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There’s nothing compared to a warm loaf of bread with a thick portion of butter, especially if it’s homemade.

One of bread’s major ingredients is flour. There are several varieties of flour in the market, from bread flour and self-rising flour to all-purpose flour.

Ideally, you should use bread flour to make bread, but what if you only have all-purpose flour in your kitchen? Can you use all-purpose flour to make bread?

The answer is yes! Stay tuned to learn how to make bread with all-purpose flour.

The Difference Between Self-Rising, All-Purpose, and Bread Flour

There are some key differences between all-purpose, self-rising, and bread flour that you need to know about before you attempt to use any of them.

These differences come in the form of:

Protein Amount

The major difference between all-purpose, self-rising, and bread flour is their amount of protein.

All-purpose flour has a lower content of protein than bread flour, but higher than self-rising flour.

Whereas all-purpose flour ranges from 9% to 11%, bread flour is between 10% to 13% percent or more. Self-rising flour has less than 10% of protein.

Oh, and did you know that protein content affects the gluten amount? This brings us to the next key difference.

Gluten Increase

Gluten in flour is directly proportional to the amount of protein. The higher protein the flour has, the more gluten is produced.

Gluten plays a vital role in having an ideal dough. Bread flour, for instance, has a greater gluten development than self-rising and all-purpose flour. This is why it’s used for airy, crusty bread.

Per contra, all-purpose flour has a lower gluten content, resulting in a fluffy dough.

Due to having a low content of glute, self-rising flour is not a suitable choice for making bread, especially yeasted ones.

Liquid Saturation

The high content of protein leads to a high absorption ability. As bread flour has a higher protein amount, it soaks liquids better than all-purpose flour.

As for self-rising flour, it has a low absorption ability due to having low protein.

Can You Replace Bread Flour With All-Purpose Bread?

You’re probably wondering whether or not you can use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour or vice versa. Well, in both cases, you can.

As mentioned earlier, all-purpose flour and bread flour have pretty slight differences, so you can substitute one for the other in your recipes. However, the result will differ slightly.

Using all-purpose flour rather than bread flour in making bread won’t ruin your bread, but it won’t necessarily produce raised, crusty bread like the one bread flour can produce.

Popular Recipes for Making Bread With All-Purpose Flour

Now that you know a bit more about all-purpose flour and whether or not it can be used to make bread, here are some of the best recipes for making bread with all-purpose flour.

1 – White Bread Recipe

Let’s go through the recipe for making chewy white bread using all-purpose flour. But first, you need to have the following ingredients:

1 ¼ cups of warm water
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp or 1 package of instant or active dry yeast
1 ¼ tsp salt
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 slightly beaten egg
Vegetable oil or cooking spray
Bowl
Rectangle pan

Method

The first step you should do is bring a large bowl and mix sugar and yeast with a ¼ cup of warm water. Then, let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Next, mix flour, salt, and a cup of warm water, then add this mixture to the yeast mixture. Blend the batter until you form a dough.

Knead the entire mixture for 5 minutes until it becomes elastic.

Secondly, put the dough in a large floured bowl or one covered with cooking spray. Coat the bowl with a dry cloth and leave it in a warm, draft-free place for 45 minutes.

To make sure the dough has risen enough, press it with your fingers gently. If it remains fluffy, it’s ready.

Thirdly, punch down the dough and cover it for 30 minutes. Then, uncover it and punch it again.

Next, cover the dough again for 10 minutes. After that, roll the dough in a rectangle pan coated with vegetable oil or cooking spray.

Press the dough heavily to release any air pockets and let it rest for 30 minutes. Afterward, wipe the top of the bread with the beaten egg.

From there, you need to preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Then, put the blend in the oven on the same heat for 12 minutes.

After a while, reduce the heat to 350 degrees and leave the bread for 15 minutes.

Finally, get the bread out of the oven, cover it with a clean cloth, and bon appetit!

2 – Romanian Country Bread

Romanian bread is an easy, egg-free recipe. Let’s get to know its ingredients!

4 ½ or 5 cups of all-purpose flour
One cup of yellow cornmeal
2 ⅓ cups of warm water
Three tbsp of melted shortening
One tablespoon sugar
3 ½ of active dry yeast
Two tsp of salt

Method

First, mix ⅓ cup of warm water with sugar and yeast in a stand mixer or large bowl and leave it for 5 minutes.

Next, add two cups of warm water, two cups of all-purpose flour, the melted shortening, and salt.

Beat the ingredients together until they become moist. Using a separate bowl, mix two and a half cups of flour with cornmeal. Then, add the mixture to the yeast one cup at a time.

Check the outcome. If the dough isn’t elastic, add a half cup of flour and knead the dough well. Afterward, leave it to rest for an hour.

After the dough is doubled, sprinkle a round pan with cornmeal. Place the dough in the pan, draw an X shape on it, and put it in the preheated oven for 55 minutes.

Now, get your bread out of the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting, and enjoy your meal.

3 – Lemon and Yellow Squash Bread

If you enjoy the citric taste of lemon, this recipe is a splendid match for you.

2 ½ cups of shredded yellow squash
2 ¼ cups of sugar
One cup of unsalted melted butter
¼ cup of lemon juice
2 tbsp lemon zest
3 cups of all-purpose flour
3 large beaten eggs
One tsp salt
One tbsp baking powder
One tbsp baking soda

To prepare the lemon glaze, you need:

One or two tablespoons of milk
1 ¼ cups of sugar powder
One tablespoon of corn syrup
One tablespoon of lemon juice

Method

First, you need to heat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two floured bread pans. Secondly, put the yellow squash in a colander to remove any liquid.

Thirdly, whisk the lemon zest, sugar, melted butter, and lemon juice into a medium bowl. Then, add the beaten eggs one after another. And blend the batter for three minutes until it’s fluffy.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add these ingredients to the batter and whisk them well.

Combine the yellow squash with the batter until it’s well-unified. Divide the mixture between the two sprayed pans. Bake it for 60 minutes maximum, and it’s better to check after 45 minutes.

While your bread is baking, start making the lemon glaze. To start with, you need to simmer one tablespoon of milk with another one of corn syrup in a saucepan.

When you find the mixture almost simmering, blend the lemon juice and the confectioners’ sugar. Add the blend to the simmering mixture, then check if it’s thick or not.

If the mix is too thick, add one more tablespoon of milk and just keep stirring until the blended ingredients aren’t too thick or too fluid.

After you take the bread out of the oven, don’t get it out of the pan. Instead, immediately pour the lemon sauce and let the bread rest for a while.

Finally, unfold the bread and eat heartily!

4 – Oatmeal Bread

To prepare the delicious and easy-to-make oatmeal bread recipe, here are the ingredients you need:

Two or 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
One package of active dry yeast ‘
¼ cup of butter
¾ cup of rolled oat and 2 tbsp for garnish
One cup of water
One egg
One tsp of salt
⅓ cup of honey

Method

Firstly, you should spray a bread pan. Then, mix a cup of all-purpose flour along with yeast, salt, and ¾ cup of oat in a large bowl and leave it for a while.

Heat up some water in a saucepan and add honey and butter. After it becomes hot, add it to the flour mixture with an egg. Beat the blend well for about 3 minutes.

Add one to one and a half cups of flour to the blend gradually to produce a stiff batter. Then, cover the batter and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Afterward, stir the mixture and place it in the bread pan. Put two tablespoons of oat on the top of the batter and let it rise for 20 minutes maximum.

Put the pan in a preheated oven to 375 degrees and bake it for 40 minutes. Finally, when the bread color is golden brown, get it out to rest. Now, serve and enjoy!

Final Thoughts

Although the best bread is usually made with bread flour, other types of flour are also reliable, such as all-purpose flour.

Now, you know how to make bread with all-purpose flour. There are plenty of other recipes on the web. All you have to do is find the one that suits you most and just start baking.

Bon appetit!

Sarah Bridenstine

Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.