Flour: protein % differences INTERNATIONALLY?
Hi dear all, I am wondering the following (still newbie sourdough baker):
In my understanding the higher the protein content of a flour, the better the result. Now, I see lots of recipes that use, bread flour, or strong bread flour with 13% protein content, because the more protein the more gluten, right?
I live in Spain, you can not get "bread" flour, at least it is not called that.
There is a "strong flour" with 13%protein content (I suppose this is bread flour), no there is my organic whole wheat rye flour which has 7,4% and the whole wheat spelt flour with 13,2%.
But isn't spelt supposed to be low on gluten, at least this is what a friend told me who is gluten intolerant!?
Can anyone explain the whole protein/gluten to me or point me into the right direction? Can it be that different flours, although made from the same grain, differ in protein/gluten content. What is the science behind it?I suppose there are international differences in how flours are referred to....
Spelt is high in protein, but its gluten is not very high "quality", so the dough made with spelt flour is very extensible.
Different flours made from the same grain can indeed have very different protein content. That depends on the specific variety of wheat, and on growing conditions. North American wheat tends to have a lot of gluten due to (I think?) drier growing conditions, and even American/Canadian all-purpose flour works well for bread baking (apparently - I am also in Europe). That's one of the reasons why, for example, very high hydration doughs with white flour are possible in the US, while in Europe you'd really have to find some specialty flour to allow that.
Here is a very detailed explanation about flours that is often shared here in response to questions like this: https://www.theartisan.net/Flours_One.htm
the link and info - this explains why I had some miss-happs with recipes from the US, ended up making tin loafs cause the dough was too wet ;) Thanks again.
Mariana made some good comments on this exact thing: making bread from lower protein (French) flours with the correct handling:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/482481#comment-482481
and subsequent comments.
She made a previous comment, but that was betore she realized that the original poster, bijection05, was in France and was using French flours.
--
Modern American bread recipes (ie, Tartine/FWSY style) are designed for modern American AP/bread flour, and it's the _recipe_ (formula) that misfires when lower protein flour is used.
Question: So how do the French make great bread from lower protein French flour?
Answer: they use formulas specifically designed for their flour.
Mariana explains.
Bon chance et bon appétit.
Abel Sierra, https://www.thefreshloaf.com/user/abelbreadgallery
wrote some good comments about Spanish flour here:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/56210/understanding-spanish-flour-types
And another relevant comment here:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/477829#comment-477829
Thank you this cleared up a lot and helped ;O) In the end, I suppose it's about trial and error, finding the mix and flour for your region! After all, buying local is the best.
When I moved from the U.S. to South Africa in 2009, I knew that the locally available flours would be somewhat different than the flours with which I was familiar. However, I did not know how they would differ, nor how small or large the differences might be.
Consequently, I devised a simple experiment. Working with 100g flour samples, I made a series of doughs at different hydration levels. Each dough had the same amount of flour, salt, and yeast; only the water quantity varied. One dough had 50g of water, another had 60g of water, yet another had 70g of water, and so on. I noted the differences in dough consistency as the doughs were mixed, kneaded, and fermented. And I examined the finished bread that each dough produced to see how they varied after baking. It was very instructive and useful, as it gave me a clear understanding of how that flour behaved at different hydration levels. While I didn't know everything that there was to know about the flour, I knew enough to have a basic understanding of how i might need to alter recipes/formulae that had been written for North American audiences.
You may want to do something similar with the flour(s) you have available.
Best of luck with your explorations.
Paul
Great idea actually - one question, when you say you were using 100g doughs, how did you proof and retard them, in little cups? Then proofed them and baked all together?Sorry might be a silly question, but I am just starting off with baking! :)
This post gives a detailed description of how I conducted the test, anmoo. Let me know if you have questions after reading it.
Paul
Will check it out an d try! :)