Maidaura — Maida, the finely milled refined wheat flour | maidaura.com
A side-by-side table of maida, atta, all-purpose and bread flour by protein, milling and the bakes each one suits.
Maida carries 8 to 11 percent protein, whole-wheat atta 10 to 12 percent, all-purpose flour about 10 to 12 percent, and bread flour 12 to 14 percent. Those bands, not the flour's name, decide whether a dough builds a soft crumb or a chewy one.
The milling differs as much as the protein. Maida is milled from wheat endosperm with the bran and germ removed, which lowers fibre and extends shelf life to roughly 6 to 12 months in a sealed container; atta keeps both, so it absorbs more water and shortens gluten strands.
Cup weights shift the arithmetic before any bran effect appears: one cup of maida weighs about 125 grams while one cup of atta weighs about 120 grams. A like-for-like cup swap therefore changes hydration on its own.
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Bread flour sits higher at 12 to 14 percent protein, which is why it builds a stronger gluten network than maida — useful for tall loaves, unnecessary for naan or biscuits where tenderness is the goal.
All-purpose flour overlaps atta's range and maida's upper end, which makes it the least disruptive fallback when a recipe calls for one and the pantry holds the other.
Match the flour to the crumb: maida for naan, bhatura, white bread, cakes, biscuits and samosa wrappers; atta for rotis and hearty loaves; bread flour when structure matters more than softness.
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