Understanding Gluten
Gluten is responsible for the strength, texture, and structure of bread. It is a substance that contains proteins, which is what makes the bread complete. Without gluten, bread won’t be able to stand on its own. This bread wonder is found in wheat flour.
When dough is pulled and stretched during the kneading process, the proteins absorb water and gluten is developed. The proteins then turn into long, flexible strands. Yeast allows the dough to expand as it produces gases. The dough expands as soon as gas bubbles are trapped into the strands. Right after the bread is placed in the oven, these gluten strands become solid when egg proteins are solidified while the egg is cooked.
The chewiness of bread is due to its high protein content. This is what makes bread different from cakes. Cakes use flour with lower protein content to make them tender.
To make sure that your bread gets enough gluten, pay attention to your flour’s protein content. Cake flours have only 8% protein content while all-purpose flour has a slightly higher protein content ranging from 8 to 10%. Bread flour is the best choice because it contains at least 12-14% of protein. You may also choose to use commercial wheat gluten to bring up the protein content of your flour especially when baking rye, oat, or wheat bread.
Some bakers will also advise you to use dough conditioners together with gluten for some recipes to make your bread larger and lighter.
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