Understanding Baking
Chapter One
WHEAT AND GRAIN FLOURS
Any discussion of baking must begin with its most elemental
ingredient: wheat flour. Not only is wheat the heart and soul of
bread but its special properties allow bakers to produce an astonishing
array of products, from pastry to cakes and cookies. This will be the
longest chapter in the book, as understanding this primary ingredient
is vital to baking.
Wheat (and to a much lesser extent rye) flours do one thing extremely
well that the flours of other grains cannot: create a gluten network.
Gluten is the substance formed when two proteins present in
flour, glutenin and gliadin, are mixed with water. Gluten is both plastic
and elastic. It can stretch and expand without easily breaking. A
gluten structure allows dough to hold steam or expanding air bubbles,
so that yeasted dough can rise and puff pastry can puff.
As with many discoveries, the domestication of wheat and the making
of risen bread was as much accident as intent. A truly remarkable ... read full excerpt from Understanding Baking, 3rd Edition ebook
