The best bread flour is ground from Canadian wheat. This bread flour will have an average protein content of 14%, while European flours weigh in far behind with an average of only about 9 %. American bread flour will have a protein content of 12 to 13%.
In the UK, you can purchase Canadian flours at Waitrose; and Sainsbury’s strong white bread flour is said to have a lot of Canadian wheat in it.
 |
Protein | Ash |
| Canadian Bread Flour | 13.6 to 15.6 % (db) | 0.56 to 0.63% (db) |
(db) equals dry basis. Europe uses dry basis measuring, while North America tends to measure at 14% humidity. That being said, North American numbers will often give dry basis equivalents, so where possible those are used on this site in order to be comparing apples with apples, as it were.
Substitutes
Just use all-purpose flour in Canada. Or per cup of American all-purpose flour or British plain flour, try adding 2 teaspoons of gluten flour per cup. (Though if you have to go out anyway to buy the gluten flour, you might just as well buy Bread Flour while you are at it.)