In contrast to pastry flour, which comes from soft wheat, bread flour comes from hard wheat and has a high protein and gluten content. Although it can be white or whole wheat, the bread flour called for in the recipes in this book is white bread flour because it is the most readily available. Supermarkets stock both varieties of white flour--pastry and bread--but their whole wheat flour tends to have low gluten content. Many natural foods stores stock both pastry and bread whole wheat flour. Although acceptable breads are made with other flours, the best breads are made with high-gluten bread flour. Gluten gives dough its elasticity and the strength it needs to expand and rise. It also makes bread crisp and chewy. Gluten can be added to any flour.

is an unbleached, specially formulated, high-gluten blend of 99.8 percent hard-wheat flour, a small amount of malted barley flour (to improve yeast activity) and vitamin C or potassium bromate (to increase the gluten's elasticity and the dough's gas retention). It is ideally suited for yeast breads.