April 30, 2020 - 2:53pm
Substitute for bread flour
Does a mixture of all-purpose flour and vital wheat gluten work well as a substitute for bread flour?
I’m guessing that I need to go by the amounts of protein listed on the packages of all-purpose and wheat gluten, aiming for a total of 12.7%.
Or, do you know of an easy approximation?
By the way, what does the “vital” in “vital wheat gluten” mean?
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http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45828/vital-gluten-excel#comment-352245
I'll take this one.
"Vital" means the processing was done in way that it retains the viscoelastic properties.
The alternative, "non-vital" means the extraction was done in a way that "cooked" (denatured) the proteins and so it can't be used as an improver for bread dough.
"non-vital" is used as a nutritional supplement and a source of extra protein.
I’d always thought it was “vital” because you get wheat gluten by washing away the starch off a doughball so it’s kinda like the “heart” of the dough; you can’t remove it without it ceasing to be dough. At least to bakers, gluten is certainly pretty vital lol
I have a calculator for this here if you want: https://wheatbeat.com/how-to-make-high-gluten-flour/