November 5, 2015 - 1:20pm
Homemade dry vital wheat gluten/strong flour?
Hi,
I need a suggestion how to improvise strong bread flour.
My problem is, in my country (EE) there is no high protein flour (max is 10.5%) and there is no gluten supplement either. I sometimes order over Amazon but it is expensive, often unavailable and takes a long time to arrive. And I have to do it over German Amazon, so it's a big hassle every time...
So, can I simply simply make my own vwg (seitan), then let it dry and finally grind it to make the powder that they sell as vwg? If so, how long would you estimate it would last?
Actually, any suggestion how to make strong flour is welcome, really...
Thanks,
Somunac
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I would think that after you create your seitan that you could just cut it in small pieces and knead it into your dough.
Exactly right, the process of separating starches from the gluten is going to give you wet gluten. this can be added to your flour to strengthen the flour should you wish to or need to do that. commercially locally we have a factory that produces starches for industry and their by-product is gluten, we used to obtain 20 litre plastic tubs of the stuff for adding to wholemeal flour for sandwhich breads it was kept in the fridge in a slightly saline water solution.
As an apprentice we were shown a way to do a gluten test if you were unsure of the strength of the flour you might be using, the same process could be used for making your own gluten.
Unfortunately the measurements back then were before we changed to Kg's and grams but goes like this
8ozs Flour
4 & 3/4 ozs Water
Make into a suitable dough cover with water and leave for approximately 1 hour, then wash the starch away from the gluten.
2 ozs gluten = weak flour
2 & 1/2 ozs wet gluten= medium flour
2 & 3/4 ozs wet gluten = strong flour.
So the same principal can be applied to making your own gluten but could prove quite wasteful and from memory wet gluten is 2/3 water by weight.
Any way its worth having a play with and seeing if the result is what you are after.
kind regards Derek
Thanks
But how can i dry it without destroying its value ?
and then grind it in a coffee grinder into a powder that can be evenly distributed in the flour. It is a rubbery bit when not dried and ground. Getting it worked into the dough when kneading would be problematic and very difficult. But it is easy to make and easier with a dehydrator. You should be able to make some fine bread with 10.5% protein flour though. High protein flour is not required and actually the wrong choice for most breads.
Happy baking
Please , how can i grind it without drying , it's like a dough
is to work with the flour so you have shorter fermenting times and less abuse of the dough matrix. Often changing the method is enough without adding VG.
Basically list the advantages of VG and go backwards to the state of not using it.
Example: VG gives longer retard times. so... don't retard as long or skip it. Try extending the autolyse time.
VG raises protein levels... so find more protein elsewhere, milk pwd, egg white, etc.
VG helps fatty doughs... so reduce the fat %
VG adds more gluten, try using less gluten free flours in the dough flour mix or change the way the dough is shaped.
Also reevaluate the flour you are using, get the specks on it to find out exactly how much of the protein makes up gluten, and perhaps a flour switch is in order.