Atlas/Mogul high gluten flour.

[AKSteve]

Anyone heard of either of these? I found out I can get a bag locally the next time a flour order is sent. It's 14.5% protein. ADM milling brand. Atlas is bleached, Mogul is unbleached. I'm assuming unbleached is better, so I'll probably get the Mogul. The have another high-gluten flour called VIM, but that's only around 13% protein.

Steve

[AKSteve]

I got a 50lb sack of Mogul this week and my batch of dough came out kind of weird. After a 24 hours rise in the fridge, the dough was really easy to stretch. I'm used to having to fight the dough a bit to stretch it out. This dough would just pull right apart way too easily. I was able to stretch the dough into a thin pizza crust, maybe a little too thin. It ended up tasting pretty good, though. Being so thin, it reminded me of New York street pizza slices.

Any ideas on why it was so easy to stretch? Maybe too much water or oil? I don't think I did anything else different other than using this high-gluten flour.

Steve

[Pete-zza]

AKSteve,

If you didn't change anything else in your recipe I would say that it is the change in flour to high-gluten flour that was most likely responsible for the improved handling qualities. The high-gluten flour, because of its higher protein content and higher gluten formation, will produce a stronger gluten network--one that handles better and is also able to retain more gasses and produce a greater rise. A high hydration percent, along with the oil, will also aid in forming a good gluten structure. Increasing the hydration of a dough will usually have the effect of producing a more extensible dough, in part because a more highly hydrated dough will undergo greater fermentation. Increasing the amount of oil will also improve the handling qualities of a dough because it coats the gluten strands so that they slide over each other more smoothly. I have found that using a small amount of honey will have a similar effect.

Peter

[AKSteve]

There were a couple of differences to my technique this time, although the recipe itself was the same (with the exception of using only Mogul flour rather than my previous blend). I gave my new Viking mixer another go after making an adjustment to the height of the dough hook. I lowered it until it almost touched the bottom of the bowl. The result was quite positive.

Rather than cutting the dough up like it did before, it caused the flour to form into a ball very quickly, much quicker than my KitchenAid. I add my olive oil last, and the Viking mixer seemed to incorporate the oil into the dough quite thoroughly, whereas my KitchenAid mixer seemed to just coat the outside of the dough with oil. I think this probably had a lot to do with the difference in the way the dough handled.

Other than the mixer, the only other difference was that I ran out of ziploc bags and had to put the dough into tupperware style plastic containers when they went into the fridge.

Is it weird to be excited by purchasing flour? I get the same feeling from buying flour as I used to get from buying electronic gadgets.

Steve