Even though I'm in the beginning of my seventh decade, I'm a novice bread baker having always been too busy. The virus changed all that. So here I am several months later backing bread, and not having purchase a store loaf since March. I bake mostly no knead breads both in loaf pans and in an old Dutch oven. I've also created a successful sour dough starter and have made several loaves.
Most of my breads except for the sour dough and my artisan round loaf are what I would call heavy, or dense. They taste great and have a nice shape, but are clearly home made. I use Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour. Bread flour, Rye and whole wheat.
I recently made hamburger buns which were light, soft and fluffy. Perfect. I used AP flour per the recipe. I learned that AP flour will produce a lighter bun or roll.
So, instead of using all bread flour plus rye or wheat etc., Can I blend in some AP flour in place of some or all of the bread flour for a lighter bread? Or are there other suggestions someone might have.
My wife loves my new hobby, but now I need to step it up a bit.
Thanks in advance.
If it's available in your area, you can try substituting King Arthur All Purpose for some of the KA Bread Flour. Keep in mind that the AP will change the way the dough handles so start with something like 15% by weight for your substitution and take good notes as you adjust your recipes.
What percentages of rye and whole wheat are you using in your bread?
Would I be right in guessing your hamburger buns used no whole wheat or rye? The presence of those flours makes a huge difference.
Anyway you can absolutely try subbing in AP for bread flour in your bread, but that will probably not make it lighter.
There are two obvious ways to go if you want lightness. One is to use less rye, in particular, and to look for a whole wheat flour that has relatively little bran, or sift out the larger bran flakes yourself, because they disrupt the gluten structure. But if you use rye and whole wheat because you like their wonderful flavors, this may not be a good solution.
The other way is to do a little kneading. No-knead recipes are fine in their way, but they're not optimal for lightness, texture, and crumb. Most no-knead recipes will be improved by a few stretch-and-folds during their bulk rise, to build dough strength. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1timJlCT3PM) It may also be worth trying a lower hydration recipe with more conventional kneading. Basically it's the dough strength and gluten structure you build through working the dough that give you fluffiness, holding the flours constant. Long rises can also contribute a lot to building gluten, but they are not perfect substitutes for stretch-and-folding or kneading.