Baking – What combination of flours can be used as a substitution to a bread flour

None of those flours on its own is a good substitute for bread flour, at least for making yeast raised breads.

Yeast raised breads require the development of gluten, which is possible only with a wheat based flour. This leaves you only three choices:

• Whole wheat flour
• Maida
• Semolina

Comparing the characteristics of each of these to bread flour:

• Whole wheat flour, depending on the wheat from which it is milled, may have higher or lower protein levels. Your particular whole wheat flour has a moderately high protein level, at the bottom end of the bread flour range.

  However, the bran that is a component of whole wheat flour is very sharp at the small scale, and does not participate in the chemistry or physical structure of gluten creation. In fact, the sharp edges of the bran actually serve to physically block formation of gluten strands, and even cut already formed strands.

  For this reason, whole wheat flour is less than ideal for some bread making. In general, you would want to substitute only a portion of bread flour with whole wheat flour; in fact, it is better to use it only in bread recipes specifically designed for it. If you do choose to use it in lieu of bread flour, consider starting with only 25% of the total flour amount.

  Finally, whole wheat flour has a different flavor than white flours, due to the additional components in the flour from the entire wheat berry. The bran, the germ, and the endosperm all ground together (thus the term whole wheat), giving the flour its own flavor from each of these components--mostly the germ.

  This is also what leads to the shorter shelf life of whole wheat flour.

• Maida flour. According to Wikipedia, maida flour is a soft (low protein) flour comparable to cake flour or pastry flour.

  This means that it has much less protein, and much less gluten formation potential than bread flour does, on a weight for weight basis.

• Semolina. Semolina is a hard wheat flour with a high protein level, but is typically very coarsely ground. Generally, you can feel the individual granules when you pick it up and hold it between your fingers, and can see them when you look quite closely.

  This is a much larger grind than bread flour.

  You can make bread with semolina, as this recipe from King Arthur Flour demonstrates.

With these components available to you, you would need to experiment to find the best possible outcome—and unfortunately, that is not the best place to start if you are not already a a fairly comfortable bread maker.

My best guess is that your best outcome would be from a mixture of semolina and maida, probably about 50-50. However, the dough may take longer to hydrate and come together than expected, due to the larger grains of the semolina.

If you wish to incorporate whole wheat flour, I recommend starting with 25% of your total flour, and no more than 50% total.

Note: India Curry article refers to an Indian flour called atta which is much closer in its description to bread flours... is it not available in your region?