Bread Flour: cups to grams

Why measuring bread flour by cup goes wrong

Bread flour and all-purpose flour look identical in the bag, but bread flour averages 12–14 percent protein versus 10–11 percent for AP. That extra protein builds a gluten network that holds gas — which is great for a sandwich loaf and unkind to a tender muffin. By weight, a cup of bread flour also runs about 7 grams heavier than AP because the larger gluten-forming proteins compact more tightly when settled.

Practical tips for working with bread flour

If a bread recipe calls for AP flour and you want a chewier crumb, you can swap bread flour 1:1 by volume — but recognize that you're adding 7 g of flour and you'll need a touch more water to keep hydration the same. The other direction is trickier. AP substituted into a recipe written for bread flour will give you a slack dough that needs less proofing and produces a finer, less open crumb. For pizza, bagels, and bread, weigh it. For everything else, a 1:1 by volume swap is fine.

Note from this ingredient's record: Higher protein than all-purpose, so it absorbs more water. A 1:1 swap into a soft cake batter will toughen the crumb.

Other ingredients

Browse every ingredient on the site, or jump to a related one:

• All-Purpose Flour — 1 cup = 120 g
• Cake Flour — 1 cup = 114 g
• Whole Wheat Flour — 1 cup = 113 g
• Rye Flour — 1 cup = 102 g
• Almond Flour — 1 cup = 96 g