| In today's fast paced world, many of us sacrifice | | | | When adding wheat gluten to a breadmaker |
| quality food for expediency' s sake. When it | | | | recipe, you'll get the best results adding it to the |
| comes to fresh bread, it doesn't have to be that | | | | pan with the flour. The manufacturer of my |
| way. Bread maker machines are one of the | | | | bread machine recommends adding the water |
| greatest inventions sitting on the modern kitchen | | | | before the flour, so I add the wheat gluten right |
| counter. | | | | after I put in the flour to keep it away from the |
| I love my breadmaker (a.k.a the bread machine, | | | | water. |
| a.k.a. The Great White Wonder Cube!). It makes | | | | Dough Conditioner |
| great bread, with less than half the work and | | | | The second secret ingredient is dough conditioner. |
| time of conventional methods. There are a few | | | | Different commercial dough conditioners contain |
| things they don't tell you in the provided recipe | | | | different ingredients -- commonly a combination |
| book, though. The moisture content in flour can | | | | of wheat gluten, yeast and other chemicals such |
| vary, depending on age and environment, and no | | | | as ascorbic acid (a form of vitamin C), ammonium |
| matter how rigorously you follow the recipe, | | | | chloride, DATEM (an emulsifier), different calcium |
| sometimes it's not going to work out perfectly. | | | | salts and sometimes soy. |
| There are a two ingredients we can add, though, | | | | It's a common problem with bread makers that |
| that will ensure they turn out wonderfully, every | | | | have vertical pans to have a lighter crumb at the |
| time. | | | | top of the bread loaf and a denser crumb at the |
| Vital Wheat Gluten | | | | bottom. Dough conditioners help solve this |
| Gluten is grain protein and not all flours have the | | | | problem by strengthening the texture and giving a |
| same protein content. Bread flour has a higher | | | | more consistent rise, leading to a more consistent |
| protein content than all-purpose flour and cake | | | | crumb. |
| flour has less. Bread flour costs more than | | | | As with wheat gluten, you don't need much. Very |
| all-purpose flour, but it will work just fine for | | | | little in fact. For a 1 1/2 pound loaf, I find that a |
| making bread if you supplement the gluten | | | | mere 1/4 teaspoon of dough conditioner is |
| content. Instead of buying several different kinds | | | | enough to give me excellent results. |
| of flour for every little thing you do, buy | | | | Whether it's wheat gluten or dough conditioner, |
| all-purpose flour and add wheat gluten when | | | | you'll want to check the suggestions on the |
| making bread. It's not expensive and you need to | | | | package for suggested amounts. With the dough |
| use very little, about two teaspoons per loaf, so a | | | | conditioner, different brands will give you different |
| single can will last you a long time. | | | | results. |