I went by Gordon Food Service and they have 25 lbs bags of flour. Would this be a good flour. I don't recall the price but it was cheaper than buying at trader joe's. Trader joes all-purpose is 4g of protein. I don't know what the restaurant supply was I didn't see a label.
Try it. Flour should only run about 9 bucks for a 25 lb bag, so why not?
The information you provided isn't sufficient to make a recommendation. Some really great bread is made with low protein flour and some really great bread is made with higher protein flour. Many other factors come into play and a good baker can make most any flour work for them with a little practice.
I use King Arthur All-Purpose Unbleached Flour which has 11.7% protein. I have taught myself to work with this flour just like the bakers on the other side of the pond have learned to use flour with a lower protein content. If a formula recommends a specific flour I would use that one. Another flour will work too but the performance and timing may be quite different.
In my early years I thought that good bread was all about the ingredients. While ingredients do play an important role my experience has shown that it is much more about the process.
I am thankful for the replies. I think I may be stressing to much and need to just dive in more. Work the kinks out as I go lol. I like the "learn to do with what I have approach." I do it with ingredients in other things all the time. I constantly look up how to make what I don't have in the cabinet. Fresh made brown sugar is better I think than already made. Being on a really tight budget has taught me a few things. I am glad I can do it with flour too.
Sounds like a good plan Heidyth. I find that many new bread bakers move from flour, to flour, to flour, thinking that it must be the problem with their poor performance. King Arthur All Purpose is a really good, stable flour that will provide excellent results. I'm sure there are others too but I have used it as an anchor in my baking. My experience has taught me to stick with specific ingredients, only make one change at a time, and note the performance differences. Always fall back to what worked last then change something else and see if you can improve your bread.
I think that most everyone on this forum will attest that making great bread consistently should be viewed as a journey, and not just simply mixing the right ingredients.
Best of luck to you.
I like that. I have learned so much from this site and you helpful people already. Life is full of journeys. I have made several and this new one is so exciting for me in so many ways. The journey to baking great bread is one that I look forward to taking for a long time.