Gluten Flour

Gluten Flour
© Denzil Green

Vital Gluten Flour

Gluten is a natural protein in some grains, particularly wheat. It is this protein which, when combined with water, make dough elastic and able to hold the gas from yeast and steam during baking which causes bread to rise.

Gluten Flour is made from hard wheat that has had both the bran removed (as in white flour), and the starch, leaving it with proportionately more gluten protein. So much in fact, that the protein in Gluten Flour generally ranges about 75 to 80% (measured dry basis) -- compare that with Bread Flour, with protein ranges of 12 to 14% protein. (Gluten Flour is often added commercially to some regular flours to boost the protein content, making them into Bread Flour.)

Gluten Flour is generally used in bread recipes where you need to boost the gluten content of the flour being used -- whole wheat, for instance -- or to give them gluten content, period -- flours such as rye or soya, so that they can hold yeast gases and rise. It can also be added to make very crusty bread or crusty pizza doughs. It will not darken the colour of your baked good.

You generally only need Gluten Flour in small contents -- for Whole Wheat Bread for instance, a few tablespoons is often called for. So buying enough to fill a litre or quart-size preserving jar should hold you for a while.

Storage Hints for Gluten Flour

Store refrigerated, or in a cool place, or frozen even -- protein goes rancid, and there is a lot of it in Gluten Flour to go rancid.

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Also called:

Farine de gluten (French); Glutenmehl (German); Harina de gluten (Spanish)