I was just watching Cook’s Country and she kept referring to the AP flour she scooped out of a small bowl to keep dough from sticking on the counter as bench flour. An online search shows that some cooks use 50% rice flour and 50% AP. If that’s the case, fine. Otherwise, unless you keep a bowl on hand what’s the point in calling it ‘bench flour’. I just sprinkle fresh flour on the counter to keep dough from sticking and knead away. What’s your take on this? If any?
“Bench flour” is just the name of the flour you use to keep your dough from sticking, nothing more, nothing less. The flour you sprinkle is bench flour.
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I use AP for counter sprinkling (when needed) when I’m shaping, but I use 100% rice flour to VERY liberally dust my banneton liner or kitchen towel/couche I’m using for proofing.
I’ve also heard of people who keep a 50/50 mix for both purposes.
I think the main point of referring to ‘bench flour’ is to distinguish it from the (presumably more expensive) bread flour or whole wheat or rye or whatever.
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Seems “bench flour” as a term means whatever you throw down for that purpose, rather than a specific type of flour. I’m guessing most us AP cuz it’s the most available and cheapest. Whatever you have on hand, and use for that purpose, is bench flour.
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I get it now. Thank you.
Well, I know you knew that. Nice of you to be nice. Thanks! I watch Cook’s Country, too, and noticed the same thing.
Lately, for pizza crusts, I’ve used oil.
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methinks it also stretches into a ‘process’ type thing . . .
"Using bench flour . . . "
which is short hand for "Sprinkle some flour on the counter to keep the dough from sticking . . . "
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That is interesting - I’ve never bothered to look it up - but I would never have thought to use rice flour or a mix of rice/wheat flours as “bench flour”.
My take on its meaning, at least for home bakers here in USA, is it’s just dusting/extra flour that isn’t counted as part of the recipe’s flour amount.
Need to look into the use of rice flour, I bake enough bread - but since I usually have the flour container out to make the bread, I can’t imagine not just using it . . . .curious.
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The difference tends to be that rice flour is gluten free and so if you are using it for dusting it tends to be more efficient than wheat flour
Whether making bread, pasta, or something else, it is probable that some (or all) of it will be incorporated with what I am making. So I use more of the same. If I am making a loaf of rye, for example, I use more rye. Yes, it costs more than AP, but I only use a couple of tsp. in my fingers. So hang the cost! Why would I want to incorporate rice flour in my sour rye or AP in my pappardelle made with semolina/00?
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Depending on what you make, hydration level and how long it might be in contact with the surface (e.g. banneton), rice flour sticks significantly less than AP or other wheat flours
Bench flour in my experience may certainly be used to dust a banneton, but its chief use would be to sprinkle on the surface on which the dough is being kneaded. It would get worked into the dough, wouldn’t it? When I am working a loaf the flour container is open and at hand in case I need more. When I am rolling pasta it is sprinkled over the surface on which the extruded dough will be laid. I am pretty sure the pasta picks up more flour with each rolling. I guess I could have another kind of flour to use as bench flour, but it would never occur to me. I guess I am admitting to not being a fastidious baker or pasta maker! 
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