Bread flour is a high-protein flour designed for making yeast breads. Its high gluten content helps to create a strong and elastic dough and a yummy crust that is just perfect for a loaf!
Bread flour is typically around 12-14% protein, which means your dough can rise higher and maintain its structure during baking. While its primary use is for bread making, bread flour can also be utilized in other baked goods like pizza dough and bagels, and I’ve even used it in cakes and muffins when I’ve been out of all-purpose. But what to do when you fancy a bit of home-cooked bread, yet the bread flour is nowhere to be found? How about trying one of these substitutes?
- Semolina flour
- Durum flour
- All-purpose flour
- Whole-wheat flour
- Sorghum flour
- Einkorn flour
- Almond flour
Best All-Around Bread Flour Substitute: Semolina Or Durum Flour
This may seem a really strange choice for the best all-around substitute, particularly as these flours only feature in this first section, but hear me out.
Semolina, durum flour, and bread flour are all wheat-based flours, but semolina and durum are from durum wheat, which is a hard wheat variety with a high protein content. And that is why they are a good substitute for bread flour because of all that gluten!
It does make the bread a little more solid and dense than bread flour, but it works well and, in my opinion, tastes better than regular bread flour! Give it a try, and let me know your thoughts!
Best Budget-Friendly Bread Flour Substitute: All-Purpose Flour
Just as you can use bread flour in all-purpose flour recipes, the same is true the other way around. All-purpose flour is truly a jack of all trades.
All-purpose flour has a moderate protein content, usually around 10-12%. Its gluten structure is less strong and elastic than bread flour, resulting in a more tender crumb, but it’ll still work, and it is a budget alternative if you are trying to save.
Best Easy-to-Bake-With Bread Flour Substitute: All-Purpose flour
All-purpose flour is also the easiest alternative to bake with. It can go in almost any recipe and pull it off, and it can usually be substituted at a 1:1 ratio with bread flour. Baking with all-purpose flour might require a few extra adjustments to yield the best results, like adding liquid or using a lower baking temperature. Try increasing the liquid by 2 tablespoons and bake at 350 degrees instead of 375 degrees for bread recipes as a starting point.
If you need more baking tips and substitution ratios for alternative flours, check out our article that talks about over 60 of them!
Flour Closest in Flavor to Bread Flour: All-Purpose Flour
Bread flour is kinda plain. It sounds like it should be rustic and flavorsome, but it is built more for texture than any flavor punch. The flour I most closely associate it with is all-purpose, which is also super duper plain. Not a bad thing, as it means you can add other flavors to your bakes, and they will stand out instead!
Best Healthy Substitute for Bread Flour: Whole-Wheat Flour
Whole wheat flour is made by milling the entire wheat kernel, including the bran and germ, resulting in flour that retains more nutrients, such as fiber, vitamins, and minerals. This gives whole wheat flour a darker color, a coarser texture, and a distinct, slightly nutty flavor, quite different from the plainness of bread flour.
Baked goods made with whole wheat flour tend to be denser and have a heavier crumb due to the presence of bran, but some changes in texture and flavor are to be expected when using nutritionally superior flour!
Best High-Fiber Substitute for Bread Flour: Whole-Wheat Flour
Whole wheat flour is also higher in fiber than bread flour. Bread flour contains 1 gram of fiber per ¼ cup compared to whole wheat’s 5 grams of fiber for the same amount. In a mostly fibre deficient society, that is a huge difference!!
Best Gluten-Free Alternative to Bread Flour: Sorghum Flour
Ever heard of sorghum? I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t, as it only seems to be gaining popularity more recently as a gluten-free alternative flour. Sorghum flour is derived from sorghum grain, a crop that is naturally rich in nutrients and antioxidants. It has a mild, slightly sweet flavor and fine texture, making it a popular choice for gluten-free baking.
Since sorghum flour lacks gluten, it does not provide the same elasticity and structure as bread flour, resulting in baked goods that are denser and more crumbly. However, its flavor works better for bread than many of the other gluten-free flours on the market.
Best Lower Calorie Substitute for Bread Flour: Einkorn Flour
Einkorn flour is considered to be one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat, and it is also one of the lowest in calories. Einkorn flour has only 100 calories per ¼ cup, compared to 130 in bread flour. Einkorn works similarly to other wheat flours, though its gluten structure behaves a little differently, and there will be differences in how the loaf behaves when it bakes.
Best High Protein Substitute for Bread Flour: Red Whole-Wheat Flour
Bread flour is high in protein, giving it unique baking abilities, but red whole wheat flour is a teeny bit higher! Bread flour contains 5 grams of protein per ¼ cup, and red whole wheat flour contains 6 grams. Another alternative to boost the protein in your bake is adding a little bit of high-protein flour to the mix, such as peanut or cricket flour!
Best Keto/Paleo/Whole30 Substitute for Bread Flour: Almond Flour
Finding a decent bread flour substitute for these diets is tough, as most are from grains or high in carbohydrates. So, almond flour would be the most suitable choice even though it behaves very differently from bread flour.
This doesn’t make it impossible to make bread from, though; you just have to play around a little and use bread recipes that specifically have almond flour as the primary ingredient! Since it lacks gluten, baked goods made with almond flour will not have the same elasticity and structure as those made with bread flour.
FAQs
Bread flour is a high-protein wheat flour made from hard wheat varieties instead of soft wheat varieties. It is designed for yeast bread baking and has a higher gluten content, providing better structure, elasticity, and strength to the dough. It differs from whole wheat flour, though, in that it usually only contains the endosperm as opposed to all parts of the grain and is often bleached.
All-purpose flour is made from a combination of hard and soft wheat varieties and is bleached or unbleached. It has a lower protein content than bread flour and is not designed for bread baking specifically.
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