plain flour vs strong bread flour in pizza bases - BigSpud (2024)

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Plain flour vs strong bread flour in pizza bases - BigSpud? ›

So what's the difference? It's worth stating outright that both are delicious and will definitely qualify as pizzas. The strong flour has a more complex flavour, a rich and yeasty bread flavour that stays in the mouth. The plain flour gives a slightly chewy but crisp pizza with less rise.

The second most common type of flour used when making pizza dough, and most people's go-to for homemade pizza dough is bread flour. Bread flour has a higher amount of gluten and protein than all-purpose flour. The high gluten content in this flour creates a very structured dough allowing for stretching and rising.

Bread flour has higher gluten levels than culinary flours such as plain or self-raising. Very strong bread flour has an even higher gluten level, so it's perfect for pizza dough.

This makes bread flour higher in gluten, giving pizza dough a chewy texture. However, all-purpose flour will still work fine for pizza dough; you may just need to add a little more water to make the dough come together. The choice of which type of flour to use is really up to personal preference.

The best flour for making Deep-Dish Pizza Dough is all-purpose flour. In bakeries and pizzerias, Pizza Flour is often used because it is a high-protein flour that produces a light and airy crust. However, all-purpose flour will also work well for Deep-Dish Pizza Dough.

The best flour to make pizza dough with is the flour you have in your kitchen right now. Just go for it. Ideally it would be bread flour, but don't be detoured if all-purpose flour is what you've got. If you think you want to go down a serious pizza-making rabbit hole, grab a bag of bread flour, make a few pies.

New York pizza dough, on the other hand, is generally made from American bread flour. Also high in protein, it readily develops gluten (the protein matrix that gives bread structure).

For Crispy and Chewy Pizza Crust, Use 00 Flour

00 flour is finely ground Italian flour that contains about 12% protein, or 12% gluten. It's the traditional flour used to make Neapolitan-style pizza. Since its gluten content is similar to bread flour, it also produces a pizza crust with chew.

I just use the same flour I make my dough, a plain or Tipo 00 works but some people like to use semolina which acts like little ball bearings and stops your pizza from sticking. Basically any flour will work ultimately, just be liberal with it.

The all purpose helps prevent the dough from sticking and the semolina flour is slightly coarser and helps the pizza slide off the peel and on to the baking steel. If you don't have semolina, you can use 100% all-purpose flour.

What flour is used to make pizza in Italy? ›

In Italy, 00 flour is the gold standard for Neapolitan pizza—the thin, crispy-yet-flexible Italian pizza from Naples—and fresh pasta, largely due to its gluten content.

00 Flour. Tipo “00” Flour is the shining star of Neapolitan pizza. A good, quality “00” flour typically has around 12% protein; but more importantly, it's the incredibly fine milling that sets it apart from other flours.

But you can blend different types of flours into your wheat flour to make some truly unique pizza crusts with different flavor and textural properties and charge more for them. When making a blended flour crust, you can add any of the nonwheat flours at replacement levels of up to 25% of the total wheat flour.

Pizza joint owners can relax. The two types of the most popular type of flour used for dough are still all-purpose flour, and bread flour.

The strong flour has a more complex flavour, a rich and yeasty bread flavour that stays in the mouth. The plain flour gives a slightly chewy but crisp pizza with less rise. There's not a great deal in it. They make different kinds of pizza base.

While 00 flour is generally our pick for high temp, short-cook style pizza dough (like a Neapolitan pizza dough), please note that 00 flour is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

The simple ingredients are mostly pantry staples. However, I would definitely recommend using High Grade Flour over ordinary flour. High Grade Flour has a higher content of gluten which makes the crust chewier.

The goal is for the pizza dough to easily slide off the peel and onto your waiting Baking Steel in the oven. The semolina flour acts as a ball bearing between the wood peel and the dough. In other words, it will help that dough stay "loose" on top.

What is the best flour for pizza dough? Plain all-purpose flour is all you need for homemade pizza dough. Yep, no need for any fancy flours like '00' flour, bread flour or even self-raising flour. Standard plain flour will give you a great result.

The difference between bread flour and 00 flour is the protein content, and therefore the gluten levels. Strong bread flours tend to have higher levels of gluten compared to 00 flour. 00 flour is also less absorbent than bread flour, meaning less water is required when using 00 flour.