Go to the Article: How to Make Any Flour Into “Bread Flour”
This is very timely, since in an act of desperation I bought a 25-lb. bag of AP flour at Costco and it could really use the extra protein!
My 50 lb bag of AP thanks you for this.
The correct formula is (13%-10%)*1000g/(75%-10%) for vital gluten calculation. You can easily see that the above formula brings gluten level to 12.6% not 13% which it is the target. You can correct also the excel sheet to do the correct calculation. Happy Easter and thank you for the good work you are doing here.
Those of us who have previously made your sheet pasta recipe will have vital gluten on hand (although back then you were recommending Barry Farm's, which is also 75%). Unfortunately for others, both are sold out on Amazon right now (big surprise).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G5F761H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
if you are struggling to find some of these ingredients at your local grocer or even amazon, try giving one of your local restaurant distributors a call. they are hurting for business and will most likely sell you what ever they are sitting on. it might be bulk. but it will be cheaper.
For those living in Canada, I recommend giving BulkBarn a try. They have 'Gluten flour' which is vital wheat gluten. Check your local store online for stock and working hour. Just got mine early today, will be making breads and ramen in the next few days. Cheers!
Is there any way to get All purpose flour up to bakers/strong flour textur using xanthan gum?
I'm not a math guy, but I'm going to try my best here...
CS has the formula as this: ((target protein percent) - (flour protein percent))*(flour amount)/75
I'm assuming the 75 at the end of the formula = the 75% protein in the Vital Wheat Gluten. Are you suggesting that the formula should be: ((target protein percent) - (flour protein percent))*(flour amount)/(protein in VWG - protein in flour you have)?
Yes... It is as you wrote! The formula is not correct. The correct formula is the one i post here. Let me do the maths
In the formula given it is Calculated that the Vital Gluten should be 40gr
AP flour 960gr x 10% Gluten = 96g Gluten in the flour
Vital Gluten 40gr x 75% Gluten = 30g Gluten in Vital Gluten
Summing we have 1000 Flour with 126g Gluten... that is 12.6% (but we target 13%)
The correct formula is the one i give above. Lets do this maths
Calculating the Vital Gluten for 1000g flour at the end with 13% gluten
(13%-10%)x1000g/(75%-10%)= 46.15gr Vital Gluten
So lets verify it by calculating the gluten in the final 1000g flour
AP flour 953.85gr x 10% Gluten = 95.39g Gluten in the flour
Vital Gluten 46.15gr x 75% Gluten = 34.61g Gluten in Vital Gluten
Summing we have 1000 Flour with 130g Gluten... 13%!
This is the correct formula! ((target protein percent) - (flour protein percent))*(final flour amount)/(percent protein in VWG - percent protein in flour you have)
The math I put up is correct and is well within the margin of error for ranges of flours and vital wheat gluten. HOWEVER, I have updated the Excel math to reflect your MORE PRECISE method - thanks
What percentage could we plug in for almond flour? Oat flour?
Those are not wheat flours, so while they will have some % of protein in general, they do not naturally contain the specific types of proteins in wheat that form gluten (specifically glutenin and gliadin). So their protein content in this context would likely 0% and you'd need to add a lot of vital wheat gluten.
How does one determine the protein content of the AP flour?
Awesome, was just working through this. Thanks for sharing!
It should be easy to look up if it’s not on the bag. What’s your brand? My favorite AP flour is 10.5%.
How do I get 00 flour?
Would something like this work with a gluten-free flour, like teff, to give it a stretchier texture?
not if you want to keep it gluten free. adding the vital wheat gluten is adding pure gluten.
I’m going to second the comment asking how you know what % protein is in the flour you are starting with. The cake flour you start with (Softasilk) doesn’t really indicate that in the way that, e.g., King Arthur Flour bags do. Do we just calculate it from the Nutrition Facts (so, for Softasilk, a 32 g serving apparently has 3 grams of protein = 9.38% protein)? (Although that methodology doesn’t really work for King Arthur flour, which says there are 4g of protein in each serving of bread, AP and cake flour).
If you’re talking texture i don’t think it would help unless you have a way of milling your own flour.
Any thoughts on the protein % for fresh milled hard white wheat? The package for my hard white wheat berries says 12% of DV per 1/4 cup. Can I just go based on that?
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I'm not worried about it being gluten free or not. I am well aware that VWG is gluten. What I was specifically asking is whether or not it would work with a non-wheat flour or produce a desirable outcome.
Maybe I could rephrase my question as: "What will happen if I mix VWG with a non-wheat, gluten-free flour, as opposed to a wheat flour of a different gluten concentration?"
at a point it will start to work. I tried this with teff and sorghum for the ramen noodles. we didn't land on an exact ratio but it will eventually have enough gluten to hold together as a noodle/ pasta. but not really sure what would happen as a sort of bread flour sub
concretegourmet.com for a real tried and tested Sourdough recipe
It should be noted that vital wheat gluten does not have exactly the same characteristics are protein in wheat flour due to the extraction process. But for most recipes the substitution should perform well enough.
I was thrilled when I read in the title "any flour" because I am gluten free and work with lots of different flours. I'd love to see an article or deep dive on how to build the perfect gluten free bread flour.
