Can bread flour replace all-purpose

[bmorecupcake]

Can I use bread flour to make cookies?

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

Based on my experience cooking with American recipes and Canadian flour, yes, but you'll need less flour than the recipe calls for.

[lisa3030]

Well, i have read in my quebecor encyclopedia dating fron 1975 that you can break the gluten action with vinegar or lemon juice. By exemple, in a pie crust recipe, for each cup of flour (bread flour) you add 1 tbsp when you add eggs or wet ingredients. I use that trick when i dont have the right flour. But also, I sift my flour 6 times with replacement of 2 tbsp of it by corn starch. It will make you flour cake.... more like the texture you desire... always good when your on the spott...

[Chiaramia]

I tried this tonight. Worked like a charm! Sifted the flour 5 or 6 times and added the vinegar with the water. didn't replace any with cornstarch, but it still came out fine. Thank you lisa3030

[chowser]

Jacques Torres has a good chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses both bread flour and pastry flour:

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/s...

[eLizard]

i know that if you only have AP flour and need cake, they tell you to triple sift and remove a tablespoon's worth from the recipe. I wonder if the same conversion might be helpful when going from bread to AP flour.

[Querencia]

I read somewhere years ago that you could remove three tablespoonfuls from a cup of all-purpose flour and replace it with three tablespoons of cornstarch to make a substitute for cake flour. Have never tried it.

[sueatmo]

I've seen the same info. I also have never tried it. I don't know how to go the other way though--from cake flour to AP.

[Digitalblonde2001]

I've used this substitution several times for donuts, however I only use 2 Tbls. It works fabulously.

[Antilope]

This 2 Tbsp substitution (cornstarch for ap flour) makes great biscuits, also.

[pengcast]

I think it depends of where you live. The amount of protein in regular flour varies depending on what kind of wheat was milled to make the flour. The wheat grown in the U.S. tends to be lower in protein that wheat in Canada or South America. Regular or all purpose flour in Canada has more protein that regular flour in the U.S. , so there is not as much difference between it and bread flour.

But it will probably not matter a lot in cookies.

[Bunnyfood]

As you discovered, the protein in bread flour created drier, probably browner, chewier, denser cookies. Conversely, if you were use pastry flour, you would have had crisp but tender, lightly colored cookies that would spread like crazy. The liquids are not the only consideration when subbing for AP- fat, leavener and liquid proportions need to be considered! The King Arthur cookbooks do a great job of describing the differences and the most sucessful ways to substitute...

[Scott_R]

Yes, but keep in mind the cookies will likely be chewier. Also, the higher protein content will absorb more water, so you might need to edge the added moisture up to compensate, else the cookie could also be drier.

[bmorecupcake]

Exactly correct. I wish I had known this because the cookies are chewier than I would like, and also have a very strange dryness to them at the same time. Thanks for the info, I thought maybe I was being too hard on my baking skills, but good to know it was the ingredients. ;)

[TDEL]

Yes you can with no problem.