I started my own sourdough starter a couple of months ago - simple organic white bread flour and water - and moved it into the fridge a couple of weeks later. It is lovely, lively and just the right level of sourness.
But I have recently started to notice something odd.
Howdy!
The last few times I've baked sourdough bread, gluten strands have had a difficult time forming, and they seem weak. I knead it in my Bosch first, and had better luck by hand just today. At first I thought I might be overkneading it in the Bosch, but the last time, I'm sure that's not the case. When the dough rises, the gluten strands that had formed are very weak and the dough falls apart easily. When baked, the crust is lumpy since the skin on the dough is weak and breaks while rising.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Hello,
With the help of folks on this forum, I've been perfecting a South-Beach-friendly whole-wheat bread recipe (ie., using no sugar or white flour). The ingredients and procedure I'm using now can be found at:
http://bmbmisc.home.comcast.net/bread_2.html
The resulting loaves are tasty and have a nice, although heavy, texture.
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?
