Best Flour for Focaccia: Caputo Aria, 00, Bread Flour
Caputo 00, Caputo Aria, Caputo Cuoco, bread flour and all-purpose, compared on what Caputo and the sellers actually publish.
Short answer: for a tender, airy, wide-open focaccia, use Caputo 00. Want it chewier and more rugged? Bread flour. Caputo Aria is the newer, more specialized option. It's a real choice, but not the one to start with.
We bake focaccia with both of the first two, so the full recipes are written. This page is the "which flour should I buy" part. If you've already decided, skip straight to the Caputo 00 focaccia recipe.
The five flours, side by side
Each one below uses the numbers the millers and sellers publish. Protein and strength (W) are lab figures from the bag or the product page. They tell you how much structure a flour can hold, not how it will taste.
Caputo 00 Pizzeria (the blue bag). 12.5% protein and W 260 to 280, per Caputo. Caputo pitches it at classic Neapolitan pizza. This is the lowest-strength flour in the lineup, which is why it makes such a delicate crumb.
Caputo Cuoco (the "Chef's Flour", 00). 13% protein and W 300 to 320, listed on Caputo's US site as "a soft yet strong flour with elastic gluten, ideal for long-leavened doughs." More strength than the blue bag, so it copes better with a very long ferment.
Caputo Aria (type 0). 13% protein and W 300 to 320, with a P/L of 0.50 to 0.60, per Caputo's own product page. It's the newest flour in the Caputo range, and it's built on wheat made with sourdough. Caputo calls it ideal for pan pizza and pinsa, with the peel-baked pizza alla pala as a third use. It says it makes "highly hydrated doughs" that stay light and crunchy and are easy to handle. More on this below.
Bread flour. The usual American choice for chewy bread. King Arthur lists its bread flour at 12.7% protein, so it sits right next to Cuoco and Aria on protein. It takes up more water than all-purpose and gives focaccia a chewy, springy bite. Our bread flour focaccia with poolish runs at 85% hydration.
All-purpose flour. King Arthur lists its all-purpose at 11.7% protein. Brands differ, so check your bag. It absorbs less water than bread flour, so a dough written for 85% will feel too slack.
So what is Caputo Aria, exactly?
Aria is a type 0 soft wheat flour from Antimo Caputo, the Naples mill. It launched at the TuttoFood trade show in May 2023, developed with pizzaiolo Davide Civitiello, according to Italian food press covering the launch.
The part that sets it apart is the sourdough. Retailers describe it as type 0 flour blended with dried pasta madre, an inactive mother sourdough. Caputo's own page words it a little differently, as flour "produced always and only from wheat made with sourdough." Sources don't fully agree on how to describe the sourdough part, and we couldn't find Caputo publishing the percentage.
The practical point is the same everywhere: the dried sourdough is inactive. Per Caputo it's there for fragrance and crispness. It doesn't leaven anything. You still add yeast. Caputo's own Aria recipe uses 5 g of dry yeast per kilogram of flour.
What Caputo says to do with it
Caputo's recipe for Roman focaccia and pinsa on Aria is the only producer guidance we found. The numbers per 1 kg of flour are:
- 800 ml of water, so 80% hydration
- 5 g dry yeast (0.5%)
- 25 g salt (2.5%)
- 30 ml seed oil
- 24 to 48 hours in the fridge after the dough doubles at room temperature
So the producer's own number is 80%. That's lower than our 83% Caputo 00 poolish focaccia and our 85% bread flour one. It's also a Roman focaccia and pinsa recipe worked by hand, not a deep 9x13 pan focaccia, so don't read it as a ceiling. We haven't found Caputo publishing a water absorption percentage for Aria, and neither of the retailer pages we read lists one.
Aria versus the others, on paper
Aria and Cuoco match on paper: same 13% protein, same W 300 to 320. So the strength isn't the difference. What differs is the label (type 0 against 00) and the sourdough in Aria. Next to the blue-bag 00 at W 260 to 280, Aria is the stronger flour, so you'd expect a bit more chew and a bit more tolerance for water and time.
That's a read of the published numbers, not a bake test. We haven't published a focaccia on Aria. If you try it in the Caputo 00 focaccia formula, our suggestion (not Caputo's) is to start near Caputo's 80% and move up a few points only once the dough handles it.
Which flour should you pick?
Pick by the crumb you want.
- Lightest, most delicate crumb, glassy holes: Caputo 00. Start with the Caputo 00 focaccia recipe, our airy poolish version. Go wetter with the bassinage focaccia once you've made it once.
- Chewy, rugged, pull-apart: bread flour. The poolish bread flour focaccia is the recipe.
- A long ferment (36 hours or more): the higher-strength flours (Cuoco, Aria, bread flour) are the safer bet. The 12.5% blue-bag 00 is the gentlest, so it asks for more care.
- Crisp, light focaccia in the Roman style, if you like specialty flours: Aria is aimed right at that. Look for it at specialty sellers; the listings we found were 1 kg and bulk bags.
- Whatever's in the cupboard: all-purpose. Drop the water by about 10 percent from a bread flour recipe and expect a softer, less chewy result.
If you're also making pizza from the same bag, the Caputo 00 pizza dough and the overnight pizza dough show how the same flours behave at lower hydration.
FAQ
What is the best flour for focaccia?
For an airy, tender focaccia, Caputo 00. For a chewy one, bread flour. Each has a full recipe: Caputo 00 focaccia with poolish, or the bread flour focaccia with poolish.
Can I use Caputo Aria for focaccia?
Yes. Caputo's own Aria recipe is for Roman focaccia and pinsa, and retailers list focaccia among its uses. Aria is not the flour our recipes are written for, so treat the water as something to adjust.
Is Caputo Aria the same as Caputo 00?
No. Aria is a type 0 flour with dried sourdough in it, at 13% protein and W 300 to 320. The blue-bag Pizzeria 00 is 12.5% protein and W 260 to 280, and Caputo lists no sourdough for it.
Do I need yeast with Caputo Aria?
Yes. The sourdough in Aria is dried and inactive, so it flavors the dough but doesn't raise it. Caputo's recipe adds dry yeast.
Is 00 flour better than bread flour for focaccia?
Different, not better. 00 gives a lighter, more tender crumb, while bread flour gives more chew. Our Caputo 00 focaccia is the lighter one, and the bread flour one is the sturdier one.
How much water should I use with Caputo Aria?
Caputo's Aria recipe uses 800 ml per kilogram of flour, which is 80%. We couldn't find an absorption figure from Caputo. Start there and adjust.
Can I use all-purpose flour for focaccia?
Yes. It absorbs less water than bread flour, so use less water than a bread flour recipe calls for.