Q&A Types of White Flour, Their Weights and How Much Water to Use

503 thoughts on “Q&A Types of White Flour, Their Weights and How Much Water to Use”

1. I just love your books, I have ABin5 and Pizza and flatbread in 5. We just had naan tonight and I dry fried it on the electric skillet, turned out wonderfully. I also have the ABin5 boule in the fridge, aged about 4 days, and just got my Pullman pan. I am using unbleached white flour. This is my third time making the dough. The dough does not seem too wet or dry, but both my Artisan loaves and the loaf I just made from the Pullman pan are very dense and wet. I have read all these comments but am not quite sure what is off or how to fix it. I looked on youtube, but all the videos of you two don’t really show a good close up of the finished bread on the inside. The color photos on the cover and inside the book are all of loaves also uncut. I would love to see what it is supposed to look like, and how to fix my too dense bread. Thanks!!

   Reply ↓

   • Kim: I’m guessing that you’re filling the pan a little too high, so it ends up being compressed by the Pullman as it tries to rise. See what happens when you fill it a little lower in the pan. I assume you’re not finding the free-form loaves from the same dough to be wet and dense…

     Reply ↓

     • Thanks for replying! Actually, yes the free form ones are dense as well, but not as much. Every loaf I have made so far seems, how to describe it, doughy and too moist almost. They taste good, but I was hoping for larger holes and lighter bread.

     • Kim: check out the “Dense crumb…” post under the FAQs page– try those and see what you think.

     • Your bread made with fresh yeast and King Arthur flour is the GREATEST!!! One problem is slicing the loaf; I almost need a buzz saw, simply can’t cut through that great crust. I had to turn it over to cut it. Any suggestions, other than sharpen my knife? {I am using a convection oven, start @450, lower to 400 after 10 min

     • Hi Pat,

       Do you have a sharp knife, that is the best tool for the job. I often turn the loaf on its side and cut from the side edge, since the top crust can often be the crustiest.

       Thanks, Zoue

2. I have made several of the breads from HBin5 and every time I come out with a very dense crumb. I use either Bob’s Organic Unbleached flour or King Arthur Unbleached flours. I am used to making traditional yeast breads with no problem. But all my breads from HBin5 seem to be very wet with no oven spring and then turn out very dense. I do not know what I am doing wrong. Thanks.

   Reply ↓

   • Hi Laura,

     Here is a post about dense breads: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2008/02/10/qa-dense-crumb

     This video on handling the dough may also help: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2008/02/10/qa-dense-crumb

     Are you baking at high altitude by any chance?

     Thanks, Zoë

     Reply ↓

     • Thank you for your quick response.

       I have read and tried everything already about the dense crumbs and I only handle to dough for about 10-15 seconds; tried letting it rise the second time up to twice as long; the dough is only 1-2 days old; and my oven temp is almost perfect. But still my bread looks more like a quick bread with small to almost non-existant holes. You say to make sure it’s not too wet but how am I supposed to know what too wet is? I really like the recipes in your books but at this point I am about to go back to making bread the traditional way. And possibly trying to convert the recipes in HBin5 to traditional recipes.

       Actually, I only live a few feet above sea level.

     • Laura: The only other thing I’d have you try is drying out the dough a little bit. It’ll still be storable, but you may find it closer in texture to traditional bread. And maybe stay away from the whole-grains– the white loaves are lighter.

3. Hi there,

   I was wondering if it matters what type of milk you use (2% vs whole milk) for the recipes that call for milk. Also, can I used creamed honey for recipes that call for honey?

   Thanks,

   Lindsay

   Reply ↓

   • Hi Lindsay,

     Doesn’t seem to matter what kind of milk you use, so any of them are fine. You can use creamed honey, but it may not be as sweet as the traditional kind if you are measuring by volume, since they whip some air into it.

     Thanks, Zoë

     Reply ↓

4. Hi!

   Just got the Health Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. Loving it so far! Have a question…
   My husband wants to substitute the AP flour in the master recipe for bread flour we have in the cupboard. Should I adjust the vital gluten? Or try without adjust first and see how that goes?

   Reply ↓

   • Hi Vicki-Lou,

     You may want to just add a bit more water to the dough to account for the additional protein in the bread flour. I would start with an extra few tablespoons and see if that gets a wet enough dough. You may want to watch some of the Healthy Bread videos to see what the consistency should be.

     What brand bread flour is it?

     Thanks, Zoë

     Reply ↓

5. the link at the end with text “click here if you want to understand baker’s percentages” is currently a dead link.

   Reply ↓

   • Hi n,

     Thank you for letting me know! Here is the link http://www.kingarthurflour.com/professional/bakers-percentage.html

     Cheers, Zoë

     Reply ↓

6. I would like to use Einkorn flour http://www.jovialfoods.com/products/einkorn-flour.html using the Master recipe. How would the recipe change using this? And also, what about using wheat berries?

   Thank you! We are so enjoying our bread. Still can’t believe it is this easy.

   Reply ↓

   • Laura: Haven’t used Einkorn, bet it behaves like whole wheat (needs more water than white). Wheat berries– see page 83 of HBin5 (click amazon link above), we use them in that recipe.

     Reply ↓

     • Einkorn flour has an 18% protein content. How would we adjust the recipe for that type of protein content?

     • will need more water. How much, not sure at all. 1/4 cup? 1/3 cup? 1/2 cup?

7. I am new to making bread. I use the Boule recipe from the Artisan Bread book, which I am loving. I am confused about the stirring. My dough seems to be lumpy when I stir it with a wooden spoon. Almost like there are chunks of flour in it. Is that how it is supposed to be? Also, I accidently bought all-purpose bleached flour in bulk instead of unbleached. Can I use it still? If so, should I make any changes to the original recipe? Thank you in advance!

   Reply ↓

   • Hi Jamey,

     You want to stir it until the dough is uniformly wet, so no lumps of dry flour. You can use the bleached flour with no changes to the recipe.

     Thanks, Zoë

     Reply ↓

8. On this page you say to add 1/4 c. additional water to the full recipe if using King Arthur all-purpose flour. On page 6 of your pizza book the sidebar says to add 1/2 c. additional liquid if using King Arthur. Which one is correct?

   Also, I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve been making your breads I never get my dough even close to the same weight as yours. My half-recipes usually yield something closer to 26 – 28 oz. dough rather than 32 oz. This is consistent, regardless of which recipe I use, even the rye bread. Is that because I use King Arthur exclusively or is something else at work?

   Reply ↓

   • Hi rockycat,

     The book is referring to KAF Bread Flour, which has an even higher protein content than all-purpose. Sorry for any confusion. The recipes yield just under 4 pounds, so what you are getting is about right. You can always scale it up if you want larger loaves.

     Thanks, Zoë

     Reply ↓

9. We have 20lbs of BLEACHED flour hubby wants me to use up before buying unbleached, any idea how toadjust for that fact? Thanks so much!:-)
   Btw, getting friends and family the book for Christmas!:-)

   Reply ↓

   • Shelley: Many types of bleached flour these days are made with a process that doesn’t much change the protein, so you can often get away with the same liquid amount, or maybe slightly decreased. Try it w/o the adjustment first.

     Reply ↓

10. I’ve been struggling with my dough being too wet. Using UK white strong flour (12% protein) I started off attempting a dough above 80% hydration which was almost unmanageable, I’m now down to 70% and the dough is still clearly wetter than any dough in the clips I’ve seen of you guys shaping/cloaking. I’m not a complete novice and I can fashion a loaf out of it, but it’s pretty flat by the time it goes in the oven.

    The UK is a much damper place than much of the US, but can that be having so much of an effect on my hydration?

    Reply ↓

    • Lain: More likely it’s a difference in the flours, possibly in the way percentage protein is calculated. In italy for example, the number is calculated “anhydrously,” in other words after all the water is driven off by heating the flour. So the protein percentage calculates higher than the way it would be labeled in the U.S., where the measurement is done on the flour without driving off the water. Possibly that’s the same issue in the UK, though I’m not at all certain. And yes, ambient humidity may be hydrating the flour (before mixing) more than what we get here in the US.

      For whatever reason, sounds like you need to dry out your dough with this particular flour. Try 65%. At some threshold, it won’t really be storable in the fridge, which is what we’re going for–so watch for that.

      Reply ↓

      • Hmmm. On further investigation it seems that this flour (Allinson Strong White Bread Flour) is well known for its stickiness and failure to hold its shape without a proving basket.

        I’ll try a different flour.

      • Lain: When I was last in London (been a while) I bought a can of Allinson’s yeast, and I still use it to store yeast that I buy in bulk!

        See what happens with other flours– I used a Shipton Mill flour when I was there and it worked nicely in these recipes.

      • Yes, those light green yeast tins are the business. Shame about the flour.

        I just mixed up a batch of different brand plain flour dough (although it still states 12% protein). This new batch was the same consistency if not drier at 75% as the Allinson was at 70%…so looks promising.

        It’s Iain BTW, not Lain

11. Aloha Jeff & Zoe…. it is getting cooler on our island of Maui, relatively speaking! At 74 degrees in the house overnight, we thought it was rather chilly, but none of our mainland family seem to feel sorry for us!
    I just made the Christmas Stollen. I halved the recipe (pg 279 HB5)for only 2 loaves because I was uncertain I’d like it, but it is fabulous! Best Stollen I’ve ever made. Next loaf, I plan to use more slivered almonds and layer the marizan on top of the almonds rather than have the round affect. I used tropical candied fruit, sugared ginger, cranberries, and rum because I didn’t have brandy. What a terrific holiday treat and a fabulous gift. Thank you so much!

    Reply ↓

    • Fantastic Lis!

      Reply ↓

12. I have read all the comments about adding more water when using KA white flour but I failed to see anything about the white/wheat or wheat flour. How much extra water should I add?
    Made the dinner rolls for Christmas and everyone raved about them. My biggest fans were my grands. So easy and delicious.
    Last.y, we are all loving your pizza dough recipes. We have made it a family affair. My daughter prepares the toppings, I make and roll the dough, and my grands and son-in-law add the toppings. Hubby does his part by eating them!!! I must confess though that I use the KA pie crust bags to roll them out. Works perfectly.
    Love your books and cannot wait for the next one.
    Thanks,
    Marlene

    Reply ↓

    • Marlene: Depends– on how much whole grain’s in the recipe. Can’t just swap whole grain for white flour above a certain level. Do you have Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day? Much more about whole grains in there, see http://bit.ly/3wYSSN

      Reply ↓

13. Jeff,
    Sorry I wasn’t clearer on my question.
    What I do is use the recipes that use both the unbleached white flour and the white/wheat or whole flour (eg: The Maste Recipe in Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day). My breads are coming out more dense and are like German breads. I weigh my ingredients and use an oven thermometer. My husband wants a lighter bread density.

    Reply ↓

14. Marlene: Our recipes are closer to German breads, you are right. Especially with recipes that are high in whole grain, this is unavoidable with stored dough.

    In general, whole wheat takes more water, as you see in the comparison between the water amounts in “Artisan Bread,” compared with “Healthy Bread.”

    Reply ↓

15. I find it easier to weight my bvread flour out. I note that in your conversion chart you dont mention the weight for rye flour. Can you tell me the weight per one cup of rye flour (Bob’s Red Mill)
    Thanks
    Wendy
    PS Absolutely love your recipes. We’ve converted half our friend population so far. Thanks for all your hard work on everyone’s behalf

    Reply ↓

    • Wendy: Rye is in the conversion chart, Healthy Bread in Five (http://bit.ly/3wYSSN ). We don’t have all our content here on the website. Haven’t weighed semolina…

      Reply ↓

16. Sorry I meant to say Semolina flour, not rye (still Bob’s Red Mill)
    Thank you
    Wendy g

    Reply ↓

17. Hello!
    I’ve been using your recipe healthy bread in five minutes. I used the youtube video to follow the recipe. I’ve been using 5 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat and 2 of whole wheat pastry flours instead of white flour. Last week I switched to the organic version of both flours and the dough is not rising as much in the two hours in the container and it’s really hard to mix with the wooden spoon. Shoul I increase the amount of water? If so by how much ? Right now it’s 4 cups of water. Thank you !!!

    Reply ↓

    • Gnequin: Since you want 100% whole grain, better off with the version on page 79 of the book. But pastry flour’s a bad choice, doesn’t promote good rise.

      Reply ↓

      • Thanks for your reply! Actually it was rising great all the way to the top of the container until I switched to organic.
        I will have to buy the book then and try the recipe you suggested! Thank you so much!

18. I am in th UK and have your Five Minute Bread book. I have made the Master Recipe as well as the Brioche recipe and both have turned out too wet. (I made your recipes at home in the US as well, and have come out perfectly every time I have made it).

    I am using Allinson Plain Flour and yeast. I now have 3 lbs of both doughs left over. How do I add more flour to the dough at this point? Do you need to let it rise again after adding flour, or just mix it in and place it back in the fridge? How much flour would you suggest adding?

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Melody,

      I am curious to know if you are baking with the weights in that book? You certainly can add more flour to the dough and it will be just great. You do need to let the dough sit to allow the new flour absorb the excess liquid. I find it easiest to add the additional flour in a stand mixer, if you have one.

      Hope that helps, thanks! Zoë

      Reply ↓

      • Yes, I am using an electronic scale and always measure in grams.

        I didnt own any of your books, so when i got here, I bought the UK book since I read that the different flour types require different amounts of liquid. I was thinking of using the ‘tried and true’ (which I got off YouTube) next time and see how it works?

      • Thanks Melody,

        That is very interesting, I need to look up the protein content of the flour you mentioned.Let me know if the dough comes together as you expect with more flour.

        Thanks, Zoë

19. Hi! I’m loving your recipes and have your original book. A quick question on flour… I live in Australia where our main two flours are plain and self raising. I use the latter for all my usual baking (cakes etc). I accidentally bought volumes of it for bread making instead of plain. Is there any way I can adjust the recipe to use it or is that out of the question? The self raising flour contains unbleached wheat flour and raising agents.

    Thank you,
    Emelia

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Emelia,

      I have never tried a batch with self raising flour. It would be an interesting experiment. If you try it, I would make just a half batch. Please let me know how it goes.

      Thanks, Zoë

      Reply ↓

20. Hello! I have both of your books, the original and healthy.
    I live in South America and we only have bleached flour over here (and it doesn’t give you the % protein) Flours are labeled by the 0000 system. Five zeros is for pastry, four zeros for all purpose, and 000 zeros for bread. That said, even using 000 flour my dough it’s always too wet. Not only with your recipes but in general – I weight all my ingredients. I am sure the problem is the flour (although the weather is wet on occasion, I don’t live in the tropics) and so I wonder if instead of reducing the water in my recipes, would it not better for me to increase the vital wheat gluten… What do you think? Many thanks!

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Valeria,

      Yes, you can certainly try to increase the VWG a little and add a bit more flour to the batch. You don’t want to add too much VWG or the bread will get too tough.

      Thanks, Zoë

      Reply ↓

      • Thank you! I will experiment and see what happens. My only concern in reducing water is that it might affect the final product too much… I will also contact the local mills to see if they can offer the % of protein in the flours to compare.

21. I finally found my reason for my wet dough and supper sticky. RISES GREAT but yes I am using bleached flour..Last time I went out couldn’t find unbleached. The only thing I haven’t found is how to compensate for it. Add more flour? Yes I found a place to get my unbleached and will do so. But in the mean time I have this bleached to use up.

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Amy,

      The bleached flour may effect it slightly, but it may be more an issue of how you are measuring. We measure all of our recipes using the scoop and sweep method. If you are spooning the flour into the measuring cup you will end up with a dough that is too wet. Could this be the issue?

      Thanks, Zoë

      Reply ↓

22. I have both ABin5 and HBin5 – love both books. Particularly fond of the white master recipe and the considerably more healthy seed bread recipe from HBin5.
    My question is regarding, “White Wheat” flour. How does using it compare to white all-purpose flour? Is it actually used in the same style/proportions as “regular” whole wheat? I’m looking to get many of the health benefits of regular whole wheat with the lighter flavor and texture of white all-purpose flour. Thanks!

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Roger,

      White whole wheat behaves exactly like regular whole wheat. It has all the same nutrition as whole wheat, but it is a slightly milder flavor. It doesn’t have the same gluten developing properties as all-purpose flour, so it won’t have the same texture as the white master recipe. If you try it in the Healthy bread Master recipe I think you’ll be pleased.

      Thanks, Zoë

      Reply ↓

      • Excellent – thanks! I’ll try it out this week! (Need to finish up the seed bread dough first ;o)

        One quick related question: If I were to substitute just part of the AP flour in the white master recipe with the WWW flour, say…1/3, or maybe 1/2…would I need to add vital gluten to compensate? If so, how much? (I don’t mean to harp on the white master recipe, but it is one of my favorites, and I don’t want to give it up despite how good the healthy breads are ;o)

        Again – thank you so much; you’ve added so much to my love of bread by making it easy for us to make our own!

        – Roger

      • Hi Roger,

        It will change the white Master recipe with even the slightest amount of whole wheat. You will be essentially making the peasant bread, which will be a good place to start. Instead of adding whole wheat and rye, just add your white whole wheat and see what you think. Once you go beyond that amount of whole grain in the recipe, you will want to add vital wheat gluten. Once you do that, you are basically making the Healthy Bread Master!

        Enjoy, Zoë

23. The Gold Metal Unbleached AP flour bag states that 1/4 cup = 30 grams. So 1 cup would be 120 grams or 4.23 oz. If I followed your suggestion of 5 oz per cup wouldn’t I be using too much flour? Please help. Thanks!

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Jose,

      At Gold Medal they spoon the flour into the cup, which results in less flour. We use the scoop and sweep method, which is why our recipes call for 5-ounces of flour per cup.

      Hope that clears it up for you! Thanks, Zoë

      Reply ↓

      • Thank you! I’m relatively new to the bread/pizza scene and there is so much to learn! Baker’s percentage is next!

24. Can I substitute sprouted whole grain flours like sprouted wheat flour (or barley, or spelt, etc) 1:1 in your recipes? I will try it on my own, and would appreciate your wealth of knowledge and experience as well.
    Thanks much for all you have done for me and my family with your books. Truly, it has been a gift for us.

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Lisa,

      I am sorry to say that I still have not had a chance to try the sprouted flours in our recipes. If you do try it, you may want to start with a 1/2 batch. Please let me know how it turns out.

      Thanks, Zoë

      Reply ↓

25. I am wondering if anyone could chime on on this issue:
    It seems like my yield is much less than indicated by the recipes. For example, when I took out about 1/3 of the dough (after it had been refrigerated for 3 days) in the Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread on pp 76-77 of your ABin5 book, it was not even close to filling the loaf pan half full. It didn’t rise much during the rest or the baking, and while it tasted good, it was rather dense. The initial rise when I mixed the dough had seemed very good, to me. It filled the bucket, but once the dough was refrigerated, it settled down to about a third of my bucket (4.5 qt ice cream pail) and stayed there.
    Is the weight listed supposed to be the weight of the dough before baking, or of the finished loaf?
    Further – what difference does using bleached flour make in recipes such as the Master Boule? Would it affect my yield?
    Thanks in advance!

    Reply ↓

    • I meant to say also that when I mixed up the dough for the Buttermilk Bread, page 207 of ABin5, I get just under 4lbs of dough, so I don’t think I will quite get 3 1.5 lb loaves from that …

      Reply ↓

    • Hi Jody,

      Here is a post on baking a loaf in a pan that may help: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2011/09/12/the-best-school-lunches-start-with-homemade-bread

      The bleached flour won’t make a difference in the weight, it just changes the color and flavor a bit.

      The loaves may be a scant pound for some of the recipes. If you are weighing the loaves and want 4 equal loaves, they are closer to 15 ounces, as apposed to 16 ounces. Are you using scoop and sweep to measure your flour? If you spoon the flour into the cup, that will result in a dough that weighs even less and it will be too wet.

      Have you seen this post on a dense crumb: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2008/02/10/qa-dense-crumb

      Hope that helps, thanks! Zoë

      Reply ↓

26. Thanks so much for the quick reply!
    Looks like some good information in those links; thank you. I will read through them again more carefully! Good to know about the bleached flour; I have a lot of it right now, so I’m glad I can use it easily.
    I do scoop & sweep my flour, and this last time weighed as I was measuring to see if I was getting 5 oz per cup – pretty much bang on. So that’s good. I baked the Buttermilk Bread this afternoon in two loaf pans that measure about 12×4, and they are decent sized loaves. I might have let them rest longer after putting them in the pan if I weren’t in a time crunch to get the oven available for supper cooking… Anyways, the weight of the finished loaves totaled 3 lbs 6 oz, for what it’s worth.
    Thanks so much for your comments! I’m really enjoying the book even just to read through, let alone the fun of trying the recipes!
    Jody

    Reply ↓

27. My bread seems to have a rounded bottom on one side instead of a nice flat bottom. I am using Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, the Master Recipe page 26. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply ↓

    • Three things: 1) make sure you’re gluten-cloaking adequately, see our video on this at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/03/08/new-video-shaping-the-ball-from-a-very-wet-dough
      2) Consider a longer resting time, 60 or even 90 min (but cover with plastic wrap or an overturned bowl to prevent drying out
      3) deeper slashes, 1/2-inch

      Reply ↓

How to make bread in five minutes a day? The secret is homemade stored dough, mixed and refrigerated for up to two weeks... more