Flours

(unedited)

Flour is a very confusing topic, particularly when trying to find the equivalent American flour for a given Italian flour.

A more fundamental issue is which Italian flour to use for each recipe. In many cases, that choice is a matter of personal preference even within Italy. I will give you my current preferences in the recipes, but expect them to change as I learn and experiment more.

Flour Grains and Main Types of Flours

This table illustrates the main types of grains used in Italian flour and their Italian names. The Italian names are important when you need to go find them online, so it's a good idea to get used to these names.

Grain	Italian Flour Type	American Flour Type	Uses
Soft Wheat	Farina di grano tenero Farina manitoba (higher protein)	All-purpose flour Bread flour (higher protein) High-gluten flour (even higher)	Just about everything
Durum Wheat	Semola di grano duro rimacinata Semolina (a little coarser)	Durum wheat flour	Pasta Under pizza (non-stick)
Whole Wheat	Farina integrale	Whole wheat flour	Healthier recipes
Corn	Farina di mais	Corn flour (fine) Corn meal (coarse)	Polenta Under pizza (non-stick)

Coarseness

Italian soft wheat flours (farine di grano tenero) use a number to indicate the coarseness of the grind, which has nothing to do with the protein content:

· 00 - finest grind

· 0 - medium grind, like our all-purpose coarseness

· 1 - coarser grind

As indicated in the previous table, "semola di grano duro rimacinata" is finer than "semolina."

Protein Content / Strength

Every flour has a protein percentage and a corresponding W stength factor. These values are completely independent of the coarseness of the grind, so please don't conflate them. The W factor is used more in Europe.

Weaker flours tend to be used for pastries. Stronger flours tend to be used for breads. Stronger flours have longer rising/maturation times, which can add character to the flavor of the final product, but you'll need to wait longer.

This next table shows the protein content/strength of various popular Italian and American (mostly) soft wheat flours (grano tenero). This table is useful for choosing an equivalent American flour when the Italian one is not readily available. Again, any mention of 00 or 0 is irrelevant in terms of the protein content:

If you have a recipe that calls for a specific protein strength, such as W350, and you don't have the particular Italian flour on hand, you can combine American (or other Italian) flours to achieve that average of W350. This table helps to do that.

In general, with a recipe, I worry more about getting the protein content close to the right number than using the desired coarseness level.

Flour	Protein Content	W Factor
Caputo Pasticceria 00	11.0%	W210
Caputo Doppio Zero 00 Caputo Classica 00 (alternative name)	11.5%	W230
King Arthur (Organic) All-Purpose	11.7%	W240
Molino Bogetto Typo 0	12.0%	W250
Caputo Pasta Fresca e Gnocchi 00	12.25%	W270
Caputo Pizzeria 00 (blue)	12.5%	W260
Caputo 100% Grani Italiani	12.5%	W260
King Arthur (Organic) Bread	12.7%	W270
Petra 5063	12.7%	W270
Caputo Typo "1"	13.0%	W260
Caputo Chefs 00	13.0%	W310
Caputo Pizzeria 00 (red)	13.0%	W310
Caputo Saccorosso 00	13.0%	W310
Petra 0102	13.2%	W330
Dallagiovanna Napoletana 00	13.3%	W320
Caputo Nuvola Super 0	13.5%	W330
Petra 3	14.0%	W360(?)
King Arthur Organic High-Gluten	14.2%	W370
King Arthur Sir Lancelot High-Gluten	14.2%	W370
Caputo Manitoba 0	14.2%	W370
General Mills All Trumps High Gluten (red hard wheat)	14.2%	W370
Caputo Manitoba Oro 0	14.5%	W380
Caputo Americana Super 00	15.5%	W370
Le Farine Magiche Manitoba	15.5%	W460
Caputo Oro Super 0	15.7%	W420

Caputo is a solid brand in Italy. If you can't remember the name of a specific flour mentioned in the recipes, going with a similar Caputo brand flour will likely work out just fine. Caputo has tens of different kinds of flour and they are all good.

I used to think that Manitoba was similar to our all-purpose flour. Nope. It has a much higher gluten/protein content than all-purpose, and different Monitobas have different protein contents, just as different 00 flours can have different protein contents (except for different reasons). Monitoba is not easy to find in the USA, but I see that Caputo Manitoba Oro (14.5%) is now readily available on Amazon and I generally see more Italian flours available on Amazon than in the past.

As you can see, my favorite American brand is King Arthur, probably because I haven't spent any time researching American flours. I just know that I prefer King Arthur over other popular brands.

Yeast

Italians typically use a moist beer yeast (lievito di birra). I have never been able to find it in the USA. Maybe there's a specific yeast used here for beer making, but I'm not convinced that it's the same as the Italian yeast.

The general rule of thumb is that the equivalent amount of active dry yeast is 1/3 of the quantity of moist beer yeast (lievito di birra). In all of my recipes, I assume active dry yeast and have already done the conversion for you (divided by 3).

Long-Term Storage

Flours will last longer than their expiration date if you vaccum-seal them and keep them in the refrigerator or freezer. So I do that.

Yeast should be kept in a sealed container in the refrigerator until it is ready to use.

For both flours and yeast, let them come back to room temperature before using them in a recipe.