What to use instead of bread flour
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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High-protein flour that builds gluten for a chewy loaf
At 12-14% protein it forms a stronger gluten net, which holds the gas the yeast makes and gives you the chew and the open crumb.
All-purpose flour + vital wheat glutenRan out
Per cup of AP flour, take out 1 1/2 tsp and put back 1 1/2 tsp vital wheat gluten
Back to bread-flour strength. The crumb is a touch tighter and the dough feels slightly rubbery when you knead it.
All-purpose flour on its ownRan out
1:1 by weight, with 2-3 tbsp less water per 500 g flour
Softer crumb and much less chew. The dough slackens sooner, so watch the proof or the loaf spreads flat.
Type 00 pizza flourRan out
1:1 by weight
Finer and more extensible, less springy. Excellent for pizza, slack and floppy for a sandwich loaf.
Half bread flour, half whole wheatRan out
1:1 for the total weight, plus 2 tbsp extra water per 500 g
Denser and nuttier. The bran cuts through gluten strands, so the loaf rises noticeably lower.
What doesn't work: Self-raising flour. It is soft low-protein flour with baking powder already in it, so a yeast dough gets chemical lift it does not need, collapses in the oven, and tastes of soda.
Structure in an enriched dough
Butter and egg coat the flour and physically get in the way of gluten forming, so brioche and challah start with more protein to survive the enrichment.
All-purpose flour + vital wheat glutenRan out
Per cup of AP flour, take out 1 1/2 tsp and put back 1 1/2 tsp vital wheat gluten
Matches the strength. The crumb is slightly less silky and tears a bit more.
All-purpose flour, mixed longerRan out
1:1 by weight, plus 3-4 extra minutes of mixing before the butter goes in
Shorter, more cake-like crumb that tears rather than pulls apart in strands. Still a good loaf.
What doesn't work: Cake flour for a brioche. At around 8% protein there is nothing to build a net with, so the dough never comes together around the butter and it bakes into a greasy collapsed brick.
Nothing gluten-free does bread flour's actual job. A blend with psyllium husk and extra water makes a decent loaf, but treat it as its own bread rather than a substitution.