My Experience with Caputo "00" Rinforzato

[cleverdick]

A work colleague recently bought a 25kg bag of "Caputo Red" (which I assume to be the above) from an Italian food importer, and was kind enough to give me 5 kilos of it.

So... I made the dough as I usually do, pretty much as per the FB recipe, expecting maybe a slight difference in taste [from the Allinson Strong White Bread Flour] but not much else.

I could not believe the difference in workability, elasticity and evenness compared with the usual stuff. For the first time ever I was able to stretch out a perfectly circular base! Also, there were no accidents or rejects, which for me was unprecedented.

Once cooked, I noticed that the texture was also much softer than normal.

I couldn't really say that it tasted much different, but if you're struggling to get consistent results with regular bread flour then maybe this is the secret.

[kmrice]

Re: My Experience with Caputo "00" Rinforzato

Not sure what Allinson Strong like is but strong typically means a high protein content, I believe (at least in the US), in which case the Caputo Red may be a very different flour from Caputo. Caputo has a relatively low protein content, as well as being more finely ground than typical flour (at least typical in the US). I had much the same experience as you switching from King Arthur Bread flour, an American high protein flour. I've used Caputo ever since.

Karl