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

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Q: I want to use a white flour with higher protein, how do I adjust the recipe?

A: We wrote the original white-flour Master Recipe for The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day with typical all-purpose white flour (such as Gold Medal), which has a protein content of about 9.8-10.5%. The following flours have a greater protein content and will require you to add more water to dough that is entirely made from these white flours.  You don’t need all that extra water if white flour only part of the loaf’s flour mixture.

King Arthur All-Purpose, 11.7% protein (add approximately 1/4 cup extra water to the full recipe).

Dakota Maid All-Purpose:  add approximately 1/4 cup extra water to the full recipe

Canadian all-purpose flour, most brands:  add approximately 1/4 cup extra water to the full recipe

Gold Medal Better for Bread 12.5% protein: add approximately 1/3 cup extra water to the full recipe

King Arthur Bread Flour 12.7% protein (add approximately 1/3 cup extra water to the full recipe)

Any “bread” flour: Most flour labeled as “bread flour” is 12-13% protein (add approximately 1/3 cup extra water to the full recipe).  In Europe, this flour is labeled as “strong flour.”  If a flour is labeled as “high-gluten” it’s probably 14-15% protein (add approximately 1/2 cup extra water to the full recipe).

Q: What is the weight of the flour that you use?

A: We wrote the book with measures because we find that most people are still using cup measures when baking. We have been pleasantly surprised at the number of our readers that are scaling their recipes. Here are the weight equivalents to the flour that we use:

1 cup all-purpose flour = 5oz

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (master recipe) = 2 pounds

1 cup whole wheat = 4 1/2 oz

1 cup of rye = 4 1/4 oz

Q: What should the “hydration” of the dough be?

A: Again, we tried to avoid confusing professional language in the book, but several people have asked about bakers percentages and hydration levels for white flour. The hydration needed for dough storage will vary with to the type of flour you are using.  “Hydration,” when the term is used by professional bakers, means the ratio of the water weight to the flour weight, expresed as a percentage.  High protein flours absorb much more water and will require you to add more water. Here are the hydration levels we’ve used, but remember, this applies to dough made from white flours (whole grain is a different story, requiring higher levels of hydration):

When using most all-purpose flours (eg., Gold Medal):  75% hydration

When using Gold Medal Better for Bread:  83% hydration

When using King Arthur all-purpose:  81% hydration

When using King Arthur bread flour:  83% hydration

When using most bread flours:  83% hydration

When using most high-gluten flours:  85% hydration

More in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and our other books. If you use vital wheat gluten to get an airier crumb with whole grains loaves, you need even more hydration–see The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

We recommend that you follow the Master Recipes in our books as we have written them until you get a feel for the proper consistency. Once you know what it should feel like then it is wonderful to play with other flours.

Click here if you want to understand baker’s percentages.

Note: BreadIn5.com is reader supported. When you buy through links on the site, BreadIn5 LLC earns commissions.

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

  1. thanks, i’ve followed your measurements precisely, don’t think it’s the issue.
    i’m looking for a tougher, chewier texture. do you think i should try bread flour? i baked it after an overnight proof in refrigerator, don’t understand why the baked loaf had a noticeable alcohol smell.

    1. M: Sure, the bread flour may be to your liking– you may need to increase the water (about 1/4 cup) to compensate for that flour’s capacity to absorb water. You could try it both ways though, I’m guessing there’ll be less alcohol smell if you keep it on the drier side. Jeff

  2. A few questions from a new user (but old baker):
    1. The master recipe is supposed to yield 4 one pound loaves (64 oz.). But the weights add up to less than 60 ounces (using 2 lbs of flour and 25oz. of water).
    2. I like to use 10% whole wheat flour (3.25 oz.) as part of the AP or Bread flour. What hydration rates would you recommend for each.
    3. I also like to use a ceramic cloche for baking (either long or round) . Steam is theoretically created by baking in the enclosure. Any comments about that?

    Thanks for a good book.

    Galan

    1. Hi Galan,

      Great to hear from you, we are thrilled that you are using our book to bake breads!

      1. Yes, the recipe yields 4 loaves that are approximately 1 pound each, but a tad scant. We are thrilled that people are baking with scales, but when we wrote the book we assumed that most of our readers would be going by the “grapefruit size piece” description. In our second book we are much more sensitive to more established bakers.

      2. As you know whole wheat absorbs more water than the AP flour so you will need to increase the water slightly, but if you are only replacing 10% it will not need to be that much. I’d say 2-3 tablespoons of water should do it, maybe a 1/4 cup if the whole wheat you are using is particularly high in protein. Depending on the Bread flour you are using you may not have to change anything? Have you tried our Peasant loaf, it may be closer to what you are looking for?

      3. We too love the result we get from baking the bread in a cloche. Here is a post Jeff did on baking in one: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=566

      Thank you and enjoy all the bread you bake! Zoë

  3. So awesome you guys take time to answer ?’s! I just made the Soft American Style White Bread(YUM). I use 8x4x3 loaf pans. If I use a 2 lb piece of dough rather than the 1 1/2 the recipe calls for how long should I bake it? Thanks!

    1. Hi Rachel,

      Did you happen to see this post I just did on baking sandwich loaves? https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=904 i would suggest adding about 15 minutes to the baking time, but be mindful of the color of the crust and don’t let it get too dark. An oven thermometer is really essential when baking large loaves so they don’t end up being dried out from a too hot oven, or under baked due to cool oven.

      Hope that helps! Zoë

  4. can you go into more detail on your scoop and sweep measuring method?

    Do you fluff the flour first, as Julia Child recommended, or scoop out of the bag? I don’t have enough room in my kitchen for a big old flour tub.

    I fluff to aerate, then scoop at a 90 degree angle so the excess falls away. Will that work for your recipes?

  5. Hi, I made my first bread using your book yesterday. It tasted good, albeit with a dense crumb. I have a couple of questions, though:

    I used yeast from a tub where it looked like tiny balls but after I mixed the dough (with a wooden spoon), it didn’t really rise at all. I’ve made lots of bread in the past and this has never happened to me before. I left the dough to rise in a warm room, it had some little bubble holes in the surface and had spread out a bit but that was it! Should I have bought packets of “fast action” yeast instead? Presumably this lack of initial rising could have caused the dense crumb?

    I’m in the UK and haven’t been able to find unbleached plain flour. Does the fact that the flour is bleached (10.3% protein) make any difference to the quantity needed?

    Thanks 🙂

    1. Hi Julianne,

      If your dough had no rise during the initial rest on the counter you may want to check to make sure your yeast is still active. Did the tub have an expiration date? The dough should double, or triple during that initial 2 hour rise.

      The lower protein flours will not absorb as much water and may result in a dough that is too wet, without enough structure to rise properly. You may just have to use more flour to compensate. Perhaps watching our videos might give you a sense of what the doughs should look like: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63.

      Greaseproof paper is what we call “wax” paper and is very different from parchment. You would be better to use cornmeal under the loaf to prevent it from sticking.

      Thanks! Zoë

  6. Also, I’ve been reading on the site (but not in the book?) about using parchment paper. Is this the same as greaseproof paper? Do you grease the parchment because I didn’t grease the greaseproof paper and the boule was stuck solid to it!

  7. Thanks for your reply. I tried again, this time using fast action yeast and the dough rose perfectly. The other yeast was a brand new tub, expiring in 2011, but I won’t bother with it again! I greased the greaseproof paper and the bread came off straight away so for me it’s second time lucky!

  8. Thanks for all of the great info and your commitment to your baking readership!

    On organic flours: Are you able to find out more hydration info about organic flours available in various parts of the country? I.e., Whole Foods’ bulk organic flours, wherever they are from; New York State’s Champlain Valley Millers’ flours; & Arrowhead Mills’ flours? These all seem drier than King Arthurs’ flours–I even have trouble with CVM’s organic all-purpose flour for pastry unless I blend in a lot of fat. Some bulk co-op flour also has some germ added back in. Folks at the stores don’t know much about it.

    On freshly ground flour: The farm where we buy our milk grows grain and bakes bread. The farmer said that commercial millers sift some of the bran out of whole wheat when milling, but it’s still considered whole grain. Home bakers using fresh ground flour have to sift out some bran if they want a better bread. I told her when I sifted her flour, there was so much bran, I had only a little flour left. Too bad I don’t have chickens anymore!

    Thanks for any further grain investigations,

    Cindy

    1. Cindy: I use Arrowhead Mills Organic all-purpose in bulk from my local natural foods co-op, and I find it performs just like Gold Medal All-Purpose– I haven’t used the others you mention. It’s the whole wheat flours that vary so much. There’s really no way to advise you since the flours vary regionally in dramatic ways and small producers are the source. And I think your right–bran content is the way they vary from flour to flour. I tried a local fresh-ground WW and it worked beautifully in the new book’s recipes; see my post on this at https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1165.

      This just means that it’s going to take a lot of trial and error to get the moisture similar to what you see in our videos at https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63. One thing I’d say– in my experience, this is mostly about hydration, not fat content. You can get wheat feel and taste “moist” by using water rather than fat. Jeff

  9. I am about to make my first master recipe batch from ABin5, but have run into a couple flour challenges… (and so have not yet bought the flour….)

    I live in Canada, and the grocery store (mainstream, major chain store; actually the store itself is physically one of the largest in Canada) I usually use stocks 3 brands of unbleached flour — store brand and 2 name brands.

    The challenges ?

    It seems that Canadian unbleached all-purpose flour is:

    (e.g. Robin Hood All Purpose Unbleached Flour info incl nutrition facts https://robinhood.ca/product.details.asp?pid=194&prodcid=44 )

    (1) enriched & pre-sifted. Your recipe calls for unsifted flour.

    (I note that US Gold Medal Unbleached All-Purpose flour is also enriched and pre-sifted, according to the Gold Medal website, so perhaps this is actually ok ?? https://www.generalmills.com/corporate/brands/product_image.aspx?catID=60&itemID=1930 )

    (2) has a higher protein content than US AP flour: 4 g protein per 30 g serving ( = 13.33 % ? ) according to the nutrition facts label.

    How do I compensate for the higher protein level ?

    Do I need to worry about the fact that it is enriched and pre-sifted ?

    Thanks for your help !!

    1. Starwind: Sifted is fine, we just meant that you don’t have to RE-sift.

      There’s rounding error here, since they only have to report to the nearest whole gram. But… it does sound like your flour may be closer to KAF or Dakota Maid and therefore you might need to slightly increase the water as specified in this post.

      Enriched is also fine— you should have a good result. Jeff

  10. One of your recipes in ABin5 subtitutes includes 1 cup of wheat bran (rather than whole wheat flour). Is it ok to use oat bran in that recipe?

    Also, is it possible to generally substitute some of the wheat flour (white or whole wheat) in recipes with bran or would that greatly change the recipe? Perhaps if one only replaced 1/2 c or so it would be fine?

    Just thinking of switching it up a bit and trying to fit in more bran.

    Thanks,
    Amanda

  11. I LOVE your book and have gotten alot of great comments on the breads I have made from it. However, I am going to experiment with the longer rise times, refrigerator rise, and increase oven temp to create larger holes in my crumb. They do tend to be on the dense side, but have great flavor!

    To my question…I have had alot of trouble with my loaves expanding in small areas creating an un-uniform shaped dough. Am I going wrong with my slashing technique? Or, I made a baguette today that looked beautiful except for a portion of the dough at one end that looks like like a large bubble. I noticed that it expanded in an area of the dough that was not completely smooth after I shaped the dough. I was just too afraid to handle it too much. Thanks! Kim

    1. Kim: Slash deeply, and straight down. That’s different than the traditional method, which specifies shallow cuts, at an angle. See if that helps, especially in the context of a longer rise (60 minutes, or even 90 if there’s lots of whole grain). Jeff

    1. Hi Amanda,

      So sorry, it looks like that one slipped by.

      You can substitute the oat bran for the wheat bran. But, you can’t really substitute bran for the whole wheat flour. The bran has no gluten and so it will make the dough much too wet. You are better off leaving the recipe as it is and just adding some bran to the mix. If it changes the consistency too much you can also add a couple of tablespoons of vital wheat gluten and a few tablespoons of water.

      Hope that helps! Zoë

  12. The HB dough is not stretchy and bakes dense. I used the master recipe twice thinking maybe I mismeasured the first time and no luck. The third time I added 1/8 cup extra water to a half recipe and it was a little better, but still not stretchy after 24 hours in the refrigerator. No need for kitchen scissors when you pull off a piece. It justs breaks off and does not feel right. What should I do?

    1. Hi Anita,

      What kind of whole wheat flour are you using? Some of the coarser flours tend to make a dough that has little stretch to it. One thing you can do is add a couple more tablespoons of vital wheat gluten. When you do that you will also need to add a few extra tablespoons of water. The vital wheat gluten gives the dough the protein it needs to develop the stretch you are looking for.

      Did you have a chance to look at our videos to see if your dough is as wet as ours? https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63

      I hope this helps. Zoë

  13. I have really been enjoying your book and have loved trying the different recipes. But there is one ingredient listed in your first book that I cannot seem to find anywhere. What is and where can I find Malt? Is there anything I can substitute for it? I have found malted milk powder and this seems to be the closest I can get, at least in brick and mortar stores. I have looked at gourmet, regular, and healthfood type grocery stores and none of them seem to have it.
    Thanks!
    Hillary

    1. Hillary: Malt powder is basically malt sugar, so you can swap other sweeteners, but they won’t provide that “malty” taste. I get mine from King Arthur flour’s website.

  14. I was excited to set up my first batch of dough last night, and I think I made a boo boo. As the dough was rising, I was washing the (few) dishes I had used, and noticed that my 1/2 cup measuring cup didn’t look like it had four in it. If I only used 6 cups instead of 6 1/2, is it worth going ahead with forming, resting, and baking, or should I dump it and start over? (it rose very well). Thanks!

    1. Hi Pam,

      The dough may be very soft, but you can still use it. If it is too hard to make big loaves than use it for flatbreads and pizza. You can try forming a loaf by using a lot of flour while dusting the ball as you use it. This will help to keep it from sticking to your hands.

      Hope that helps, enjoy the breads! Zoë

  15. 100% Whole wheat made as artisan loaves rather than sandwich loaves in loaf pans. At what temperature and how long should they be baked?
    Thank you.

  16. What is the weight of a cup of semolina flour? I know you have provided the weights for AP, Whole Wheat and Rye flours but haven’t found any for semolina.

    Thank you for your time and your book. My family loves your work!

    1. MarcPhoto: Durum flour should be 5.5 ounces per scoop-and-swept cup, or about 155 grams. Remember, you must do the scoop and sweep method if you use the volume cup-measures we specify in our books and on the website. Not spoon-and-sweep, and not packing down into the container. Hmm, maybe I should do a video on this. Jeff

  17. I had no problem making my first artisan bread using the master recipe. We loved it! So, I was really looking forward to making the Raisin-Walnut Oatmeal Bread. I halved the recipe (as I did before) and the dough tripled in size when I left it on the counter to rise. After two days in the refrigerator, the dough started to shrink. I wasn’t able to use the dough until the 6th day. By this time the dough had shrunk to the original level. The dough was very, very sticky and there was a puddle of liquid on the bottom of the container. I measured out a pound and a half of the dough, patted the wet dough flat on the working surface and sprinkled it with raisins and walnuts. After literally scrapping the dough off the working surface, I plopped the dough in the loaf pan to rise. It did rise a little on the counter and a little more in the oven. The result was a light but short loaf with a crisp crust. Not bad 🙂

    But, what happened with the dough? I don’t want that gooey mess to happen again!

    1. Linda: You say that the result was a “light” loaf; that tells me that the result wasn’t over-dense. You are describing the way whole grain doughs behave in our method, this is normal. If dough sits undisturbed for a while, liquid can pool but this is harmless, just pour it off and use flour to handle the dough as you did.

      Whole grains yield a denser result than white bread, especially when you put fruit and nuts into it. Do you have a dough scraper? Much easier to handle the sloppy stuff on surfaces this way. Jeff

  18. I am trying your olive spelt bread today and I am using california green olives. Is that the right type or should I be using the spanish green olives? Love your books, especially the healthy one. I have made numerous loaves of the roasted garlic and everyone loves it.

    1. Hi Amy,

      Thank you for the lovely note, so glad you are enjoying all the breads. You should use any olives that you love! I’ve made it with a number of different kinds and they all turn out well.

      Thanks and happy baking! Zoë

  19. Can I sub buckwheat flour for wheat or rye(or both) in the European Peasant Bread recipe? And if so, what ratio? Thanks!

  20. Dear Zoe and Jeff,
    I am a King Arthur flour/Baking sheet fan and based on their recommendation
    I recently purchased your book HBin5. I have baked bread by hand kneading & bread machine for 20 years and most recently no-knead. Your book is the second no-knead type book I own! So far I have made the mixed berry and oat date breads from HBin5 with good results. I am looking at the master recipe in HBin5 and thinking that it is a bit much whole wheat for my family who loves crusty white bread. I see alot of FAQ’s on water proportion but here is one more. I would like to make the master recipe with 50-50 white whole wheat and unbleached all purpose to begin with and then one cup at a time increase the white whole wheat proportion to match the master recipe. This way I will hopefully not end up with a large batch of bread my family will not finish. So, if I begin with 4 cups white whole wheat and 3 1/2 cups unbleached white – how much water would you guess? and should I adjust gluten amount? I feel awful asking a question so similar to the many I see in the FAQ but it all got confusing after reading so many. Perhaps there is a way to put it all into some kind of chart? I am enjoying your book and hoping to get more people baking bread by introducing them to your method.

    1. Hi Manette,

      I would just decrease the water by 1/4 cup and you should be pretty close to right. If you are using KAF you may not have to decrease the water at all because it is so much higher in protein. I think you should keep the vital wheat gluten because it allows you to store the dough longer with 50% whole grains.

      I hope that helps you get started! Zoë

  21. Use a Mexican floor tile from your local hardware store instead of the pricey ones from the kitchen stores until you can afford one. I pick these up for $1.09 and have several on hand. They are unglazed and not treated with any chemicals, perfect for a yummy crust on the cheap. If one cracks, I just slide it back together and keep using it, or just toss it or use it as a paver in my yard.

  22. HI…love your book. I’ve been having problems with my loaves though. I’ve been subbing KA white/wheat for the wheat (using same measurements for wheat). I usually take half of the dough at a time to make a larger loaf. The dough feels pretty wet when I take it out of my container, but use flour to get it less sticky. I bake the loaf for 30 minutes at 450 (after letting it set for 90 minutes) – the top of the loaf looks quite brown-but the inside doesn’t look done-it’s very doughy. Should I bake it longer? But then I’m afraid the top will get too dark-lower the temp? Or because I’m using white/wheat, should I decrease the amount of water? Or both?
    Thanks!

    1. Emmarie: Sounds very much like the oven’s running hot– that’s what causes the crust to over-brown before inside’s done. Have you checked oven temp with an inexpensive thermometer like this one on Amazon: https://bit.ly/czmco2

      If that’s not it, then I’d dry out your dough a bit– use a little more flour (or a little less water), decreasing till the problem’s solved.

      White whole wheat measures and behaves just like traditional WW, so I don’t think that’s the problem. Jeff

  23. My husband is diabetic and for 3 years we have controlled it by diet. I would like to know more about the carb counts of your healthy breads. I’m ready to try making them.
    Jacquie Loomis

    1. Jacqui: Go to our FAQs page (click above); one of the questions on the list includes a nutrient calculator link from USDA and you can calculate the nutritional value of any list of ingredients, including our recipes. Then divide by the portion size…

      Jeff

  24. LOVE your recipes – and have a question. I use the weighing method and new yeast – but I never get 4 loaves of bread from the master boule recipe. I usually get 3 loaves of about 1 pound each, with one of them slightly bigger than the other 2. I live in mountainous WV – would that make less dough? Would it help to leave resting longer than 2 hours on the counter before refrigerating? Thanks again – especially for such wonderful bread.

    1. Cathy: No, it’s not you. The basic recipe from the first book makes “about” four one-pound loaves. The final dough weight is 3.6 pounds, which makes four 0.9 pound loaves, close to a pound, but not quite. Rest time wouldn’t change any of this…

      Think about making a bigger batch, the recipe scales up without any trouble. Jeff

  25. Love the HBin5 book…waiting for the flatbreads next. If i wanted to do an herb mixture with parm cheese in the master recipe (white whole wheat) would that affect the shelf life of the dough? should I add more water? (would add about one cup of parmesan) to master recipe. Can i just mix it in in the very beginning and not wait and roll it out and add it before baking? Thanks!

    1. Becky: We said our Vermont Cheddar Bread would go 7 days in the fridge, so should be fine for at least that long. Can definitely mix at beginning. Jeff

  26. Thanks Jeff! I did go back and look more closely at the recipes…and sorry..i should have put this question in the right FAQ category! Have ordered another book for a birthday gift….keep up the good work!

  27. Becky: It doesn’t matter where you post the question, we see them all in a time-ordered list. Thanks for the support…

  28. can i substitute white whole grain flour for whole grain flour in your 100% whole wheat bread, plain and simple on pg. 79 or your new book (which i love) “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day” there is not an asterisk next to whole wheat like there is in the Master recipe.

  29. I have a question pls , is it possible that the flour is unbleashed and the protien content is 12.5 ??
    in our markets ( K.S.A ) i found unbleached flour with 12.5 protein, while the bleached AP flour has protien of 10.5.
    which one i choose????
    thanks

    1. Emily: I have a feeling that you’re writing from Europe, where the protein percentage is expressed as the fraction of protein per 100 grams of DRY weight (without water–it’s driven off with heat for the measurement). In the US, they express this as fraction of protein per 100 grams of naturally-occurring product. So European protein percentages are always higher than U.S. measurements for the same product.

      So– use the UNBLEACHED product, which, if measured in the US, would register about 10% protein. Bleached flour is too low in protein for a successful result. Jeff

  30. Hello, my name is Alessandra and I’m from Brazil.
    My dough was too soft and I could not shape it. Put her to grow into the shovel and then could not put it in stone so soft that it was. The dough moistened all wood blade.
    Why is it that this mass was so wet, even staying in the refrigerator?
    Thank you.

    1. Alessandra: My guess is that your dough is too wet, maybe because the flour is different (probably lower in protein). You’ll need to change the recipe– increase the flour a bit and see what happens. You can even add some flour now, to the batch that’s too wet.

  31. Hello,

    Hope all is well with you both. I have a couple of questions to ask.

    #1. I see from the posts above that bread flour and durum flour both weigh 5.5 ounces per cup. Knowing that durum flour weighs 155 grams per cup, would bread flour weigh 155 grams?

    #2. Your recipes are mostly for 1# loafs of bread. If I wanted to make 2# loafs, would I double the baking time?

    Thank you for all of your help. I am amazed at how helpful the two of you are and have recommended your books to everyone I know.

    Take care,

    Marc

    1. MarkPhoto: Yes, exactly, 5.5 ounces=155 grams

      Should be about 15 min extra on the 2-pounder, not usually double the length. Thanks for all the kind words…

  32. Questions of buttermilk bread:
    On page 208, step 7-Dust the loaf with flour and slash the top. Brush the top surface with melted butter.

    Should I do this just before sending bread to oven? Can I first brush butter, then dust flour?

    Do I need to cover dough after putting it on the loaf pan?

    Thanks,
    Lejing

  33. Buttermilk Bread Recipe makes three 1.5# loaf. It means total weight of this recipe is 4.5#. However this recipe less 4# dough.

    2 cup water (1#)
    1 cup buttermilk (8 oz)
    6.5 cup flour ( 2#)
    1.5T salt(3/4 oz)
    1.5T sugar(1/2 oz)
    1.5T yeast(1 oz)

    So total weight is less 4#.

    Can you let me which ingredient I weigh wrong, so I can not get 4.5# dough?

    Thanks,
    Lejing

  34. Hi Jeff and Zoe,

    I recently purchase your second book, HBin5M. After reading much about the essential techniques, I decided to try the whole wheat and flax seed bread first. Everything went well until it is baking time, the bread turned out to have a dense and moist crumb. I am not sure what went wrong, can you help me identify?

    Here is what I did: I used half of the recipe, measured KA WW flour by weight. I also took the liberty of mixing in 1/4 cup raisin and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds. During initial mixing, the dough didn’t seemed too dry nor too wet, it rised nicely, then went flat after been in the fridge. While I put a small hole in the lid, I still notice condensation in the container, is it normal? When I dust the dough with some flour before pulling out a piece, I found it got pretty dry, so I didn’t shape it much. The dough didn’t rise much (maybe less than 20%) after two hours resting. Because it was quite cool to the touch, so I let it rested half hour longer (total two and half hours) before baking at 450F for 30 minutes. The bread did have an oven spring, however, the finished size is still very small, about 7″ long, 5″ wide and 3″ high. After cooling, I cut it to see the crumb, it is dense and moist. Was there too much water? If that is the case, how much less? Also, I am wondering if I should bake it a bit longer, the crust has a nice brown color but not very thick.

    So I have this lovely mini loaf, wish I could share with you a picture, but I want to find out what I can do to make it light and airy. Thanks much in advance!

    1. Holly: Raisins will change the dynamic in an already-heavy loaf– sounds like the raisins put it over the top on that score.

      Condensation is normal…

      You won’t see much rising before it goes into the oven. I’m guessing you have over-proofed the bread– try it at 1.5 hours rest time and even with the raisins, problem may be solved.

      But the truth is that a WW loaf with added flax AND raisins… is not going to be light and airy. If that’s what you’re looking for, try a plainer whole wheat recipe from that book.

  35. Thank you, Jeff! I guess sometimes too much is TOO MUCH. 🙂 I will try a plainer recipe to see how it turns out.

  36. Hi there–I am an avid baker now that I have Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day!

    I’m having trouble with some of the gluten-free recipes, in that the tapioca flour gives the bread a really odd, distinct flavor that I’m not getting used to. Is there a milder flour that can be used as a substitute for tapioca flour?

    Thank you–I look forward to your next book!

    1. Hi D’vora,

      You have me stumped, I don’t think of tapioca as having any perceptible flavor at all. Are you sure that is the one you are tasting? Which recipe are you using? The only other thing I can imagine is that the flour is rancid.

      You can try substituting the tapioca with corn starch.

      Thank you, Zoe

  37. How much additional water do I need in the master recipe if I am grinding my own red winter wheat for flour?

    1. Jan: There’s no set answer to that, because it depends on how well your wheat absorbs water. Check out my post on fresh-ground wheat at https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1165 . In that case, it required no extra water, but results from others have been all over the board. Check out our videos– go to the videos tab above, and adjust water so you get the result that you see in the videos.

  38. Hi, I baked my first g-f bread for a friend: perfect and delicious.
    If I want to bake it without eggs, what do you recommend?

    thanks,

    Monique

    1. Hi Monique,

      There are several egg substitutes on the market. I have not personally used any of them, but have heard good things about it. Their is quite a bit of conversation about this in the comments of the this post: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1396. You may want to read through and see what others are saying. I know many people are using ground flax, but I have not tried this either.

      Thanks and I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread! Zoë

  39. I just learned about this and I’m ordering your book today! I was wondering if you have a shredded wheat recipe.
    Thanks!

    1. Hi Marybeth,

      I’m not sure I know what you mean? Is that a bread using shredded wheat? Tell me more about this!

      Thanks and happy baking! Zoë

  40. Oh yes! It’s absolutely delicious but my mother kneads the heck out of it. It’s flour, shredded wheat, yeast, salt, butter, molasses, scalded milk. I’d have to get her recipe to tell you the portions but it is my favorite bread.

    1. Hi Marybeth,

      The shredded wheat bread sounds wonderful. I will have to play with shredded wheat as an ingredient and let you know how it goes.

      Thanks for the inspiration! Zoë

  41. Observations on bleached enriched vs unbleached.
    I have gone through about 20 pounds of Sams Club Bleached Enriched flour since beginning my fledgling bread baking career 6-8 weeks ago. I really wanted to like the results, since the flour is only $3.89 per 25 pound bag.
    Well, a few days ago, I saw some King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour at BJ’s, so I decided to try it out.
    My experiment was somewhat flawed, as I mistakenly added some vital wheat gluten to my basic Boule mix. In the back of my mind, I was thinking to try adding VWG to the bleached flour next time, just to see how it would affect it, got confused, and put it in the KA mix instead.
    Anyway, the results. I baked 2 small baguettes last night, and they are terrific!
    Noticeable differences from the bleached batches include a perfect crust, not as thick and tough as the bleached, crumb is very different, smoother, smaller air pockets, 1/8 inch and smaller versus 1/2 inch and smaller with the bleached, but a creamier texture, much more of what I would consider a bread like crumb.
    The flavor is noticeably better also.
    Can’t wait to try the mix minus the VWG.

    1. Ron: Thanks for the info– I’m thinking that a little gluten’s a good idea– you can get the middle of the road result with unbleached AP, no VWG needed. Jeff

  42. Hi Jeff and Zoe —
    Big fan of the books. Been using the Artisan Bread in 5 for a year or so now and my husband and I are just starting into the Healthy Bread in 5.

    We’re US Expats in New Zealand and I’m having the most difficult time finding White Whole Wheat Flour. We’re hoping to make the beetroot buns today, and I’m just not sure which other flour to use in it’s place — whole grain or unbleached white, or some mixture of both. We don’t seem to have as many flour choices over here… Haven’t been able to track down WWW anywhere, but maybe we’ll import sometime during our next visit home.

    Any help would be appreciated!

    ~Erin

    1. Hi Erin,

      You want to use the whole grain flour. White whole wheat is actually the same as whole wheat, but it is a white wheat berry instead of the traditional red wheat berry. They work identically.

      Enjoy the beet bread! Zoë

  43. Related to the question above: I’ve just checked the protein content of the New Zealand unbleached white flour (almost 11%) and the whole grain flour (what they call “wholemeal flour” — which is nearly 12%).

    Last question: my flour supplier carries “wholemeal” spelt flour and regular spelt flour — I bought the wholemeal one, but there’s no nutritional information on it! Any idea if that will make a difference in the spelt flour recipes?

    Thanks for taking the time to answer everyone’s questions! I’m sure it get’s taxing!

    ~Erin

    1. Hi Erin,

      The spelt recipes we developed use the wholemeal spelt, so I think what you bought will be perfect. Flour is so different around the world, but I think you will have great results!

      Your unbleached all-purpose flour is very high in protein and will therefore absorb more water than normal. You may end up needing to add a few more tablespoons of water if it doesn’t look like the dough in our videos. https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?page_id=63

      Please let us know if you have any other questions! Zoë

  44. Hi Zoe
    I am living in Singapore where our temperature is hot and humid ranging fr 27 to 30 degree celcius all year round. According to your book ‘artisan bread in 5 min’ which call for about 2 hrs of resting at room temperature after mixing the dough and then refrigerate it. For our weather, time taken for resting should be shorter or the same time as stated in yr book? If you say let the dough rise and collapses, do you mean that I measure the dough when I first put it into the container and then mark the container where it should rise till double or triple then when the dough reach this level, I refrigerate it ? I cant buy US cups and spoons over here. Can you please give me a guide on the ingredients but measure in grams ? I am very eager to try out your recipe !!!! Many thanks..

    1. Hi Poh Cheng,

      Thank you for writing and for trying the recipes. If you tell me which recipe you are interested in trying we can help you with the equivalents in grams. Each cup of unbleached all-purpose flour = 140 grams. I wonder what kind of flour is available to you?

      Once you have mixed up the dough it will rise quite a bit and then it will collapse as you said. It may take slightly less time if the kitchen is very warm, but it will not hurt the dough to be left for the full 2 hours even in the heat. Be sure to refrigerate the dough thoroughly before working with it, or it may be too wet and sticky to handle well.

      I hope this helps! Thank you, Zoë

  45. Hi Zoe
    Greatly appreciate your prompt reply. I am eager to try challah, brioche, buttermilk bread.
    Is 1 stick of butter=110g 1cup butter=227g 1tbsp butter = 14g ?
    Is 1 large egg (with shell ) = 57g
    Is 1 cup water= 225g?
    What about half cup honey ?
    Is 1 tbsp yeast = 9g? Kindly fill me in if i miss out any! Thanks
    Can i use convection oven (with fan) to bake bread and yet use the same temperature stated in your book ?
    My apology for giving you so much trouble to convert the measurement ! The spoons and tbsp that are available here is I think follows the Australian version ! The Aust and US tsp and tbsp should not have much variation right ? Thank you so so much for answering my burning questions . Poh Cheng

  46. Hi Zoe
    I have 2 more questions in addition to the above that i have missed out.
    1. I realised that in ‘artisan bread in 5 min’- Challah recipe calls for 4 LARGE eggs whereas Brioche recipe calls for just 8 eggs, without the word large ? Is your 1 LARGE egg (without shell) =50g? And what is the weight of 1 egg (without shell)?
    2. For Bioche recipe calls for 3 sticks of butter. Can i reducce the quantity? If yes, by how much ?

    Greatly appreciate your answers….poh cheng

    1. Koh: Unfortunately, we don’t have these conversions up on the website. Which of our books are you working from? Our second book https://bit.ly/3wYSSN has SOME, but not all of these conversions; you can find it there.

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