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Live Ferment Timer
Dough temp — how warm your mixed dough feels (use a probe thermometer for accuracy). Inoculation — starter weight divided by flour weight × 100 (e.g. 100g starter in 500g flour = 20%). The timer updates as you type and shows a ±25% window because every kitchen is different. Open Start time, starter, cold retard to: set when you begin bulk fermentation and get a "ready at" clock; adjust for whether your starter is freshly fed, at peak, or hungry; or model a cold retard in the fridge. DoughRise Coach subscribers can record actual bulk times — after 3 bakes the predictions are calibrated to your kitchen, starter, and flour.
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Go Bakery →Flour Protein Calculator
Blend flours to hit any protein target
Quick answer
Blend ratio is found by weighting the two flours' protein percentages against your target. Example: blending a 10%-protein flour with a 14%-protein flour in equal parts (50/50) lands you at 12% protein.
Most bakers use whatever flour is in the bag. But protein percentage matters: it determines how much gluten your dough can develop, which directly affects structure, chew, crumb, and oven spring. The flour protein calculator lets you blend two different flours to hit a precise target, whether you are trying to replicate a specific Italian 00 profile for pizza or dial in the protein level for an open-crumb sourdough.
Input your two flours (their names, protein percentages, and total batch weight) along with your target protein percentage. The calculator returns the exact grams of each flour to use. It also shows the resulting protein level, dough quality notes, and a suggested hydration range based on the protein content of the final blend.
Understanding flour protein is the kind of knowledge that transforms your baking from following a recipe into understanding a process. Once you know your flour's protein level, you can predict how it will behave, how much water it will absorb, and how long it needs in the mixer or on the bench, rather than just hoping it turns out right.
The calculator finds the exact blend ratio for any two flours and any target protein.
12.5–14%
Ideal protein range for sourdough bread and long-fermented loaves
11–12.5%
Target protein for Neapolitan pizza dough with good stretch and chew
8–10%
Soft flour protein range for tender pastry, biscuits, and cakes
How It Works
How flour protein actually shapes your dough
The protein percentage on a flour bag isn't a marketing number, it's a fairly direct measure of glutenin and gliadin content. Add water and start mixing, and those two proteins link up into gluten, the elastic network that traps the carbon dioxide your yeast or starter produces and lets the dough rise and hold its shape instead of spreading flat. More protein means more raw material for that network, so a strong 13% bread flour builds a tighter dough than a soft 9% pastry flour ever will, even with identical technique.
Protein and water absorption move together too. Higher-protein flours soak up more water relative to their weight, which is why a recipe written for strong bread flour often feels underhydrated if you swap in a lower-protein flour without adjusting. Blending two flours to hit a target is really just a weighted average by weight, not by volume or by feel, and the flour protein calculator above does exactly that arithmetic once you set your two flours and target.
Bread flour vs plain flour, and what to do if you've only got plain
In the UK, bread flour typically sits at 12 to 13% protein, while standard plain flour is usually 9 to 10%. That two-to-three point gap is the whole story behind the bread flour vs plain flour question: bread flour builds a stronger, more extensible gluten network that can hold gas through a long proof and give you real oven spring, while plain flour has less gluten-forming capacity and is better suited to cakes, shortcrust pastry, and quick breads that don't need to trap fermentation gas for hours on end.
If a recipe calls for bread flour and all you've got is plain, you've got two honest options. Accept a flatter, denser result and treat the dough more like a quick loaf than a long-proved sourdough, which is genuinely fine for some bakes. Or reach for a proper bread flour substitute: stir vital wheat gluten (VWG) into the plain flour to lift its protein back towards bread-flour strength, roughly a tablespoon (8 to 10g) per 500g of plain flour as a starting point. Use the vital wheat gluten calculator to get exact grams for your batch rather than guessing.
Worked example: blending your way to a 12% loaf flour
Say it's a Saturday sourdough session and your recipe wants a standard 12% protein flour, but hardly anyone keeps exactly 12% sitting in the cupboard on its own. You've got a bag of strong Canadian bread flour at 14% and a bag of soft pastry flour at 9%, and you need 1,000g of flour total for two loaves.
- Protein span between the two flours: 14% minus 9% = 5 percentage points
- Your 12% target sits (12 minus 9) divided by 5 = 60% of the way from the pastry flour up to the bread flour, so the blend needs roughly 60% strong flour and 40% pastry flour by weight
- 60% of 1,000g = 600g strong bread flour, and the remaining 400g is pastry flour
- Check it: (600 × 14) + (400 × 9) = 8,400 + 3,600 = 12,000, divided by 1,000g total = 12% exactly
Weigh both flours rather than measuring by cups. Packed density differs between a strong flour and a soft one, so cup measures won't hold the ratio steady.
Common flour blending mistakes
Measuring by volume instead of weight
A cup of bread flour and a cup of plain flour don't weigh the same, because higher and lower-protein flours pack differently in the cup. Blending ratios only hold true by weight. Use a kitchen scale for both flours every time, not measuring cups, or your actual blend will drift from the target you calculated.
Not adjusting hydration for the new protein level
Protein content and water absorption move together. As you shift a blend toward a higher target, the dough typically wants roughly 1 to 2% more hydration per percentage point of protein you add, or it will feel tight and resist stretching. Nudge the water up gradually and judge the dough by feel rather than assuming your original recipe's hydration still applies unchanged.
Trusting the bag label over the actual number
UK flour bags marked "strong" or "plain" don't always print a precise protein percentage on the front, and the real figure on the nutrition panel can shift by half a percentage point or more between mill batches depending on the season's wheat. If you're chasing a tight target, check the panel on each new bag rather than assuming it matches the last one you bought.
Common questions about flour protein
What protein percentage do I need for sourdough bread?
Sourdough bread works best with a strong bread flour at 12.5–14% protein. The long fermentation times in sourdough baking put significant stress on gluten strands, so higher protein provides the strength needed to hold structure through a 12–24 hour bulk ferment. For more open crumb loaves inspired by country-style French bread, blending a strong bread flour with 10–15% lower-protein flour can produce a more extensible dough.
How do I blend flours to reach a target protein level?
Flour blending uses a simple weighted average. If you mix 800g of 13% protein bread flour with 200g of 10% protein all-purpose, the blend protein is (800×13 + 200×10) / 1000 = 12.4%. The flour protein calculator automates this: input your two flours with their protein percentages and the target you want to hit, and it tells you exactly how many grams of each to use.
Does higher protein flour always make better bread?
Not always. Higher protein creates stronger gluten, which is great for structure in sourdough, baguettes and bagels but can make pastry and ciabatta tough. Pizza dough benefits from moderate protein (11–12.5%) for good stretch and chew. Pastry and biscuits use soft flour at 8–10% for tenderness. The right protein level depends on what you are baking, and the flour protein calculator helps you blend to the exact level your recipe needs.
What’s the difference between bread flour and plain flour?
UK bread flour typically sits at 12 to 13% protein, while plain flour is usually 9 to 10%. That difference directly controls how much gluten the dough can build: bread flour forms a stronger, more elastic network that traps fermentation gas and gives a good rise and chew, while plain flour has less gluten-forming capacity and suits cakes, pastry, and quick breads better than a long-proved loaf. If you’re weighing up bread flour vs plain flour for a specific bake, the protein number on the bag is what actually matters, not the name on the front.
Can I substitute plain flour for bread flour?
Yes, with a caveat. A straight swap works fine for quick breads or short-proved doughs where you’re not relying on strong gluten development, but for sourdough or anything with a long ferment, plain flour on its own gives a flatter, denser loaf. The more reliable bread flour substitute is boosting plain flour’s protein with vital wheat gluten, roughly a tablespoon (8 to 10g) per 500g of plain flour, which lifts it close to bread-flour strength. Use the vital wheat gluten calculator to get exact amounts for your batch size.
Does blending two flours actually work as well as buying the right one?
For most home baking, yes. Blending is just a weighted average of protein by weight, so a well-measured blend of two flours behaves predictably and lands within a fraction of a percent of your target. The main limitation is gluten quality rather than quantity: two flours blended to 12% protein won’t behave identically to a single flour milled at 12%, because wheat variety affects gluten strength and extensibility as well as raw protein content. For everyday bread and pizza dough the difference is marginal; for competition-level baking it’s worth sourcing the single flour instead.
Blend your flour to the perfect protein
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