The Lemon Fool

As some may be aware I've been bread making.

Attempting sourdough bread, but I was not entirely happy with the result.
I tried changing hydration to no effect.
The gluten strands were being eaten by the acid as the yeast fermented.

Then I started cheating. Making quick sourdough or foux sourdough by adding dried yeast to boost the speed of fermentation.

That worked a lot better.

However I happened upon a Youtube video by Gluten Morgen about additives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4CX6sXb4nE
In it he made four loaves from pastry flour.

WHAT!

Well very weak (00) flour, that he added varying amounts of gluten to.

Well I had to try it. I bought some wheat gluten and did my sums to boost the protean in my normal dough from 11% to 14% it turned out to be about two teaspoons.
I could tell as soon as I started kneading the dough that it had made a huge difference.
The results are cooling on a rack as I type and I have to say that it really was worth it.

I mention it for those like me, who's flour mix is a bit on the weak side (too much Rye and oats in my bread).

Yes the gluten trick works, I tried it when I ran out of strong flour.

If your gluten is being eaten during fermentation though it would suggest that you are over proving your dough during bulk fermentation.

John

redsturgeon wrote:Yes the gluten trick works, I tried it when I ran out of strong flour.

If your gluten is being eaten during fermentation though it would suggest that you are over proving your dough during bulk fermentation.

John

Well I actually put the main problem down to the flour mix not being strong enough. Running my spreadsheet again, protean was in fact down at 10.17%
Here is my homebrew recipe.
55g oats, assumed 0% protean.
90g Strong wholmeal flour 13.5% protean.
270g "Strong" white flour 11.5% protean.
50g Rye 8.2% protean.
about 320g of water.
9g salt.

The starter is the Rye and 50g of the water.
Adding 10g of gluten in fact brought the protean up to a more sensible 11.64%, I messed up my initial calculations by not allowing for the oats.
I had to add about 30g of water to achieve a decent dough.

Urbandreamer wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:Yes the gluten trick works, I tried it when I ran out of strong flour.

If your gluten is being eaten during fermentation though it would suggest that you are over proving your dough during bulk fermentation.

John

Well I actually put the main problem down to the flour mix not being strong enough. Running my spreadsheet again, protean was in fact down at 10.17%
Here is my homebrew recipe.
55g oats, assumed 0% protean.
90g Strong wholmeal flour 13.5% protean.
270g "Strong" white flour 11.5% protean.
50g Rye 8.2% protean.
about 320g of water.
9g salt.

The starter is the Rye and 50g of the water.
Adding 10g of gluten in fact brought the protean up to a more sensible 11.64%, I messed up my initial calculations by not allowing for the oats.
I had to add about 30g of water to achieve a decent dough.

I would be tempted to go even higher with the gluten with that recipe it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

redsturgeon wrote:

Urbandreamer wrote:
Well I actually put the main problem down to the flour mix not being strong enough. Running my spreadsheet again, protean was in fact down at 10.17%
Here is my homebrew recipe.
55g oats, assumed 0% protean.
90g Strong wholmeal flour 13.5% protean.
270g "Strong" white flour 11.5% protean.
50g Rye 8.2% protean.
about 320g of water.
9g salt.

The starter is the Rye and 50g of the water.
Adding 10g of gluten in fact brought the protean up to a more sensible 11.64%, I messed up my initial calculations by not allowing for the oats.
I had to add about 30g of water to achieve a decent dough.

I would be tempted to go even higher with the gluten with that recipe it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

When I've finished this loaf I will. I'm also going to try baking from a cold oven. Reports seem to indicate that it works.
I'll report back middle of next week.

I wonder if xanthan gum might work. Only because I often need gluten free bread.

Gerry557 wrote:I wonder if xanthan gum might work. Only because I often need gluten free bread.

I don't need to bake gluten free bread, but have a recipe.

420g gluten free flour
5g xanthan gum (if not already in the flour)
7g yeast
5g salt
25g psyllium husk powder
20g honey
10 cider vinegar
15g sunflour oil
200g water
180g milk.

I'd suggest further research though, rather than attempting from this list. It's from the book Brilliant Bread, which is why I only listed the ingredients. Also it's the only gluten free recipe in that book, so I recommend looking elsewhere.