Experiment – Local vs. Italian Flour in Breadmaking

Although I’ve had success with both homemade yeast breads and sourdough in the past, lately (now in the summer in the southern hemisphere) I’ve been disappointed with a few bakes, whether in terms of crumb structure or oven spring. Since I follow some international baking pages, I started wondering whether flour might be playing a more significant role than I had assumed — especially because, in my recent tests with hydration above 70%, I found local (Brazilian) flours somewhat annoying to work with. That could also be partly due to the fact that I live on the coast, where humidity is consistently high in the summer.

With that in mind, I decided to run a small test using Italian Caputo Cuoco flour and Brazilian Rosa Branca flour, both labeled as having 13% protein. In this particular case, we’re talking about a price difference of more than US$ 4 per kilo.

I chose to make a “commercial yeast” bread, using instant dry yeast, because I also wanted to evaluate flavor and avoid masking the flour with the more acidic, lactic notes of sourdough (and, honestly, because I didn’t have that much time for the test). I used a recipe with 70% hydration, 2% salt, and 1% instant dry yeast. I followed exactly the same steps with both doughs, in the same environment and at nearly the same time, to minimize confounding variables.

The process, in short, was: mix, fermentolyse (~40 min), slap-and-fold, rest (30 min), coil folds, bulk fermentation (~4 h, with ~50% volume increase), shaping, cold retard at 2 °C for about 15 h, and baking at 230 °C in a cast iron pot for 25 minutes, followed by another 25 minutes uncovered for browning. The only difference was the banneton shape: round for the Rosa Branca loaf and oval for the Caputo Cuoco.

Verdict: at 70% hydration, under my temperature and relative humidity conditions, the Rosa Branca flour already started to feel a bit more difficult to handle. It was still workable, but the Caputo clearly developed gluten faster, stopped sticking sooner, and offered more resistance during folding. In all other stages up to baking, both doughs behaved quite similarly.

In the final result, in my opinion, the Caputo loaf looked more visually appealing. It seemed to hold the banneton shape better and had a more pronounced ear. That said, the loaf made with Rosa Branca baked well and did form an ear, albeit a more modest one — which could also be related to my scoring.

The crumb surprised me. I found them very similar, except for color: the bread made with Rosa Branca flour was noticeably more yellow, possibly due to iron and folic acid fortification, which is mandatory in Brazil but not in many other countries.

Flavor-wise, they were also quite close. I did a blind tasting with my boyfriend, and he described the crumb of the Rosa Branca loaf as slightly more “bitter,” though not unpleasant. I suspect this could be related to a mild metallic note from the flour enrichment — but that’s just speculation on my part.

Overall, I’d say that if you really care about the visual appearance of the loaf and the crumb color, opting for imported flour can be a shortcut to more consistent results. I have no doubt that more experienced bakers can achieve excellent outcomes with local flours; I’m speaking more from the perspective of a newbie. In absolute terms, I don’t think the extra cost of more than US$ 4 per kilo is justified for this type of 70% hydration recipe, since the final results are quite similar. In other applications, of course, the differences may be more pronounced.

One important contextual note: in Brazil, it’s often very hard to find technical information about flour, such as W index, P/L ratio, ash content, or even clear details about the milling process. Many flours are sold with little more than protein percentage on the label. I’m posting this partly to highlight that when we see recipes online from Europe or the US and can’t replicate the same results, it’s not always a matter of technique — in some countries, flour quality, milling standards, and available specifications are simply very different.

I want to emphasize that this test wasn’t replicated, so it has no strong scientific validity. It’s just a personal reference, within my own skills (and limitations) and the equipment I have. Still, I thought it might be interesting to share. I’ll attach some photos of the results and plan to test other flours soon.