breadsecrets blog

I’ve always wondered if the more expensive premium brand or organic bread flours are worth the extra money. So, yesterday I put three brands to the test by making the same recipe with each sort. The flours I used were: Tesco own brand strong white bread flour (12.6% protein, around 75 pence for 1.5 kg); Allinson’s Premium very strong white bread flour (13.9% protein, about £1.30 for 1.5 kg = 73% higher than the Tesco flour); and “Bio Bake” organically grown strong white bread flour from my local health food store, Daily Bread in Cambridge. There was no protein content listed on the bio bake, but the label said, “made from a high protein hard wheat from North America - a professional’s flour”. This one cost £1.29 for 1kg, which is 158% higher than the Tesco flour, weight for weight.

The recipe I used was a lean French style bread, direct method, as follows:
400g flour
240g water
8g salt
1 tsp instant yeast
Mixed ingredients with dough hook in a stand mixer on minimum speed until flour was all wet, then turned up to 1/3 maximum speed for five minutes. Each of the three different doughs would just about stretch to a windowpane at this point. I tested them again after twenty minutes, and they all formed a very thin windowpane very easily. Covered bowl, left to rise at cool room temperature for three hours. Gently degassed dough, stretched and folded, left to rise for another hour. By this time, the dough made from the Tesco flour felt noticeably softer than the other two. Shaped into batards, covered with lightly oiled cling film and left to prove in a warmer room for about one hour twenty minutes. Unfortunately I misjudged this step and the Tesco flour loaf (on the left in the picture) was clearly overproved and had started to flatten and sag.

Loaves were baked in electric fan oven at 230 celsius + steam (I have an electrolux oven that has a steam + heat function) for 10 minutes, then 15 minutes without steam.

This is not a great photo of the finished loaves, but there is some indication that there is an increase in height matching the increase in price of the different flours. You get a better idea from the slices - order is as before: Tesco, Allinson, Biobake.

My wife and I took it in turns to do blind taste tests. Here’s what we thought on each loaf:

Tesco: slightly rubber texture (probably from the overproving), pleasant but not pronounced flavour, very little crust
Allinson: Good flavour in the crumb, fairly firm texture, reasonably crunchy crust
Biobake: Very firm texture, noticeably resistant to the bite; thicker and crunchier crust with excellent flavour which dominated the overall flavour - the crumb probably tasted great too, but I’d have to try it without the crust to comment further.

So, to some extent, you get what you pay for. The lower protein content in the Tesco flour translated to less gluten elasticity in the dough, so it overproved in the time it took for the others to be ready for the oven (I baked the Tesco and Allinson ones together, then the Biobake, so in fact the Tesco loaf did have an extra ten minutes rising because it was mixed first at the beginning of the day. The shape and texture of the Tesco flour loaf were almost certainly not as good as they would have been if I’d only been using that flour, and I have used it very successfully many times. However, even if we take that into account, I think the other two flours produced superior results in terms of flavour and crust quality. Will I be paying 158% more for all my flour in the future? Probably not, at least most of the time - I don’t think the gain in flavour is worth the extra money for “general purpose” bread for toast and sandwiches. However for sourdough and other fancy-schmancy breads, I think I will probably go for the Biobake as an occasional treat.