb that actually held up to mayo without getting soggy. Has anyone else had a simple flour swap change their whole baking routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace_campbell1d ago

And the thing that gets me is, are you measuring by weight or by volume? Because if you're just scooping cups of flour like most recipes say, the bread flour's gonna pack differently and you might actually be using more of it without realizing. That alone could change your rise. But if you're weighing it out exactly and still got that big a difference, then yeah, bread flour's got more protein which means more gluten, so it makes sense your loaf finally stood up. It's basically just a higher protein version of the same thing.

nancycooper2d ago

Wow, wait, you just swapped the flour and got that much of a difference? I mean, I've been using AP flour forever too and my sandwich bread always comes out like a brick. I always figured bread flour was just for fancy stuff like artisan loaves or pizza. Maybe it's just me but I never thought it would change the texture that much, especially with the same recipe. Now I'm wondering if I've been missing out on actually decent sandwich bread this whole time.