Hi. I have a question about high-gluten flour.

The bread books I have, mention high-gluten flour at 14% protein. I can't get this in Australia (at most, 12.5% protein flour is the strongest I could source).

I've made a sourdough multigrain bread, which calls for high-gluten flour and I made my own high-gluten flour. I'd like to know if adding gluten flour (or vital wheat gluten) is the same as getting flour made from a high-gluten wheat (e.g hard spring wheat).

I used some basic algebra to make my bread flour (12% protein) into a 14% protein flour, using gluten flour (which comes with 70% protein - but this is made by mixing flour with water into a slurry and washing out the starch, leaving only the gluten, which  is then dried and milled into a flour. This means the gluten was first hydrated, then dried and milled).

Does added gluten behave as normal gluten during mixing (i.e gluten that hasn't been hydrated first)?

Another 'lurker' coming into the light. I live in Puerto Rico--in the mountains where the temperatures are mild and humidity is usually high.

I have 2 issues (at least)

STORAGE TIME: I have been happy baking with KAF bread flour which I bring in my suitcase after travels in the US. Now I want to scale up my baking and have access to bulk flours through a food co-op. How much can I buy without serious degradation of quality in 1 month of storage at ambient temperatures(65-82 F)?

BRAND of BREAD FLOUR: emphasis is on organic flours at the co-op. any opinions about Giusto's, Arrowhead Mills or Bob's?

What do folks think about adding GLUTEN (Bob's Mills) to all-purpose flour when making bread?

Thanks for your advice, Patty

i bought some high gluten flour from naples. i used it and it was good but i wasn't blown away with the difference. is there any difference if you add in wheat gluten than using high gluten flour.

i make bagels and have been using barley malt syrup in the dough and in the boiling water. i just tried diastatic malt powder instead in the dough. is there a difference from the syrup. thanks.

People concerned about the quality of their flour may wish to take a look at a good NY Times article, part of which says: 

Tracking the flow of wheat gluten around the world, much less evaluating its quality, is like trying to contain a drop of dye in a churning whirlpool.

The article is found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/opinion/17mcwilliams.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Good luck!

Is gluten flour not the same as gluten?  I looked in the only store in my area I think might have gluten, and the closest I could find was "vital wheat gluten flour".  I figure I'm going to need extra gluten from time to time if I'm grinding my own flour (especially since I LOVE rye bread with caraway seeds).  But gluten is pretty much out of fashion these days.

And if it's not the same, how should I use the pound of gluten flour I bought?

Woo! Hoo!

Referring back to my blog about not being able to make my bread rise..........well, it rose!

I adapted a recipe from BBA. I have been wanting to make Pane Siciliano but time wasnt permitting so I used the Anadama Bread recipe but didnt use the soker. I added 1 cup of fine semolina,

1 cup gluten flour and 2 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour (wholemeal) 2 teaspoons of yeast, salt, 2 TBSPN Barley Malt and about 2 1/2 cups of water.

I did this as I didnt have time to do the soker over night then then let the shaped dough rise in the fridge etc.