Bread Flour vs. All-Purpose Flour: Which Is Best for Pretzels? - Uncle Henry's Pretzel Bakery (2024)

FAQs

Bread Flour vs. All-Purpose Flour: Which Is Best for Pretzels? - Uncle Henry's Pretzel Bakery? ›

Bread flour provides more structure

All purpose flour vs bread flour

If you like extra chewy pretzels, use at least one cup of bread flour. This will increase the chewiness factor! Also, for added texture, punch the dough down every 10 minutes for an hour, similar to our favorite French Bread recipe!

Bread flour produces baked goods with more structure and chew than all-purpose flour, as all-purpose only has a protein content of 10 to 12 percent, versus the 12 to 14 percent of bread. All-purpose flour produces tender baked goods (as opposed to chewy ones) and is ideal for cakes, muffins, biscuits, piecrust, etc.

The answer lies in a brief dip in an alkaline water bath before baking. This bath essentially gelatinizes the outside of the pretzel, preventing it from fully “springing” during baking (as bread does) and giving pretzels their signature chewy crust. It also gives them their unique and indelible “pretzel” flavor.

Because it's a “strong” flour, it's excellent for chewy bagels, artisan-style sourdough bread and anything else that needs structure and height. It also adds a delightful chewy texture to the finished product. Bread flour is also a “thirsty” flour, which means it absorbs more water than low protein flour.

Before boiling, they should be lovely and puffy. They should look like little twisted pillows of dough. If they aren't puffy before you boil them, they will come out quite dense when you bake them. Soft pretzels are chewy, but they should still be light and airy inside, rather than dense.

Pretzels start from denser dough that is boiled in water before being baked, which gives them their signature chewy texture and slightly crispy exterior. In addition, they are typically seasoned with salt or other toppings, which further enhances their flavour.

For example, for 1 cup of bread flour, you can use 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Bread and pizza crust made with all-purpose flour may have a little less chew than those made with bread flour, but the results will still be good.

Bread flour is typically more expensive than all purpose flour. Bread flour typically tends to have better baking qualities that make it favorable for those that love baking fresh bread at home. If you love your bread to be airy and chewy, bread flour is worth the extra splurge for better bread results.

All-purpose flour, bleached flour, unbleached flour: 76 grams of carbs. Ultra-grain flour: 73 grams of carbs. Fantastic bread flour: 73 grams of carbs.

Why do my homemade pretzels taste weird? ›

If your pretzels have any sort of a metallic, bitter taste, it all comes down to the baking soda bath.

Experts at The Daily Meal (via Fox News) suspect the secret ingredient is sugar. This makes total sense, not because we're some sort of band of dough geniuses over here, but because sugar obviously makes everything better — and because Auntie Anne's pretzels are definitely sweeter than your average pretzel.

TL;DR: If you're most interested in baking simple cakes, cookies, and the occasional batch of muffins or quick breads, all-purpose flour will work for the majority of your projects. But if you're interested in bread baking, you might want to consider keeping a bag of bread flour in your pantry.

Bread Flour Substitute Recipe

Pour 1 cup flour into a large bowl and remove 1 teaspoon flour (2.6 grams). Add the vital wheat gluten and whisk to combine. Use immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Pastry Flour

It produces both the tender crumb and flaky texture that is desired in most pastries.

Unless they've been made with a whole grain flour such as rye, most pretzels are not very nutrient-dense, meaning they don't contain many beneficial nutrients relative to their calorie content. That's because most pretzels are made from refined wheat flour, also called white flour.

Substitutions. All-Purpose Flour. I prefer to use bread flour when making these soft pretzels because it has a higher protein count, but the same amount of all-purpose can be used in its place. Just note that the texture and taste may differ from using bread flour.

Hard Wheat Versus Soft Wheat

For this reason, hard wheat is best suited for doughs that require a strong gluten network and produce an open, chewy crumb, while soft wheat is typically used for more delicate pastries and cakes.

Either cake flour or pastry flour can be used as a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour in most baking recipes.