I consider myself a decent amateur baker and I've never noticed a huge difference in bread flours. I buy from a local mill because they sell interesting grains and I want to support them. Otherwise I get King Arthur, or Bob's Red Mill if I need something a bit more specific. KA is particularly good because their recipes are usually reliable and they're designed around their flours. The selection of baking ingredients is usually much wider in the average US supermarket compared to the average European one in my experience.
I once did an experiment in which I baked two otherwise identical loaves, made under as close to identical conditions as I could arrange, very carefully measured, with the only difference being the flour. I used 11.5% protein malted flour and 13.5% protein untreated flour. The breads rose the same amount, looked and tasted basically indistinguishable, but had a dramatic difference in texture. The higher protein bread was more cohesive and resisted falling apart or being pulled apart much more strongly. Maybe I should try the experiment again, better, without any malt involved.
In any case, I think that the basic bread flours from King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill are decently high in protein. King Arthur Bread Flour is 12.7% and they sell even higher protein flours. Bob’s Red Mill doesn’t obviously list a percentage, but the nutrition facts suggest it’s around 13%.
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I consider myself a decent amateur baker and I've never noticed a huge difference in bread flours. I buy from a local mill because they sell interesting grains and I want to support them. Otherwise I get King Arthur, or Bob's Red Mill if I need something a bit more specific. KA is particularly good because their recipes are usually reliable and they're designed around their flours. The selection of baking ingredients is usually much wider in the average US supermarket compared to the average European one in my experience.
I once did an experiment in which I baked two otherwise identical loaves, made under as close to identical conditions as I could arrange, very carefully measured, with the only difference being the flour. I used 11.5% protein malted flour and 13.5% protein untreated flour. The breads rose the same amount, looked and tasted basically indistinguishable, but had a dramatic difference in texture. The higher protein bread was more cohesive and resisted falling apart or being pulled apart much more strongly. Maybe I should try the experiment again, better, without any malt involved.
In any case, I think that the basic bread flours from King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill are decently high in protein. King Arthur Bread Flour is 12.7% and they sell even higher protein flours. Bob’s Red Mill doesn’t obviously list a percentage, but the nutrition facts suggest it’s around 13%.