My dad was interested in bread baking and I tried off and on over the years, but generally ended up with something equivalent to a masonry product so stopped trying except for when I used the bread machine. A few years ago I was thinking about how my dad wanted to make Selkirk Bannock but never did, for whatever reason. Then he developed Parkinson's and couldn't. He's been in heaven for a while now but I thought I'd try to make it to see what it was like and why he might have been interested in it. Basically it's raisin bread, and it turned out pretty good, but, really - who could mess up raisin bread?
After that I decided to try sourdough using a levain (airborne yeast, no commercial yeast) but couldn't get the results I wanted, and I had a tendency to let my starter die. I got some books and read about how bread works. Apparently levain is generally considered to be for advanced bread bakers (not to mention those who can remember to feed and care for their starter!), so decided to put that on hold for the time being and went back to commercial yeast recipes. Results have moved from "I'd eat it if I was stranded on a desert island" to pretty good. Yeast rolls are particularly easy. Pizza dough is still a work in progress since I can't find my pizza stone so haven't gotten the bottom of the crust as crispy as I would like. I could buy another one but as soon as I do I'll probably find the one I already had. However, unloading a pizza from a peel into a hot oven, aimed at a hot stone, and hoping I don't miss might be a bit angst-inducing. Maybe a crisp-enough crust will continue to be okay.
King Arthur flour has given me the best results. The gluten level in their all purpose is, if I recall correctly, 11 1/2% as compared to their bread flour at 12 1/2%. I don't know much about gluten levels, but that doesn't sound like a big difference to me. Anyway, I have been using their all purpose flour for rolls and pizza and it has worked very well. I use their bread flour in the bread machine. I usually have both on hand so I can use whichever the recipe calls for.
I recently purchased a store brand flour and made yeast rolls and did not get results comparable to King Arthur. They were edible, but more like biscuits than rolls. The dough never developed enough elasticity so I'm guessing it is likely lacking in gluten. I'll use that flour for dusting chicken for frying (always pained me to flour chicken in King Arthur!) and pretty much anything that is not bread.
I'm happy to find some bread bakers in our midst!
