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Many pizza recipes call for ‘good quality’ flour – but what does this mean? There is a lot of material online for finding the best pizza flour in the USA or Italy but very little in the UK.
In this article, I will explain the differences in types of flour, and then compare the best pizza flour available in UK supermarkets and online.
The best pizza flours have a protein content of 12-14%. Italian “00” flour is best for high-heat, Neapolitan pizzas, while “strong bread flour” is best for home oven styles. Try brands such as Allinson, independent mills such as Shipton Mill, or quality supermarkets.
Below is a list of the types of flours and the brands available, with my own recommendations.
About Flour, Protein, And Gluten
When flour hits the water, two wheat proteins glutenin and gliadin react to form gluten. Gluten forms this network of strands which you’ve probably noticed in a dough ball that’s been allowed to prove.
It is super stretchy and gives your pizza crust its structure and texture when it’s baked as it rises up when the carbon dioxide is released.
So the flour choice here directly influences that gluten network, as more protein means more gluten.
Higher protein content will make your gluten network stronger and more elastic – this will make your dough harder to stretch out, often springing back if not rested long enough. The crust will be chewier rather than light and easy to tear apart.
Then the time – how long you leave the dough to proof. Gluten gets degraded over time, so the network becomes less elastic. But also the longer dough is left, the better the flavour develops from the fermentation.
So if you are thinking of leaving your dough to cold proof in the fridge, you will have to start with a higher protein content flour to ensure there is still gluten strength at the end. As a rough gauge, 12% for 24 hours, 13% for 36, or 14% for 48+.
If you try and work with 14% flour and only leave it to rest for a few hours, it’s going to spring back on you quite hard and might be difficult to shape.
My pizza dough recipe has some instructions on longer fermentation to make super tasty dough.
How To Find The Protein Content In Flour
The protein content is specified as a percentage of the entire flour. You can see how much protein a certain bag of flour has by looking at the label’s nutritional values.
If you cast your eye to the ‘Nutritional values per 100g’ then the protein value shown is the percentage for that bag. It’s a legal requirement to express nutritional values per 100g in the UK so you will find this on every product.
14g protein of 100g is a 14% protein flour
Types Of Flour For Pizza
Plain Flour
Plain flour has a lower protein content – around 9-10% which is slightly too little than is best for pizza making.
A lot of home cooks will probably have this in the cupboard and may be wondering if it’s OK to use for a recipe they’ve found. It will work OK, but if you want a better pizza then you should pick up some flour with higher protein content like bread flour.
Plain flour is an all-round flour that can be used for bread, pastries, and cakes, but doesn’t do any of them particularly well.
Self-raising flour is basically plain flour with a raising agent such as sodium bicarbonate. It’s used for sponges and pancakes and isn’t designed for pizza and bread as yeast is used for raising.
Strong White Bread Flour
You can find this in any supermarket thanks to popularity in baking, and this will do the best for cooking pizza in a home oven.
This flour comes with a protein content of around 12-14% so will be suited for a home oven pizza, thin crust, or New York style. High-gluten flour gives a texture a bit more like bread – like sourdough or ciabatta with its holes.
As it has more gluten development, it will be very elastic. You may find it hard to stretch or roll out. The key is to bring it to room temperature and give it a decent rest before stretching.
Different flours absorb different amounts of water, with higher protein being able to take on more. Being consistent with your flours is a good way to get good results each time.
’00’ Bread Flour
Italian flours are graded on how finely they are milled – the ’00’ refers to the lowest grade and finest milling.
It is also made from the softest wheat, so produces a delicate dough. Usually, this flour has a medium-high protein content of around 12.5%.
It’s developed for high temperatures in a wood fired oven, which means a home oven doesn’t get the most benefit. It’s more expensive and harder to work with, so if you aren’t cooking in a wood fired oven, then use other bread flour.
The two biggest ’00’ Italian brands are Caputo and San Felice which you usually won’t find in your local supermarket. You can buy it from a quality food shop or deli selling Italian produce, or online. It’s a high-quality, specialist flour that is likely imported so you will pay a bit more.
There are non-Italian brands that do imitations, but watch out for ’00’ pasta flour which will have a lower protein content designed for pasta.
Pasta flour isn’t very good for pizza. 00 flour is often made for pasta or pizza in mind. The protein content will be your guide – about 12% is usually for pizza – pasta flour will be much softer and weaker (no one wants chewy pasta!).
Use The Right Flour For The Right Pizza
The two most popular pizza varieties are the Neapolitan which is cooked in a wood fired oven and the thin crust or New York style, which is more suited for a conventional oven.
Neapolitan pizza is cooked blisteringly hot in a wood fired oven which puffs up quickly, leaving a slightly charred, crisp outer layer and a delicately soft interior. The specialist Italian 00 flour has been developed to work well in the hot oven for this pizza style.
The flour is milled of the finest grade for softness and has the ideal amount of protein. It’s usually eaten with a knife and fork as the slices don’t hold up.
Thin crust or New York pizza is cooked for a longer period in a cooler oven and has different characteristics – a chewier, stronger crust that allows the pizza to be picked up ‘by the slice’.
It is the style that is more commonly cooked at home, as home ovens cannot reach the same temperatures as a pizza oven. Therefore, flour labeled as ‘strong bread flour’ with slightly higher protein content works well – 12-14% depending on how long you proof for.
For an all-round pizza dough, check out my dough recipe which can be used for different styles in the home oven. It works well with all the flours in this article.
Best Supermarket Brands
These brands you can find in your local supermarket – the smaller shops tend to only sell their own brand flours so you will need to find a larger supermarket for better ranges.
Allinson Strong White Bread Flour
Protein Content: 13%
This is probably the most common non-supermarket label bread flour brand you see in the shops. This flour has a protein content of 13% so comes in stronger than the standard supermarket strong bread flour which can be 11-12%.
It’s a good choice if you are starting to ferment your dough overnight or longer. It makes great thin-crust pizzas in your home oven.
Allinson Very Strong White Bread Flour
Protein Content: 14%
This flour packs more protein, and therefore more gluten development so will produce a stronger, elastic dough. This flour makes great thin-crust New York style pizzas that are crisp on the bottom, with a satisfyingly chewy crust.
It will hold up to longer resting times than its lesser protein counterpart, so you can develop flavour for longer and still retain a chewy crust. Go for this if you are fermenting your dough for days, as the extra protein will stand up to the longer rest.
Marks And Spencer Bread Flour
Protein Content: 12.1%
I find Marks and Spencer’s produce to be great. Heston Blumenthal ranks their canned plum tomatoes in the same league as Italian San Marzano in his book ‘In Search Of Perfection’.
Their strong white bread flour has a moderate 12.1% protein so starts to get weak and tear when stretched after being given over 24 hours to rest. It does produce great pizzas though, and I recommend it.
Waitrose has a Waitrose Duchy Organic strong white bread flour at 13.4% and a Canadian very strong at 14.9% – both great products but perhaps the Canadian flour is slightly too high in protein necessary for making pizza.
Other Supermarket Brands
Other mainstream supermarkets tend to sell strong bread flour which isn’t that strong, such as Tesco’s at 11.7%. While these will do OK, they are not the best for longer rests.
As they are mass-produced they can also vary in terms of consistent results so I try to source out better flours.
McDougalls ’00’ Extra Fine
Protein Content: 10.2%
Another household name of the baking world in the UK. This is McDougalls take on fine Italian-style flour which you can find at your supermarket.
It has 10.2% protein which is a bit low for pizza flour – this flour is more suited for making pasta. It will get very soft if you ferment it overnight, so must be used quickly if you are to use it.
It’s hard to get ’00’ pizza/bread flour in supermarkets, so you are best off getting Italian ’00’ flour at a specialist shop or online.
Best Independent and Online Brands
Independent brands can be bought locally, but most easily online. This list shows independent UK flour mills. The following brands are well known for their superior quality.
Shipton Mill
Shipton Mill is known for its creamy-coloured, flavoursome flours from Gloucestershire. Baking forums all over the internet will recommend these. The Guardian has an article on the history and praise of its mill.
Their website has a range of specialist flours that will work for different purposes, and you can buy them on Amazon to avoid the delivery charges if buying small amounts.
Untreated Organic White Flour – No.4
Protein Content: 12%
One of Shipton Mill’s most popular flours, this flour is a blend of organic Canadian and English wheat.
Canadian wheat is known for its very high protein content, so the addition of English wheat mellows it and adds to the flavour. Guaranteed to give you consistent results time after time.
As it is untreated and organic, it doesn’t have any malted barley added which provides sugars for browning and fermentation – so your recipe will be better with some included.
Italian Style 00 White Flour
Protein Content: 12%
Shipton Mill has an Italian style 00 flour which is great for a Neapolitan pizza. Made from the softest, whitest grade.
Shipton Mill says on their website – ‘As only a very small fraction of the whole wheat berry can be used to make this pure flour, it is treated with great respect and is very precious’.
Marriage’s Organic Strong White Bread Flour
Protein Content: 13.4%
A popular independent brand that is readily available online. Marriage’s do a ‘Strong White Bread’ at 13.4% and then a ‘Very Strong White Bread’ at 14.9% which are both great.
It produces fantastic thin-crust, New York style pizzas on my pizza stone and is consistent. Marriages website says – ‘We carefully select organic wheats renowned for their bread making qualities to create this strong white flour’.
Other Independent Brands
Other reputable UK flour brands that can be found online and in local shops are Doves Farm and Matthews.
Caputo Tipo ’00’ Pizzeria Flour
Protein Content: 12.5%
This is the classic Italian flour created by Antimo Caputo to make the perfect crust in a wood fired oven. It is probably the best pizza flour to create a Neapolitan pizza and can be bought in your local Italian deli or online.
It’s better at high temperatures, so you won’t get the best benefits from the high price tag in a home oven. It’s also very soft from the blend of soft wheat so the crust interior has a heavenly texture, but can be difficult to work with.
Highly recommended if you have a wood fired oven, but if not, then stick to British flour.
Conclusion
When you start out making pizza you are wondering if that plain flour in your cupboard will do the job. Once you start getting more advanced, you will be sourcing the best flours you can get your hands on.
Flour is very cheap – the difference between basic flour and artisan, organic, stone ground flour is fairly minimal. So it makes sense to get the best flour you can seeing as it is the largest ingredient in your pizza recipe.
Consistency is also important so that you can reach for your go-to and it will deliver every time.
This article rounds up the best flour available in the UK, with a list of independent millers which I suggest you check out. Experiment with a few flours and then pick one you like, and buy a big bag to last you a while.
Tom,
Thank you so much for this article it’s wonderfully instructive, I had a disaster with Tipo 00 from Sainsbury’s, even though it’s 13.2 % it lacked structure and would tear on shaping after I proofed for 24 hrs, however I hadn’t initially kneaded the dough and tried to rescue it with a strong bread flour dough addition about 12 hrs in. But I won’t be attempting a Neopolitan in my home oven again! Perhaps you could do a post on hydration percentages for different flours and proofing time’s?
Hi Guido, thanks for the comment and glad you liked the article. You are right about the 00 flour, it can be very soft and liable to tearing – and you don’t really notice that softness in the crust when it’s not cooked in 90 seconds. A home oven dries it out a bit too much.
I did this article on hydration which you might like – https://www.crustkingdom.com/pizza-dough-hydration/. I find the no knead recipes never work out too well for me, I prefer to build up a bit of gluten with my hands first, and pizza dough only takes a few minutes to knead!
I’ll add the hydration percentages, flours and proofing times to my list of articles to write, thanks 😉
Thank you for your article Tom. I don’t have a wood fired oven but my electric oven has a pizza setting going up to 275C. Which flour is best for me?
Hey Raija. That’s a good temperature for a home oven. All the flour in the article should work well – I would recommend the Shipton Mills or Caputo if you can get hold of it. The Italian style 00 flour is soft and delicate and works well in hotter ovens with a reasonable hydration. Shorter cooking times keep the crust nice and moist on the inside but crisp on the outside.
Helllo Tom,
Thanks for putting together a very informative article, my question is, I’ve just started making Roman style pan pizza with a 72% hydration and a 24hr fridge prove, my dough is very fragile and difficult to handle and I was wondering if a specific protein level would improve results?
Hey Phil,
Thanks for your kind words.
Higher protein (13%+) will make the dough more elastic after kneading and then this lasts longer over time because the gluten degrades slower. Also fine flour like Italian 00 pizza flour is softer which makes softer dough. How about trying a regular bread flour?
The high hydration will make it difficult to handle. More water means you don’t need as much kneading because the gluten forms on its own. My advice would be to mix ingredients and let it sit for 20 minutes which lets the flour absorb the water. Then knead it for just 2 minutes. Then pan pizza doesn’t need any shaping- it’s wet because it’s final proof is in the pan.
Hope that helps.
Tom
Thank you for a very knowledgeable and informative article. I have tried many different types of flours and used a domestic oven until 5 years ago when I bought a twin deck electric pizza oven.
However the ‘Caputo’ type flours will be my first choice if I ever get a wood fired oven as well, but in domestic and electric pizza ovens I find WESSEX MILL PIZZA FLOUR works well or a 00 pizza flour mixed half and half with strong bread flour.
Best wishes ???
Jeremy
Cheers Jeremy. I will see if I can get some of that flour.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Great informative article, and very good rundown on the various flours.
Have you seen the Waitrose super fine 00 flour for pasta? Although it’s apparently targeted at pasta making the protein is 14.1%, so should in theory be good for slow ferment followed by wood oven. Reasonably priced too compared to the imported 00. I have a batch rising at the moment, so can report back how it turns out!
Hi Alex,
I haven’t used that flour yet – let me know how it goes!
Tom
Hi Tom,
(This may end up double posting as I can’t remember if I already responded)
The flour was a good success, giving a silky smooth dough, that still stretched out very easily, despite the high protein content. The flour is very fine, so definitely a 00. My pizza oven was unfortunately having issues, so I went for the frying pan method which gave a great result. I did a 65% hydration, 3% salt and 0.3% yeast, first rise at room temperature for around ~5 hours, then bulk cold ferment 24 hours in the fridge, followed by balling and proofing at room temperature for 5 hours. It’s maybe not in the same league as the Italian 00, but at £1.15/kg it’s in definitely an affordable route for Neapolitan style pizza at home.
Do you know anything about Heygates Pizza Flour (https://shop.heygates.co.uk/products/pizza-flour-16kg)?
There doesn’t seem to be much information available on it.
Hi Adrian, I haven’t heard of this one before. Let me know if it is any good!
This is definitely among the better summaries that I’ve found, however I think the fixation on protein content and generalizations about some types of flour (like ’00’) may hinder selecting what’s best for a given pizza style.
Most of my pizza-making is with home ovens that max out at about 250 C. My preferred pizza styles are New York-style and its cousin New Haven-style. However, I’ve tried numerous other styles and experimented with a wide variety of flours both in the UK and in Italy. (I recommend that readers review the recipes on pizzamaking.com – in particular the Garvey thin-crust recipe – and enjoy both excellent recipes along with the ‘why’ behind them.)
As for the protein part of my comment, I suggest that readers learn more about the ‘W’ value for flour and its relationship to gluten development. Another key characteristic is a flour’s ability to absorb water; it makes a significant difference when considering hydration levels in dough recipes.
For a great overview of the ‘W’ value and other characteristics, I recommend searching YouTube for videos from Leo Spizzirri.
For whatever it’s worth, my preferred flour available in UK supermarkets is Allinson’s Very Strong White Flour (which claims to use Canadian wheat). However, I gave up on UK-milled flours and order Polselli Manitoba Tipo ‘0’. If one would rather use Amazon, then Caputo Manitoba Oro Tipo ‘0’ is a solid choice for nearly every pizza style baked in a home oven.
Hi, which flour do you recommend for a gas fired pizza oven please?
Thanks
Jem
If its very hot then I recommend the Italian 00 brands – try Caputo from your Italian Deli.
Hi tom
Thanks for your very helpful reviews on the flours , I am having trouble with my dough tearing I am using mcdougalls oo flour and Ive also tried farina del mio Sacco oo flour and proving for around 3hrs I cook in a wood fired oven so get the high temps is there a different flour you would suggest
Thank you
Craig
Try a higher protein bread flour or Caputo pizza flour if you can find it!