Converting an American recipe to French flour takes three adjustments, in this order: match the French grade to the job rather than to the name, reset the water to the French mill's hydration instead of carrying over the American one, and mix less while folding more. The reason is in the numbers. The Grands Moulins de Paris T65 and T55 we stock run 10.3 g of protein per 100 g against 11.7 percent for an American all-purpose flour and 12.7 percent for bread flour, so a French dough binds less water and builds strength through time and folds rather than through the mixer. The exception is the refined T45 Gruau Rouge, which at 12.1 g protein with added gluten is the French answer to bread flour for enriched doughs. This guide gives the equivalence table, the three rules and two worked conversions, a baguette and a brioche.
Every French flour named here is in our Grands Moulins de Paris collection, and every American flour in the table is on the same shelf, all stocked in Brockton, MA and shipping nationwide, with next-day UPS Ground in Massachusetts.
Shop this guide: T65 Tradition replaces bread flour in lean doughs, Gruau Rouge T45 replaces it in enriched doughs, La Finoise T55 takes the place of all-purpose in brioche and pastry, and Sir Lancelot or All Trumps stays on hand for the doughs that need 14 percent protein.
American flour is graded by protein and sold by use: pastry, all-purpose, bread, high-gluten. French flour is graded by ash, the mineral residue left when a sample is burned, and the T number says nothing about strength. A T45 is simply the whitest grade; it can be a soft pastry flour or, in the case of Gruau Rouge, a 12.1 g protein flour with added wheat gluten made for croissants and brioche. That is the single most common conversion mistake: reading T45 as cake flour and T65 as bread flour. Our guide to the French flour types covers the grading in full. The table below matches the American flours we stock to the French grade that does the same job, using the published protein and ash figures for each.
| American flour | Protein | Ash | French replacement | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| King Arthur Round Table pastry flour | 7.8% | 0.45% | None; stay on pastry flour | No Grands Moulins de Paris flour in our range is this weak. Pie and tart doughs should not move. |
| King Arthur Sir Galahad, all-purpose | 11.7% | 0.50% | La Finoise T55 for brioche and pastry; T65 for bread | Same refinement, slightly less protein; soft doughs, so hold back a little water. |
| King Arthur Special, bread flour | 12.7% | 0.50% | T65 for lean bread; Gruau Rouge T45 for enriched dough | T65 gives the open crumb and thin crust the American flour is too strong for; Gruau Rouge matches it in enriched doughs. |
| Gold Medal Full Strength | 12.6% | not published | Same as bread flour above | Same adjustment. |
| All Trumps and Sir Lancelot, high-gluten | 14.2% and 14% | not published; 0.52% | None; blend Gruau Rouge with high-gluten for panettone-class doughs | No white French flour reaches this protein. Bagels stay on high-gluten. |
Protein binds water. A 12.7 percent bread flour carrying 75 percent water gives a dough that is workable; a 10.3 percent T65 carrying 75 percent water gives a dough that spreads on the bench and bakes flat. The safe conversion is to ignore the American recipe's water and start from the French mill's own figure, then add water back as a bassinage in the last minutes of mixing only if the dough is stiff. Grands Moulins de Paris publishes those figures on its technical sheets: 65 percent water plus a 4 to 5 percent bassinage for its T65, and 70 percent plus or minus 2 percent for its stone-ground T80. For enriched doughs the water is mostly in the eggs and butter, and the mill states that Gruau Rouge takes high hydration with wide tolerance, so a brioche or croissant recipe usually moves across without a change.
If you have no mill figure to start from, hold back 3 to 5 percent of the American recipe's water on the first batch and add it in bassinage. Write down what the dough took. That number, not the American one, is the recipe from then on.
American bread recipes written for 12.7 percent flour often call for six to eight minutes on second speed, because the flour can take it and the crumb stays fine. French mills specify the opposite: the Grands Moulins de Paris sheet for its T65 calls for 12 minutes on first speed only, and for its T80 10 minutes on first speed and 2 on second. A T65 dough mixed hard oxidizes, whitens, loses flavor and, having less gluten to begin with, does not gain the strength the extra mixing was meant to add. Cut the mix, and build strength with folds during bulk fermentation instead: two folds over two hours is the mill's schedule, and a cold block of 12 to 24 hours at 4°C does the rest.
Additives explain part of the difference. Many American bakery flours are malted and some, such as the bromated All Trumps, are oxidized, so they gain strength quickly in the mixer. The mill's Tradition T65 lists wheat flour, wheat gluten and malted wheat flour with no oxidizer, so strength comes from time; its everyday pain courant grades add ascorbic acid and enzymes and behave more like an American malted flour. Read the bag, and if the ingredient line has no ascorbic acid, plan on the folds.
Take a typical American artisan baguette: 1,000 g bread flour at 12.7 percent protein, 750 g water, 20 g salt, 3 g instant yeast, mixed on second speed and bulk fermented three hours. On T65 Tradition the conversion is: 1,000 g flour, 650 g water with 40 to 50 g bassinage, 18 g salt, 2.5 g instant yeast or 7 g fresh, 12 minutes on first speed to a dough at 24 to 25°C, then two hours with two folds or a 60-minute bulk and an overnight cold block. Divide at 350 g, proof 30 to 45 minutes and bake at 250°C for 20 to 23 minutes. That is the mill's formula, and our baguette de tradition article gives it scaled to a 10 kg mix with the shaping and scoring notes. What changes in the loaf: a cream rather than white crumb, larger and more irregular holes, a thinner, crisper crust and a fuller wheat flavor. What you give up: the chew.
Take an American brioche on bread flour: 1,000 g flour, 500 g egg, 100 g milk, 100 g sugar, 20 g salt, 15 g instant yeast, 500 g butter. The nearest French flour is Gruau Rouge T45, because the mill built it for exactly this dough: 12.1 g protein, added gluten, high hydration tolerance and freezer stability. The recipe moves across at the same weights. Mix to full development before the butter, add cold butter last, and retard overnight before shaping; the dough will feel slightly softer than on the American flour and rise a little higher. Our brioche formula on La Finoise T55 runs the all-purpose flour at the same percentages, and the croissant formula shows the same Gruau Rouge in a laminated dough with 82 percent butter sheets. Only the strongest enriched doughs fall outside this rule: a panettone wants around 14 percent protein, which no French white flour reaches, so our panettone guide blends Gruau Rouge with a high-gluten American flour.
Most American recipes are written in cups; every French mill sheet is in grams per 1,000 g of flour. Convert the American recipe to weight first, using 120 g per cup of all-purpose flour, which is the figure on King Arthur's own ingredient weight chart, then express everything as a percentage of the flour. Only then swap the flour. Swapping by volume fails twice over: a cup of one flour does not weigh what a cup of another does, and the hydration adjustment above cannot be made in cups.
| Bake | On American flour | On the French grade | Adjustment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baguette, batard, country loaf | White crumb, chewy, thick crust | Cream crumb, open and tender, thin crisp crust | Water to the mill's number, first speed only, folds, cold block |
| Sandwich loaf | Fine, springy, tall | Slightly softer and shorter on T55 or T65 | Hold back 3 to 5 percent water; expect a shorter proof |
| Brioche, buns | Tall, fine crumb on bread flour | Equal or taller on Gruau Rouge T45 | None beyond mixing order and the cold retard |
| Croissant, Danish | Good layers on bread flour or a strong AP | Cleaner layers, more extensible détrempe on Gruau Rouge | None; keep butter at 82 percent fat |
| Bagels, panettone | Chew and height from 14 percent flour | No French white flour matches | Keep high-gluten flour on hand; blend for panettone |
| Pie, tart, shortbread | Tender on pastry flour | Tougher on any French flour we stock | Do not convert |
Everything below ships nationwide from our Brockton, MA warehouse, with next-day UPS Ground in Massachusetts.
| Product | Keep it for |
|---|---|
| French Bread Flour T65 Traditional, 25 kg | Every lean hearth bread that used to be on bread flour |
| Gruau Rouge Wheat Flour T45, 25 kg | Every enriched and laminated dough that used to be on bread flour or all-purpose |
| La Finoise T55, 25 kg | The all-purpose bag: brioche, buns, pastry doughs with inclusions, everyday white bread |
| Millstone T80, 25 kg | Country loaves, and 20 to 30 percent blends into T65 |
| Sir Lancelot or All Trumps, 50 lb | Bagels, and blends for panettone and the strongest doughs |
| King Arthur Round Table pastry, 50 lb | Pie and tart doughs, which stay on American flour |
A bakery that keeps T65 and Gruau Rouge on the French shelf and a high-gluten and a pastry flour on the American shelf can convert almost any formula in its book with the three rules above, and the two French bags cover the work the mill designed them for.
By weight, yes, with a small hydration adjustment. The French T55 and T65 we carry run 10.3 g protein per 100 g against 11.7 percent for King Arthur Sir Galahad, so the dough binds a little less water. Hold back 3 to 5 percent of the recipe's water and add it back at the end of the mix only if the dough is stiff.
For lean breads, T65: a 12.7 percent American bread flour makes a chewier, tighter baguette than the 10.3 percent French T65 it was designed for. For enriched doughs such as brioche and croissants, Gruau Rouge T45 at 12.1 g protein with added gluten is the closer match to bread flour.
No white French flour in our range reaches 14 percent protein. For bagels, keep an American high-gluten flour such as All Trumps or Sir Lancelot. For panettone and the strongest enriched doughs, blend Gruau Rouge T45 with a high-gluten flour, as described in our panettone flour guide, which pairs the two.
Less protein binds less water, and French flours are milled for extensibility rather than elasticity. Reset the water to the mill's number rather than your American one, and add strength with folds during bulk fermentation instead of extra mixing.
No. Keep the same percentage of yeast on flour weight. What changes is the mixing and the strength development; a T65 dough is usually ready to divide sooner than a bread-flour dough at the same yeast level because there is less gluten to relax.
Weigh, and convert the original recipe first. King Arthur's ingredient weight chart uses 120 g per cup of all-purpose flour; convert every cup in the American recipe at that rate, then work in baker's percentages so the French flour goes in at the same weight, not the same volume.
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