People often comment that I don’t ‘look like a baker.’ This is awkward, as are all comments about bodies, but I get it surprisingly regularly. For one thing, bakers come in various bodies because people come in various bodies. I look the way I look because of a complex constellation of social, environmental and genetic factors. As do we all. But what people are really saying is this: you must eat bread, and you look okay. Is bread okay for me to eat?

The first time that I got to bake with Kernza, I could immediately tell that it was different from the other wheats that I was used to baking bread with. At the time, I was a bread baker at Bar Tartine, a restaurant in San Francisco. The signature bread there was a large, crusty loaf with a light, open, craggy, custardy crumb. Known as “country bread”, these loaves need a particular type of high-gluten wheat to create their distinctive, lacy interiors.

We’ve all been there. You’re craving fresh bread. You’ve got the water, yeast, and salt your recipe calls for. You open your pantry for bread flour …

Only to realize your bag has just a sad scoop at the bottom. But there’s a full bag of all-purpose flour right there — will it make a difference if you use all-purpose in a recipe that calls for bread flour?

The answer is yes. Here’s why.