The Fresh Loaf

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When an Italian says All Purpose flour

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

When an Italian says All Purpose flour

What do they mean?

jimbtv's picture
jimbtv

Well, I am 1/4 Italian so for me it means about 4% protein content... (get it?)   ;-)

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Can't fault your answer. I did ask what it means to an Italian. 

inumeridiieri's picture
inumeridiieri

I am 100% Italian :-)  but i don't know all purpose flour.

Perhaps it could be a flour with 10/12 g of protein ... from us very widespread.

Gaetano

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

It's the terminology that's confusing. And as you say there's many different types. Think I've tracked down some AP Italian flour from my local Italian bakery. 

nicodvb's picture
nicodvb

not italian.

The generic flour is 00, that in theory ranges from the weakest to the strongest flour (00 only indicates the degree of ashes, thus of sifting) but in practice 95% of the times "00" indicates a white wheat flour with 9-11% proteins. Generally they are MUCH weaker than american all purpose flour. 

I guess that the closest thing is cake flour. Not surprisingly generic 00 flours are good only for cakes.

 

Word of italian.

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

It is confusing. Went into my local Italian bakery and asked for some flour. It is "00" and hopefully as 95% of the time they mean AP flour it is what I'm looking for. For the final dough build it'll be mixed with durum flour so the combination should be right.