Amazing info about gluten contents in flour !

[canadianbacon]

Hi all,

found this today in my Google travels:

http://www.akiskitchen.ca/ingredients/flours_1.html

Very good info !

Remember a few months back I told you that the cake and pastry flour I was using was amazing for pizza ? ...... well, this is atually a very LOW gluten flour ! - doh !

Anyway aside from feeling like a dummy, I think now i'm going to go out and buy some BREAD flour !

A guy on my homebrew making forum does pizza also, and knows his stuff, and told me to buy bread flower, and also some semolina flour, - which is SUPER high gluten flour - and on Emeril live the other night, the guy they had on making pizzas ( he owns a pizza place) uses this this type of flour in his recipe !

Mark.

[Steve]

Semolina flour is used to make pasta noodles.

For pizza making, use semolina flour instead of cornmeal to dust your peel... it won't burn like cornmeal.

Regarding bread flour... even higher on the gluten (protein) scale is "high gluten flour"... a must for making NY style pizzas.

[DKM]

Becareful with labels, they are marketing ploys.  I have seen "bread" flours with the same/higher protien levels as flour marketed as "high gluten".

Read the labels, so some math, check the websites.

DKM

[Pierre]

it's just like DKM and Steve have mentioned, read the nutrition side of the flour bag. Look for the protein content.

In "All Purpose Flour", the protein content varies greatly; from 8 % to 11% or more. The same is for Bread Flour with up to 12 or 13 %.

Pay attention to the ash content as well, high ash flours have a high protein level, but a percentage point or 2 protein comes from the outer layer of the wheat grain. The protein there is of a lesser quality and does not form as much gluten as the protein from the inner of the grain.

I believe King Arthur Flours have the ash content on their labels, not sure if the other brands mention that. Here in Germany, Austria and France, flour is classified according to their extrusion level (equiv. ash content). Ash levels of 0.40 up to 0.65 make good all purpose or bread flours.

A good example of a Flour with high quality Protein is Sir Lancelot from King Arthur. Has 14.0 % Protein and 0.52 Ash.


Pierre