The Fresh Loaf

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Soft wheat berries - do I need to add gluten?

Aravinda's picture
Aravinda

Soft wheat berries - do I need to add gluten?

By mistake I got soft wheat berries.  I have ground some into flour - can I use them in my usual bread recipe? 

Should I add gluten?  How much?

David R's picture
David R

If you can afford the time, first bake one loaf without adding gluten, and see if there's even a problem. It's always better to not solve problems that don't exist. ?

Aravinda's picture
Aravinda

I agree! 

I wondered if anyone here had experience with this ... have you baked with soft wheat berries? 

At present I have added gluten but not started kneading.   

I am considering adding more flour and everything else so as to effectively reduce the proportion of added gluten. 

David R's picture
David R

My gut feeling is: Now that you've started an experiment, just carry it through, rather than trying to mess with it by changing it when it's halfway along.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

 

Look at this classic recipe:

BROETCHEN

My experience with broetchen:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39226/broetchen-successthank-you-hanseata

HERE is another link about using soft wheat in bread baking. Just enter "soft wheat" in the search box.

I have made bread successfully with soft wheat. Rolls seem to work best which makes sense if the gluten structure is "weaker". Of course, pizza and flatbreads (naan,tortillas,etc) work best. Try a few things-it may prove to be a valuable addition to your repertoire.

Aravinda's picture
Aravinda

wow thanks!  I should add to my repertoire.  Can't wait to try it!

btw yesterday's loaves turned out fine.   I ended up using a bit under 1 TBS gluten per cup - which means 1 cup minus 1 TBS flour along with 1 TBS gluten to make a cup of flour.   Later I added a cup of flour which would bring down the overall propotion of gluten. 

In India we can get freshly ground wheat flour from the corner store but that flour is quite low in gluten.  99.9% of the time, people are using it to make flatbread, for which it works beautifully.  Pancakes and muffins turn out well too.  

When I have baked bread with it, I have found that it works better when I add gluten.  So I followed the same idea with the flour from the soft wheat berries.  I might try adding less next time just to see what happens.  Not that I have any problem with gluten but in the spirit of experimentation≥