Dear First name / friend, 

How's your week going? I hope you've had a wonderful week and had plenty to smile about :-) I celebrated my birthday last week. It was lovely to have a little cake mid week … everyone loves cake, right? Well enough about cake … we're really here to talk about bread!

 

This week we are going to talk about flour. There are so many different types it can get a bit confusing.
“What type of flour should I be using? Can I bake sourdough with all purpose flour … or is that just for feeding my starter?”.

 

So let's compare bread flour to all purpose flour. Does the flour you use really make that much of a difference?

 

Well yes it does! And how much of a difference, might just depend on where in the world you live and the type of wheat used in the production of your flour.

 

Did you know that you should use bread flour to make sourdough because it typically has between 12 and 14% protein. This is necessary for strong gluten development and of course the best oven spring possible!

 

But what if you only have all purpose flour? Well it's not the end of the world, but you will need to make several adjustments to the way you make your dough - you can find all of these adjustments here. If you don't adjust your technique, you risk ending up with wet, sticky dough.

 

For a full run down of bread flour vs all purpose flour, check out this guide to the best flour for sourdough bread. 

 

Hands up if you love using fresh herbs in your baking? I love using fresh herbs from the garden, so I thought I'd share my favorite sourdough recipes featuring fresh herbs! Why not try these delicious sourdough crackers with parmesan and rosemary. And if you love that combo, this parmesan rosemary sourdough is just amazing! Want something a little different … why not try these sourdough garlic bread bites or add some fresh herbs to this easy sourdough olive bread. And if your herb garden is full of fresh herbs, this whipped herb butter is lovely spread onto fresh sourdough!

 

Oh and if you missed last week's question - you can read the question and answer here.

 

As always, I love to see your sourdough wins - and help you with any problems you might be having. Have a question you'd like answered on my site? Let me know!

 

Until next week,

Wishing you sourdough success,

Kate