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A Journey Into Bread Baking World

Flour types used in this blog

English flour terminology differs between English speaking countries: all purpose vs plain flour, bread flour vs strong white flour, dark rye in US is not the same as dark rye in UK, etc. I decided to completely switch to German and Austrian flour gradings in this blog to avoid confusion.

This move will also make it easier to find correct flour in other European countries like France and Latvia which are using similar ash content based grading approach with only minor numbering differences.

I will be updating existing posts over time to reflect the changes and all new recipes will follow German and Austrian grading. This post will be linked to all recipes so that everyone can find correct flour easily.

Flour grading prefixes

Germany and France are using T prefix for all types of flour (for example, T55 and T1740). Austria on the other hand is using different prefixes depending on a flour type: W for wheat, R for rye and D for spelt.

I will be using German grading most of the time, but I will also prefix flour types with different letters as Austrians do to avoid confusion.

Baltic States are using German grades for rye flour and Russian naming for wheat flour. English speaking countries don’t have any flour standards and regulations so flour with the same name might be completely different between producers. Some UK and US producers also enrich their flour with enzymes or add all kinds of additives, please check ingredient list before buying flour in these countries.

Wheat flour

Wheat flour grades will be prefixed with letter W in this blog.

It is important to note that there are many varieties of wheat across the world and in many cases wheat from different continents can not be matched perfectly or even closely. For example, US and Canada are known for wheat flours with exceptionally strong gluten which are uncommon in Europe. The table below is a rough approximation based on sources I’ve found, but it shouldn’t be used as a scientific matchmaking tool.

All the breads in this blog are using European flour. In most cases W550 and W700 are used. Since the breads I bake are mostly rye breads, wheat flour type is less relevant and can be substituted with most of flours you have access to with the exception of super strong varieties. Super strong flours might noticeably change crumb structure of rye breads.

Blog UK US Germany Austria France Russia
W405 Pastry T405 W480 T45 Extra
W550 Plain All purpose T550 T55 Highest grade
W700 Strong white Bread T700 W700 T65 1st grade
W812 T812 T80
W1050 T1050 2nd grade
W1200 T1200 T110
W1600 T1600 W1600 T150
W1800 Wholemeal Wholegrain Weizen-Vollkornmehl W1800 Oboynaya

Rye flour

Rye flour grades will be prefixed with letter R in this blog.

R610 is rarely used in bread baking and is more tailored towards rye pastries.

R815 and R997 can be used interchangeably in home baking, difference between the two is minimal.

R2500 and R1740 can be used interchangeably in home baking to some extent, but they are different. Proper freshly milled wholegrain flour will contain germ, R2500 does not, but germ should not affect bread quality that much.

Rye bread quality heavily depends on how fine and homogeneous the flour is. British flour usually has very uneven particles with large bran flakes. This leads to a denser crumb and lower rise. The bread is still tasty, but if you want to improve crumb structure, I’d advise searching for a properly milled flour.

Check Rye flour types and where to buy them post with my personal suggestions on where to buy rye flour.

Blog UK US Germany Austria France Russia
R610 T610 R500
R815 White White T815 T70 Seyanaya
R997 Light T997 R960 Light T85
R1150 Light T1150 R960 T130
R1370 Medium Medium T1370 T130 Obdirnaya
R1740 Dark T1740 T170
R2500 Wholegrain Dark Roggen-Vollkornmehl R2500 Oboynaya

Sources