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question about all purpose vs. bread flour

16 years ago

I'm looking at a recipe for a strawberry pie with a crumb topping. The crumb topping calls for 1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour and the strawberry filling calls for 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of bread flour. I'm at my weekend lake place and have no bread flour here and I don't really want to buy some for 1/2 cup since I do have some at home and I don't use it that much. What would be the difference if I mixed the strawberry mixture with regular flour instead of bread flour?

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Comments (5)

User
16 years ago
Nothing. Just use the all purpose flour. You won't notice any difference.

Ann
oilpainter
16 years ago
Bread flour has more gluten in it than all-purpose and it would probably make the pie set filling set firmer.

I would use the all-purpose and perhaps add an extra tablespoon.
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annie1992
16 years ago
I agree, in a pie filling I don't think the gluten is going to matter that much and I doubt that you'll notice much of a difference. I'd just use the AP.

In addition, it depends on the brand of flour. Something like King Arthur all purpose has approximately the same protein level as Gold Medal bread flour and so can be used nearly interchangeably. I never buy bread flour, I use the King Arthur All purpose anytime something calls for bread flour without problems.

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cloudy_christine
16 years ago
It's a bizarre recipe. There's no reason to use bread flour in a pie filling.
3katz4me
Original Author
16 years ago
Could be - I don't make pie so I wouldn't know. It's from a Biltmore Estate Chef's Selection Cookbook I bought when I was there and the photo looks absolutely delicious so I thought I'd give it a try. I have a few days off from work over the Labor Day holiday and the weather's yucky so thought I'd make some things I've never tried before. For some reason I'm interested in pie - a healthy Key Lime pie recipe from Cooking LIght and this one which is not healthy. Not sure what I'm going to do with all this stuff - not having enough guests for two piesÂ..and I don't want to eat it all.

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