[Sca-cooks] Pastelli and baked flour

[Terry Decker]

There are two reasons to toast the flour.  First, it coagulates the gluten 
to prevent gluten strand formation.  Second, in my experience, any toasted 
cereal flour produces a sweeter, nuttier flavor than raw flour.

I suspect that the second reason is more likely the actual purpose, as 
modern cookie recipes tend to use raw flour.  Percentage of gluten tends to 
be lower in European flours (especially pre-1600) due to softer varieties of 
wheat.

Bear


-----Original Message----- 
From: Aruvqan

Hm, sounds like the baking process is to screw with the gluten forming
ability of the flour so you can make a low gluten recipe with a higher
gluten flour.