Wheat & Gluten

Great video and information

Excellent tutorial. Thank you.

There is sometimes some terminological confusion between whole meal and whole wheat (at least in the UK). Wholemeal flour is only 'wholemeal' if it is the product of grinding the whole grain. Whole wheat flour is a lesser product, and according to Wikipedia "In Canada, it is legal to advertise any food product as "whole wheat" with up to 70% of the germ removed."

I found this video very interesting. I never knew much about gluten before I saw this video.

Keep up the great work Javan.

This is exactly the type of video I have been looking for to show my Foods 11/12 students. It is thorough, accurate and creative in how it describes the development of gluten in baked goods. I will definitely be using this video in my classroom.

very informative knew nothing about gluten and wheat til now thanks

I'm an amateur baker and I think this video is a brilliant summary.

My wife has some gluten intolerance which makes baking and cooking in general somewhat of a challenge. Breads and cakes are pretty much out at this point, but what I'm curious about is how to do things like rice flour and potato flour do for things like a besciamella. Are these valid substitutes. So far I have not found much difference except in that it appears to take some extra time to get the color necessary. I have also been testing with some Rice Pasta which can be found pretty readily on the market these days. There are some thing tips I have found. First, I have found that when cooking this type of pasta, it's best to continually stir the pasta while cooking. I have also found that after cooking, it's best to rinse the pasta in hot water due to the extra starches produced. Any other tips would be appreciated regarding alternative non-gluten flours.

im not big into bakery type dishes and deserts but its great to be educated about it for future references

Nice video! It explains very clearly the basics of flour.

Does the developement of gluten in a food affect it's digestability?(I mean for people with no allergy to gluten)

I use whole grains whenever I can and enjoy the dense texture to a certain extent, but sometimes I do crave the lightness and crunchiness of breads with white flour. How much whole wheat flour can you add to a recipe before it begins to affect the end product?

Can bulgur wheat be used as a replacement for cous cous in recipes?

Thanks for a great website!

Generally, up to 60% of white flour in a bread recipe can be substituted with whole wheat flour. For cakes, quick breads and other lighter baked goods, substitute no more than half or the texture will likely be too dense. We will cover more on this when we get to the baking lessons in the cooking school.

Whether or not you have celiac disease, white flour is harder on the digestive system and raises blood sugar levels. If you can tolerate gluten though, I am in total agreement with Lidia Bastianich. She said (about food in general), "...eating should be pleasurable and approached with a positive state of mind and anticipation. There should be no guilt in eating; when we eat, we are nourishing our bodies, our minds, our souls.

...The two key words in healthy eating are diversity and moderation."

So, enjoy that crunchy baguette every once in a while. If people make sure to eat more home made foods and less processed foods, I think that balance would be easier to find than most people think.

To answer your last question, bulgur takes longer to prepare than couscous, but can definitely be substituted in your cooking. Bulgur can be found with the bran and germ attached but generally, they are removed. Hope this helps.

A loved one is allergic to gluten. [I believe this issue has become well known, and thus restaurants have become more accommodating, because testing for the allergy has become better.] She is my best audience for cooking. Hmmm...
Is there such a thing as a good gluten-free pasta? Note I did not say gluten -free pasta, I said good gluten-free pasta.
For some dishes I use rice flour,e.g. coating something to be pan fried, which works pretty well. Any suggestions for good wheat-liberated pasta or other flour substitutes?

I think this just comes down to buying a few different brands and trying them. I have tried several different variety...some were pretty good, while others were indescribably bad.

It does seem that more and more gluten-free pastas are finding their way to grocery store shelves. They also seem to be getting better. Good luck!

"...eating should be pleasurable and approached with a positive state of mind and anticipation. There should be no guilt in eating; when we eat, we are nourishing our bodies, our minds, our souls.

...The two key words in healthy eating are diversity and moderation."

I thought of skipping this lesson, because I have a lot of experience using wheat flour, but I always cooked for economy and nutrition, but never took the time to properly enjoy eating and never learned for the sake of learning.

So I'm going step by step through the lesson, trying hard not to make any substitutions for economy or nutrition, and am trying to concentrate on learning as much as I can, and to mindfully taste and let myself enjoy the foods I've made.

Hi, great video!

I just came from the grocery store and am confused. King Arthur Flour advertises 4g protein to 30g for their bread flour and so does their all purpose four.

everyone else listed 3g protein to 30g.

I thought bread flour was supposed to be higher in protein than all purpose. King Arthur Flour bread flouris the Hard Spring Wheat flour, and their all purpose was another type I cant recall at the moment. But the protein mounts were exactly the same.

Will that make a difference?

King Arthur all purpose had more gluten than most other all purpose flours. I learned many years ago that sometimes a cheaper brand flour actually gave me a better product, if I wanted less gluten.

Before bread flour was a common item, I added King Arthur all purpose whenever I was making a mostly whole grain bread, instead of other brands.

Being a perfectionist, this stuff is hard!

Are you new to bread baking? I learned a lot about flours by trial and error trying to make whole grain breads.

If I wanted to add a lot of low or no gluten flours, I learned that the little bit of white flour I added, needed to have as much gluten as possible, as it was going to need to do the work of itself and the other flour(s).

But when I made all white bread, it came out too light and puffy for my taste, unless I used a cheaper flour. If I used King Arthur flour it tasted almost like store bought bread. I like my white bread cakey and heavy.

Bread flour came out on the market when bread machines became popular. If you try and make white bread by hand, with out a machine, with bread flour, you can't mix it enough. it has a LOT of gluten. Mixed with some whole grain it's fine, though, without a machine.

For making muffins and cakes, I'd stay away from King Arthur all purpose flour. Just think of it as bread flour, even if they are not calling it that.

Hi jude. Happy to see that you are reading the labels on the flour. That is what is most important as flour will vary.

You are correct that bread flour usually has more protein than all purpose, but not always as illustrated by the your king Arthur flour find. It all depends on the brand. In this case, either would work for bread making.

One other thing to note here is that this all purpose flour would not be the best for delicate cakes or pastries.

Hope that helps.

Thanks very much for your input. I think I'll skip the King Arthur and just use the cheap stuff for now.

I am new to bread baking. I've made some loaves in the past by pure luck were acceptable but tasted too much like yeast.

The thing that makes me insanely crazy is making biscuits. In three days I must have made and thrown out enough flour to feed a hungry platoon of Marines. No matter what I did they came out hard as a rock on the outside with very little actual soft inside.

After that I gave up entirely on bread baking but these videos have been encouraging so I'm going to try it again.

Thanks for your help!

Just wanted to comment re: making biscuits - you really don't want high protein flour for biscuits and you don't want to develop any gluten. Biscuits are very different from making bread. Biscuits and scones should use lower protein flour and should only be mixed very gently and just until mixture comes together. If you do this very gently, your biscuits will be soft and flaky.

Here is a sample biscuit recipe from Dawn: http://rouxbe.com/recipes/196-cheddar-and-chipotle-biscuits/text

Glad to hear you are encouraged again :-)

I've also heard you should cut them with something sharp as a dull cut will seal the edges flat and they will not be able to rise correctly.

I just pat my dough out and cut into squares with a sharp knife instead of rolling out and using a shaped cutter. It cuts down on the handling and doesn't seal the edges.

I also use cheap flour.

I don't like the after taste of dry yeast either. Use less yeast, make sure it dissolves well, and let it take longer to rise. If you use a really small amount, make sure it grows and multiplies in a "sponge" (batter) before adding the salt and more flour and any fats. Yeast grows faster in a moister sponge than it does in a dryer dough, and without the inhibiting effects of salt and fat.

Studying sourdough bread will give you ideas of how to make bread with less packaged yeast, since it doesn't use any packaged yeast at all.

No yeast in sourdough? Woe...

Still this biscuit thing is too traumatic. Still having nightmares...

I think I spent the good portion of two weeks trying to get it right. I'm talking 8 hours a bloody day. Using all kinds of advice and different recipes. Of course, that advice didn't come from here, otherwise I might be the queen of biscuits by now.

Maybe I don't understand what a biscuit is supposed to be? I wanted something that was the same as what comes in those tubes at the grocery store. You know the ones that say, "Country flaky Biscuits." I was crushed that I was so inept at so many attempts I couldn't get one decent biscuit out of what seemed hundreds.

After that, my oven door became this big ominous snapping mouth with jagged teeth waiting to devour yet another pound of flour along with my self-esteem.

I was seriously crushed, but don't tell anyone I'm such a big baby.

When you know the science, you will know before you even try a recipe if it will work. You sound like you have a bit of an obsessive personality like I do, to UNDERSTAND. I think you might like the Cook's Illustrated and Test Kitchen cookbooks. And I think the King Arthur anniversary cookbook has a lot of baking science in it.

Baking isn't like spaghetti sauce. It's not about taste. It's about chemical reactions and growing yeasts and bacterias that rise the baked product by basically passing gas. Healthy beasties pass more gas :-)

I know this sounds strange, but check out the science experiments section of the children's section of your library.

I am having so much fun watching your instructional videos. I did not expect to actually see gluten ever, but then you washed out the starch form the dough and reveal what left in the dough – Gluten. And the drum effect! Wow what a great visual demonstration! Thank you.

Hello. Here in Brazil, I read all labels on flour packages in the supermarket and could not find a protein content higher than 10g. I understand this is too low for a bread, for example. Is there a way I can increase gluten content in my recipes?
Thanks and I love Rouxbe.

You can still make bread with flour that has a protein content of only 10% - it will just be less chewy. Pure gluten flour, also known as vital, is made from wheat. It is very high in protein (all of the bran and starch have been removed). Sometimes this product can be found in health food or specialty stores. If you can find it, you can start by adding 1 teaspoon per cup of flour used.

Here are a few links to examples of vital (but not sure if you would be able to find these brands in Brazil):

King Arthur
Arrowhead Mills
Bob's Red Mill

Hope this helps!

I'm sure I can find pure gluten flour here and I appreciated your help and comments, thanks!
Lígia.

In some countries, one has to purchase flour in bulk... no labels to read to help identify what kind of flour you are dealing with. The video said pastry flour will clump up. Are there any other visual or tactile methods to identify what kind of flour you might be purchasing?

Unfortunately, you will need to ask the store as there is no way to guarantee what the flour is just by feeling it. The store should know and be able to give you information from their supplier as to what type of flour it is and the protein content. Cheers!

Thanks for the lesson. I have always loved baking fresh bread but never understood the science behind it. I have always followed recipes and I think this is just another step towards creating from my head rather than a book.

I also never knew couscous was just semolina with a bit of water and oil! I always thought it was "healthier" than pasta (sooo uneducated!).

Great site. Great lesson!

I have whole wheat all purpose flour with a protein content of 4 grams per 1/4 cup. Can this be used for breads since it does have the high protein content needed?

Whole wheat flour cannot be substituted 1:1 in recipes that call for all-purpose or bread flour. Refer back to Topic 5 of this lesson for more details. Whole wheat flour interfers with the development of gluten. Usually upto 1/3 to 1/2 can be substituted in recipes, but the texture will obviously be different. Cheers!

This may be a little off topic but when making a roux does the different flour have any impact on flavor, taste or texture.

Could you make a roux with whole wheat flour if you wanted.
Maybe I will experiment a little today since I have the day off.

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

You will find several discussions on using different flours and starches to make roux in our forum. Just type in "roux" in the search bar at the top right of any page and you'll find a bunch of discussions. In short, yes, whole wheat flour can be used to make roux. Very little difference in flavor, but you should test it out for yourself to see. This is the best way to learn. Cheers!

thanks Kimberly! I will give the search a try.

I have had a hard time with the baking lessons because I've done very little baking except for pies. There are recipes for gluten free pizza dough and pancakes using chickpea flour and potatoes. Most are Mediteranean or Indian recipes which I've tried because I'm partial to that type of cooking. Start with Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cook book.

I have just started the baking lessons and wish to know what your counter is made of because mine sticks terribly. Also what do you consider room temperature, though I know that a longer rising time is OK?

Our counter-top is no made of anything special. It is really just your everyday counter-top. As for your dough sticking this could be that you are not using enough flour or perhaps you are not working fast enough with the dough, or your room could be too hot. Hard to say exactly without more details. Room temperature is between 68 °F (20 °C) to 78 °F (25 °C). Cheers!

Loved this lesson. I've been making bread for many years and was excited to see these lessons. I appreciated the science behind the baking. The gluten ball looks fun and now I want to make one just to play with it. I really like baking and am looking forward to the upcomming baking lessons mentioned.

Great bread making basics. I learned much. One question, can you have too much gluten? I,ve been adding extra with low gluten flours. If I add to bread flour will it negatively affect the loaf? Thanks!

Glad you liked the lesson :) In terms of having too much gluten, the bread can be overly chewy. It really comes down to finding the right balance for the product you are making. For breads, the dough needs just enough gluten in order to support the structure of the dough and to help it rise and become tender.

Experiment the next time you make bread. Make one loaf as shown in the video and one loaf using extra gluten. Bake them off, study the differences and let us know what you think. It's the best way to learn. Cheers!

Very informative video. The way the information was presented was very interesting. I've learned things I never knew before.

I never knew there was so much to learn about gluten and wheat. I especially appreciated learning about semolina & couscous (sp?). I always thought they were separate things entirely and as it turns out they're just a variation on flour & pasta. Very enlightening.

I watch my weight so I haven't baked breads in ages, but the video gave me an interest in maybe making my own pasta. I have been eating wholewheatand organic foods and making my own would be a plus for me.