Everyone always wants to know about Vital Wheat Gluten & Dough Conditioner....what does it do? Why do you need it? And with the holidays coming and all the baking that is happening here is a little Basic 101 in that area:
Vital Wheat Gluten
-Gluten is the natural protein found in wheat
-Honeyville's Vital Wheat Gluten has a protein level of 75%
-Helps improve the elasticity and shape of the bread
-Typical taste is enhanced
-Especially helpful when using low protein flours (whole wheat, rye, etc)
-Improves nutritional value
-Honeyville's Vital Wheat Gluten when kept in original sealed container has a shelf life of 7-10 years
Dough Conditioner
-Improves the taste & texture of your bread
-Improves the shelf life of your bread
-Your bread will be lighter and better shaped
-Helps bread rise faster
-Honeyville's Dough Conditionerr has a shelf life of 10 years when store in the original container and ideal storage conditions.
If you aren't already using both of these products, start now! They are fabulous and you will be very impressed!
8 comments:
I have used both of these in my whole wheat bread. It's almost not fair how awesome thay work!
Since I am very new to all of this how do you know how much to use of each one of them in your bread recipe?
Is is based on the number of cups of wheat flour you use and does it replace some of that wheat flour or is it in addition to the flour? Would you use it even if you are using both wheat flour and bakers flour in the same recipe?
Diane,
GREAT question!
If your recipe doesn't already call for a certain amount of Dough Conditioner/Vital Wheat Gluten, a general rule is:
For Dough Conditioner: use 1 teaspoon to 1 cup of flour
I would use dough conditioner with all types of flour EXCEPT the Baker's Flour. Baker's flour already has dough conditioner in it.
Vital Wheat Gluten: use 1 teaspoon per cup of All Purpose Flour. 1-2 teaspoons per cup of bread flour, and 1.5-3 teaspoons for every cup of whole grain flours
Good Luck
Do you use both in the same recipe? Or, how do you know which one to use?
Vital Wheat Gluten is very helpful when making 100% whole grain bread, especially rye, which has virtually no gluten in its make-up. But I didn't see much use in the dough conditioner. No matter which way you look at it, when your're baking yeast breads at 7000ft and over, there has to be major tweaking of the recipe. I'm at 5800ft now and the difference in my baking is like night and day and I don't have to tweak the recipe and it bakes up like I'm at sea level again.
I use Vital Wheat Gluten & Dough Conditioner together in my recipes. I would not use Dough Conditioner if using Baker's Flour, but any other time the two products work great together.
Are both these products Kosher?
Baking Mom
Yes, both are Kosher
Post a Comment