September 8, 2011 - 6:27pm
Italiano Pizza Flour vs Type 00
Giusto's has two products, both of which they claim are perfect for pizza: they have Italiano Pizza Flour and Organic 00, and the latter is twice as expensive. Does anyone know the difference between these two flours? They don't really give any information on the web site and haven't responded to emails.
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Hi there,
I've never used either BUT I recently came across a comment by a very experienced professional baker who reckons that there's nothing particularly unique about Type 00 flour that absolutely cannot be replaced with another flour. So my guess would be, you might just as well go for the cheaper option.
"nothing particularly unique about Type 00 flour that absolutely cannot be replaced with another flour. So my guess would be, you might just as well go for the cheaper option."
Well, the cheaper option is to keep using my King Arthur's All Purpose. ;-) Which I may do, if the type 00 doesn't impress me in some way. According to juliette and others, I won't see much of a difference in a regular oven.
For what it's worth, Daniel Leader in Local Breads says you can make type 00 flour by combining all-purpose unbleached flour with some cake flour. I didn't see proportions, but I would probably start with 4:1 and see how it goes. Whether or not your flour is organic is up to you.
Interesting. Most cake, however, is bleached. Is that what he recommended to use? I do have some unbleached cake flour, but I have to order it from KAF.
Now that I think about it, I have Leader's book. What page?
Thanks
italian flours are generally very weak, thus a 1:1 ratio with cake flour would represent more how they behave. Yet trying to reproduce italian flours for levained good is calling for troubles.
Page 167: "You can blend your own 00 flour." (He's talking specifically about Tuscan salt-free bread.)
Thank you!