[Sca-cooks] Queston on Flours

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

I know there are folks here who are far more qualified than me to help
out ;)  But, being a bit of a health-food freak, I've played a lot with
whole wheat flours.

I find that I get a better texture with WW when allowing the bread a
third rise.  WW flour doesn't have much gluten inherently, and you want
to give those poor little proteins all the time they need to form every
connection they can.  You could try adding some extra gluten to the mix.
  Check your health food store.  Some sell vital wheat gluten in bulk,
others sell commercial brands.  I think either Arrowhead Mills or Bob's
Red Mill produces some, and the commercial brands will give you
instructions on how much to add.

Good luck!

Another wheat question, for those who know more than me:
My brother-in-law-to-be is borderline celiac.  He can eat some gluten,
but cannot eat anything made with flour that has the gluten "boosted"
with malted barley or vital wheat gluten.  Does anybody know of a
website that delineates the amount of gluten in different commercial
brands of flour?  I'm particularly trying to prove to him that whole
wheat flour is lower in gluten than white.  Commercial WW breads have
the gluten seriously boosted to make them more palatable to the Wonder
Bread generation, so they are a big no-no for him.  But, he doesn't want
to take chances with home-made WW bread unless I can prove to him that
it's low gluten.

-Magdalena

bill mayfield wrote:

>
>     Hmmmmmmmmmm
>                   Deciding to experiment after a bit
>    of success with the period bread,I decided to ummmmmm
>    experiment with the recipe given.
>                  Instead of 5-6 cups of all purpose flour
>    I used 3 cups ea. of all purpose and whole wheat flour
>      it seemed as i mixed and kneeded it was dryer and more
>    elastic then the original recipe......I attribute that
>     to the deviation in type of flour used.
>   Am I close in my guess or just lost in a cloud of smoke?
>     The finished product from this experiment was near cinder
>   block crust and a very dense interior that barely absorbed
>    melted butter
>   whereas the previous batch of bread was of a heavy crust
>    and and a dense, butter absorbant interior.well.........
>   back to the bread,this time following strictly the original
>   recipe.
>
>        Æthelwülf