The Fresh Loaf

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Atta Multigrain Flour-which ingredient makes it a sticky dough?

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Atta Multigrain Flour-which ingredient makes it a sticky dough?

I recently bought a bag of flour at our local Indian/Asian market that looked interesting and I thought I'd give it a whirl. It is Sujata brand but I understand that is a re-name of Pillsbury/General Mills in India. The multigrains in the flour (unknown proportions) are wheat,soy,oats,maize,ragi (millet), barley and chana dal(lentil beans).This is the order on the label. It weighs out the same as bread flour and I started with just a simple French recipe with natural levain in the form of a pre-ferment.I did a 30% atta flour and the rest bread flour. This flour needed a little more water-seems the grains/beans are thirsty. The loaf it made was quite delicious and soft-not crispy. Surprisingly light,also.

I am making another 30% loaf today and one characteristic I noticed the first time and seems especially prominent today is the stickiness of the dough. It handles and behaves almost like a rye dough. It has a very stretchy gluten and sticks to everything.

So which ingredient is responsible for the stickiness? Do beans (soy in this) create this characteristic? Millet? Barley?

FoodFascist's picture
FoodFascist

hi, it's most probably the chana daal. I don't know THAT much about Indian quisine but the one thing I do know is that chickpea flour (known as gram flour), when mixed with water, is the stickiest thing on earth and can be used as a substitute for eggs in vegan cooking (or an egg-free diet). Chana daal is also a kind of chick pea, although I'm not sure whether it's the same chickpea that goes into the making of gram flour, but if not, it probably still has similar properties.

Chana daal is also apparently great for diabetics (according to this artice, anyway http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html)

I guess the oats may also add a little stickiness.  I'm not sure about soy, but millet is certainly out. I cook whole grain millet in the same way you would porridge and it doesn't come out sticky at all, a little on the dry side actually. Same with barley.