The Dough Dough Flour Guide
Great bread starts long before the oven — it starts with the flour. This is our plain-English guide to the flours we trust, what each one is for, and how to get the best from them.
Why flour quality matters
Flour isn't just a backdrop ingredient — it's most of your loaf. The quality of the wheat, how it's milled, and how fresh it is decide how your dough behaves and how your bread tastes.
Three things separate good flour from forgettable flour:
- Protein quality, not just quantity. Strong, well-developed gluten gives you the structure to trap gas — that's your rise and your open crumb. Cheap flour can list a protein number but still feel weak in the hand.
- Honest milling. Stoneground flours keep more of the germ and bran, which means more flavour and nutrition. Heavily processed, bleached or "improved" white flours strip that character out.
- Freshness and provenance. Flour is a living, enzyme-active ingredient. Fresh, traceable, additive-free flour ferments predictably — which matters enormously for sourdough, where you're relying on wild yeast and time.
Put simply: better flour gives you a stronger rise, deeper flavour, a better crumb, and far more consistent results bake after bake. It's the cheapest upgrade you can make to your baking.
Why we recommend Shipton Mill
When we set out to find flour worthy of our starter, we kept coming back to Shipton Mill — an independent organic mill that has been grinding flour in the Gloucestershire countryside for decades. They mill in small batches, work closely with their growers, and select grain for character rather than the lowest price.
We feed and develop our own sourdough starter on Shipton Mill organic flour — the same quality we recommend you bake with. If you want your loaves to taste like ours, start with the same flour we do.
Shipton Mill select their grains "by their excellence, not the average."— Shipton Mill
A guide to Shipton Mill's main flours
Here are the flours we reach for most, what they're best at, and how to use them. Product numbers (in brackets) match Shipton Mill's own range so they're easy to find.
Organic White Bread Flour — No. 4 (105)
Best for: everyday sourdough, tin loaves, rolls, pizza bases — the dependable all-rounder.
How to use: this is the base flour for most of our recipes. A blend of continental and English organic wheats with reliable strength; happy anywhere from 68–78% hydration.
Finest Bakers White No. 1 (101)
Best for: show-off white loaves, baguettes, and open, airy crumb.
How to use: a blend of the finest UK bread wheats with a clean flavour and dependable lift. Treat it like No. 4 but expect a little more refinement in the crumb.
Canadian Strong White Bread Flour (112)
Best for: enriched doughs (brioche, panettone), bagels, and high-hydration doughs that need backbone.
How to use: naturally high in protein, so it builds serious gluten strength. Use it straight, or cut 20–30% into wholemeal or rye to boost a weaker dough.
Organic 100% Wholemeal (205)
Best for: hearty wholemeal loaves, extra flavour and fibre.
How to use: keeps all the bran and germ, so it drinks more water — add a little extra. For flavour without density, blend 20–30% into a white loaf.
Organic Spelt — White & Wholemeal
Best for: tender, nutty, lightly sweet loaves; many find it easier to digest.
How to use: its gluten is extensible but delicate — mix gently, keep bulk fermentation a touch shorter, and don't over-hydrate or the dough goes slack.
Organic Dark Rye — Type 1350 (603)
Best for: deep, tangy sourdough flavour and excellent keeping quality.
How to use: low in gluten and very thirsty, so the dough is sticky and dense. Start by adding 10–30% to a wheat loaf for colour, flavour and a stronger ferment.
Italian Type '00'
Best for: Neapolitan-style pizza and silky fresh pasta.
How to use: finely milled and soft. For pizza, give it a long, slow, cold ferment; blend with a strong white if you want extra chew.
French Type 55 White Flour
Best for: baguettes, croissants, pains au chocolat and laminated pastry.
How to use: a classic French medium-strength white that stays tender and crisp — the go-to when you want a French crumb rather than a chewy one.
Light Malthouse / 3 Malts & Sunflower
Best for: nutty, malty, granary-style loaves with bite.
How to use: packed with malted flakes and seeds. Use as your main flour for a rustic loaf, or blend in for texture and a toasty, sweet-savoury flavour.
Organic Plain & Self-Raising
Best for: cakes, biscuits, pastry, batters and everyday baking.
How to use: softer, lower-protein wheat for tender results. Reach for these when you want crumbly and light — not chewy and structured.
Quick reference: which flour for what
| Flour | Type / strength | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Organic White No. 4 (105) | Strong white | Everyday sourdough & loaves |
| Finest Bakers White No. 1 (101) | Premium strong white | Open-crumb white loaves, baguettes |
| Canadian Strong White (112) | Extra-strong white | Enriched dough, bagels, strengthening blends |
| Organic Wholemeal (205) | 100% wholegrain | Wholemeal bread, flavour & fibre |
| Organic Spelt | Ancient wheat | Tender, nutty loaves; easier digestion |
| Dark Rye Type 1350 (603) | Low-gluten rye | Tangy rye & sourdough depth |
| Italian Type '00' | Soft, fine | Pizza & fresh pasta |
| French Type 55 | Medium white | Croissants, pastry, baguettes |
| Light Malthouse | Malted & seeded | Granary-style rustic loaves |
| Plain / Self-Raising | Soft, low-protein | Cakes, biscuits, pastry |
How flour quality shapes your sourdough
Sourdough is the ultimate test of flour. Because you're fermenting slowly with wild yeast and bacteria rather than fast commercial yeast, every quality in the flour gets amplified — good and bad.
Strong, fresh, additive-free flour gives your starter steady food, a predictable rise, and the gluten strength to hold a tall, open loaf. Weak or stale flour ferments unevenly, slackens, and gives you flat, gummy results no technique can fully rescue.
That's exactly why we develop our accelerated sourdough starter on Shipton Mill organic flour — so the culture you receive is already thriving on the kind of flour we want you baking with.
Bake real sourdough — today
Pair great flour with our shelf-stable starter that activates in 2 hours, and bake your first loaf the same day.
Shop the Starter →We recommend Shipton Mill because we genuinely use and rate their flour. Product names and numbers belong to Shipton Mill and may change — check their site for current availability. Dough Dough is not affiliated with or endorsed by Shipton Mill.
