Serves: 5

** Great for Breads
-- Not So Great for Breads

We have included descriptions of flours and flour-blends here, so you will know which flour to use if you want to experiment with your bread machine.

** All-Purpose Flour: A blend of hard wheats and soft wheats, making it suitable for all types of baking. Bleaching agents are used in small amounts to whiten the flour and imporove baking results. All-purpose flour can be used when baking bread, but you will get better results with bread flour in the bread machine.

** Bread Flour: An unbleached flour made from a special blend of hard wheats, which are higher in protein. It contains small amounts of malted barley flour, which feeds the yeast, and potassium bromate to increase the elasticity of the gluten. Bread flour absorbs a greater quantity of water and produces a more elastic dough, resulting in tall, well-formed loaves. It is the ideal flour to use in bread machines because it is high in gluten-forming proteins.

-- Cake Flour: Cake flour is milled from soft wheat to produce a flour that is low in gluten-forming protein. It is excellent for baking biscuits, pastries and fine-textured cakes, but it doesn't have enough gluten to make good bread.

** Organic Flour: Organic flour does not contain the bleaches, bromates or other additives that are sometimes found in all-purpose flour. The word "organic" usually means that the wheat has been grown using only natural fertilizers and that it has not been sprayed with pesticides. Organic certification varies from state to state, but the wheat must be tested and must pass the certification process before it can be labeled organic. Organic flour can be used in bread machine recipes.

-- Quick-Mixing Flour: This is a unique instantized all-purpose flour. It is granular in texture, pours freely and is dust free. Because it dissolves instantly in cold liquids, it is excellent for making smooth sauces, gravies and batters. We do not recommend using quick-mix flours for bread machine recipes because it sometimes absorbs more liquid than other flours do.

** Rye Flour: Rye flour is milled from rye grain and is low in fluten-forming protein. It is usually combined with wheat flour to increase the gluten-forming capabilities of the dough when used in bread machines for baking bread.

-- Self-Rising Flour: An all-purpose flour with the leavening and salt added. It produces high, light biscuits and tender, fine-textured cakes. Self-rising flour isn't for bread machine recipes because of the added leavening.

-- Semolina Flour: A golden, grainy flour made from durum wheat. Durum wheat is a hard winter wheat that contains high-gluten proteins, but it isn't a good baking flour. Instead, it is excellent for making pasta.

** Stone-Ground Whole Wheat Flour: This flour is coarser than roller-milled whole wheat flour. Breads made with whole wheat flour have a nutty flavor and dense texture. Because whole wheat flour has less protein, whole wheat breads do not rise as high as breads made with bread flour or all-purpose flour. For better volume, use half whole wheat flour with half bread flour or all-purpose flour.

** Unbleached Flour: An all-purpose flour that has no bleaching agents added. It is not as white as all-purpose flour, so baked products will have more of a creamy color. Unbleached flour can be used for baking bread, but you will get better results with bread flour.

** Whole Wheat Flour: This is made with the complete wheat kernel, so it contains the bran, germ and endosperm. It is best to store whole wheat flour in the freezer or refrigerator to help prevent the germ from becoming rancid. Be sure to allow the measured amount of flour for your recipe to come to room temperature before adding it to the other ingredients.

** Wheat-Blend Bread Flour: A special flour blend that produces wheat loaves higher in volume and lighter in taste and texture than those made iwth 100 percent whole wheat flour. What-blend bread flour can be substituted cup for cup in recipes that scall for all-purpose, whole wheat or bread flour.

More Recipes from the Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook Cookbook:
Any Way You Want to Slice It
Basic Cycle Features
Betty's Tips for Shaping Dough
Bread Baking Glossary
Five Steps to Great Bread
Flour Power!
Freezing Bread
Helpful Nutrition and Baking Information
Here's How We Test the Recipes
Keeping Bread Fresh
Know Your Bread Ingredients
Let's Make a Great Bread Machine Loaf
Measuring Your Bread Machine Pan Size
Metric Conversion Guide
Mystery Punch
Refrigerating Dough
Some Like It Hot: Reheating Your Bread
The Proof Is in the Dough
Your Bread Machine Baking Questions