The beauty of bread making is in the simplicity of its ingredients: flour,salt,yeast, and water. Starting with the four most important fundamentals of bread dough...FLOUR.
The purity of bread springs from the ground up, the fertile ground from which wheat grows. Flour is the foundation of bread making. Despite what you have herad or read about it,the flour in the shelves of supermarkets can help you bake bread that is considerably better than the bread you'll find a few aisles.down.
YES...what matters in bread making is the protein content of the flour. More protein is not necessarily better. TO KEEP IT SIMPLE: remember that, in most cases the higher the protein, the more gluten it will produce. Gluten is the substance that enables bread to rise.
Different strains of wheat have different protein and starch contents; the higher the protein content of the flour, the more gluten- forming ability the flour has. To make good break....you must keep trying...it is possible and easy.
I prefer King Arthur Special Bread Flour for its constent quality, high protein content and lack of chemical additives but I have used Gold Medal and Pillsbury, with good results.