Application Guide
Table Of Contents
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
- America’s New Bread Box
- Orientation
- Batterie de Cuisine: Know Your Bread Machine
- Making Bread
- Daily Breads: White Breads and Egg Breads
- White Breads
- Egg Breads
- One-Pound Loaves
- Pasta Doughs from Your Bread Machine
- Earth’s Bounty: Whole Wheat, Whole-Grain, and Specialty Flour Breads
- Whole Wheat Breads
- Rye Breads
- Specialty Flour Breads
- Multigrain Breads
- Gluten-Free Breads
- Traditional Loaves: Country Breads and Sourdough Breads
- Country Breads
- Sourdough Breads
- All Kinds of Flavors: Breads Made with the Produce of the Garden, Orchard, and Creamery
- Herb, Nut, Seed, and Spice Breads
- Savory Vegetable and Fruit Breads
- Cheese Breads
- Mixes and Some Special Breads Created from Them
- Stuffing Breads
- Circle, Squares, and Crescents: Pizzas and Other Flatbreads
- Sweet Loaves: Chocolate, Fruit, and Other Sweet Breads
- Breakfast Breads
- Coffee Cakes and Sweet Rolls
- Chocolate Breads
- Holiday Breads
- Express Lane Bread: No-Yeast Quick Breads
- Jams, Preserves, and Chutneys in Your Bread Machine
- Appendix 1 Bits and Pieces: Crumbs, Croutons, Crostini, and Toasted Appetizers
- Appendix 2 To Eat with Your Bread: Spreads, Butters, Cheeses, and Vegetables
- Appendix 3 Resources
- General Index
- Recipe Index
Bread Flour
For the best results in making premium white breads I use cream-colored un-
bleached bread flour made from hard red spring wheat that is aged without
chemicals or preservatives. It has a protein content of 12 to 14 percent. High-
gluten wheat flour absorbs more liquid than other flours, creating a more
elastic dough and a lighter-textured bread. I like Organic Hi Protein Hi
Gluten Unbleached Flour or Organic Old Mill Flour with Reduced Bran
from Giusto’s. Other brands of bread flour that may be found around the
country are Arrowhead Mills, King Arthur, Great Valley Mills, Hudson
Cream, or one of the most commonly available brands such as Pillsbury,
Gold Medal, Hecker’s, or Hodgson Mills.
High-Gluten Flour
High-gluten flour is ground from hard red spring wheat and has some malted
barley added. It is unbleached, that is, aged without chemicals or preserva-
tives. It functions very much like bread flour, and is fine for bread machine
baking.
All-Purpose Flour
Unbleached all-purpose flour, also called refined white flour, is blended from
a combination of approximately 80 percent hard wheat and 20 percent soft.
Note that the content of different brands of unbleached flour varies in differ-
ent locales. Unbleached flour in the southern states has a higher percentage
of soft wheat, and in the northern, midwestern, and western states it contains
a higher percentage of hard wheat. Un bleached flour is aged to naturally ox-
idize the proteins and bleach out the natural yellow pigment present in
freshly milled flour (also known as green flour). Bleached flour is aged
quickly with chlorine dioxide, has less gluten, and lacks the vitamin E that
naturally remains in flour after milling. I consider unbleached flour superior
to bleached flour for use in bread recipes.
Bolted Flour
Bolted, or sifted, is the name for whole wheat flour that has had most of its
bran sifted out. Bolted flour is new to home bakers, but well known to pro-
fessionals. The only brand available through retail is Giusto’s Old Mill Re-
duced Bran Flour, stone-ground, with 80 percent of the bran sifted out. It
makes fabulous sandwich or country breads on its own or in combination
with other whole wheat flours (it is good with spelt, kamut, and triticale).
Make your own bolted flour by combining 3 cups unbleached white flour, 1
cup fine or medium stone-ground whole wheat flour, and 3 tablespoons raw
wheat germ. This is an excellent all-purpose bread flour.
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