February 22, 2022 - 12:37am
Tipo 1/bread flour and gluten
Hi there,
I was wondering, whenever we read about tipo 1/bread flour, it is mentioned that it allows for more gluten development. But how come that happen, if it is less sifted and therefore has more endosperm and bran than all-purpose flour?
Share
Hi!
All purpose flour, by definition, can be white or dark, even whole wheat, but always with moderate gluten and protein content to be suitable for all purposes, from baking cakes to baking breads.
Tipo 1 flour, by decree of 2001, must be a high gluten flour by definition with a moderate amount of bran in it, about 0.8% ash, minimum 12%protein. The bran particles in tipo uno are very finely milled (and sifted!) and do not interfere much with gluten formation and development. That is why. These two flours are not milled from the same grain or at least they are mixed with different amounts of stronger high gluten wheat grain to make sure that one is all purpose and another - high gluten flour.
Please, read these tables about baking characteristics of different Italian flour types according to the decree of 2001.
https://www.cooksinfo.com/italian-flours#Grano_tenero_flours