Flour - described by an expert

squeaky

I wandered onto the freebies board yesterday and did a search on book.

One of them (I'll see if I can track it down again) was for an American site with a downloadable e-book in pdf format - sent on request in eight chapters (one each week)

There's a link to download them separately if you have any trouble:-
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Obviously they are hoping to sell you their various products - but the book isn't just any old rubbish filled with thinly disguised adverts for their stuff - it really is interesting.


One of the things I have learned is that we do have an easy substitute for what the Americans call "All purpose flour" here in the UK.

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You can see how much protein is in flour by comparing ingredient labels. Bread flours will have as much as 14% protein. All-purpose flour is usually in the eight to ten percent range and cake flour is less than that.

So my bog standard asda plain value flour at 10g of protein per 100g is a reasonable equivalent to all purpose flour.

This also explains why my bread made with this, while tasty enough and well risen etc, is just that tiny bit on the "cakey" side at times compared with bread made with strong flour. It depends on the recipe I use. Oh, and why I can't get REALLY crusty bread rolls.

And I'm only on the second page of the book proper (page five by count because of the intro and index).

So excuse me while I go read some more

Here's the original thread:-

free how to bake book




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squeaky

Further down it has explanations of why one bread mix can be so different to another and how to tweak any given recipe to get the kind of bread you want.

Chewy or Tender—How do we Control the Texture

How is it that we can use flour to make both a tender cake and firm chewy French
bread? The gluten makes the difference. In a cake, we want little gluten development.
In a chewy bread, we want a high percentage of well-developed gluten. We can control this texture in our baked goods by changing four conditions:

1. Selection of flours: Cake flours are “weak” or “soft” and have a low protein
content, probably around 8%. Bread flours and high-gluten flours are “strong”
and usually have a protein content of 12 to 14%.

2. Amount of shortening: Any fat is referred to as a shortening because it
shortens the gluten strands. It does so by lubricating the fibers so they cannot
stick together. The more shortening in the dough, the more tender and less
chewy the product will be.

3. Amount of liquid: Gluten must have liquid to absorb and expand. If dough
does not have enough liquid, the gluten will not fully form and the product will not
be tender. That's why we put a minimal amount of water in pie crusts.

4. Mixing methods: Generally, the more a batter or dough is mixed, the more the
gluten develops. Tender muffins use low-protein flour and are mixed only until
the moisture is absorbed while breads are kneaded for a relatively long time.

I'm so-o-o pleased I decided to follow the link for this book

purpleivy

Mmm some yummy sounding breads here.

squeaky

And there's a handy tip for dealing with wholewheat loaves being heavy - leave the dough in the fridge overnight.


Oh, and I got a newletter too. There are adverts in this, but the links to recipes (a mexican compilation this week) all look pretty darn good to me. Some surpises there too. They look really well written with what look like foolproof instructions and explanations suitable for any experience level.