vital wheat gluten

I use it in most of my 100% whole wheat breads.  I believe it's suggested to use 1 TBSP of vital wheat gluten for each cup of whole wheat flour.   For those 100% whole wheat loaves that I made without wheat gluten, they just didn't rise as high as those baked with wheat gluten. 

I've never added wheat gluten to any doughs, and I don't think I will either. Just the other day, I read another newspaper article about the possible connection between coeliac disease and this additive.

Dan, thanks for sharing your experience.  You're right, if one is severely allergic to gluten then all wheat products should be avoided.  I have done a home experiment to compare the results of a loaf of 100% whole wheat with VWG to a loaf without.  The result was about 10 - 15% difference in height. 

I am making another two loaves of sourdough cottage cheest dill breads just now.  I used four T of gluten so I added an addition 1/4 C of water in the dough.  For some strange reasons, the dough seemed to be wet.  I had to go out so left the dough at home to rise for four hours.  Have just returned home and found he dough not quite double!  I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I didn't knead it as long as I normally do (had to leave in a hurry so just kneaded for 10 minutes instead of 15).  Think I should add some more flour and hand knead it a bit more before the final rise?

I have been home for three hours and am still struggling with the dough.  The gluten didn't get developed properly so the dough was not firm.  It was almost like I'd forgotten to add salt into the dough.  But I am sure I did. 

Anyways, since the dough had already risen for 4 hours I didn't want to wait any longer.  I proceeded to punch down then slowly worked more flour into the dough.  Painstaking slow, one tablespoon at a time.  After adding 1/2 cup of flour, the dough looked more like a dough for loaf instead of ciabetta.  You know what they said the dough should look like a baby's bottom.  It looked like a baby's bottom all right, with a rash!  I worked enough flour into the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes, hoping it would somehow hold better. 

Ten minutes later, I went back to work at it a bit more.  Let it rest some more then tried to shape it.  I saw it was still not firm enough so I divided the dough then worked a bit more flour in each one of them.  It was finally firm enough for shaping but the tension was still wrong.  At that point, I knew I didn't have much time left before the dough would give up so I had to let it go for final rise. 

I know the tops are going to crack and pull sideway but there's nothing much I can do about that at this point.  I have a pan of hot water in the oven directly under the two loaves, right now,  and I will let them sit there for another two hours then will bake them.

I don't normally have problems with a loaf of bread with cracked top but these two are ordered loaves and I would like to make them more presentable.  If they don't turn out right, I will have to email my customers to tell them that their breads will be one day late. Shorted my dough 5 minutes and now I have to work an additional three hours trying to make it work.  Lesson well learned.

Dan, thank you for your reply.  I want to clarify that I am not running some bakery business. A few people from work and school are willing to pay me to make them a loaf once a week.  I used to give them my breads but I guess they didn't want to keep taking it for free so they decided to pay me.  I also like the idea of getting a few bucks a loaf because the money I get back allows me to keep my hobby as a home baker. 

I don't take anything you say harsh.  Despite of 20 years of yeasted bread making experience, I am fairly new to sourdough.  I understand there are a lot that I can learn from everyone in this site. 

The dough that I used was pretty stright forward and I have done it many times.  The only difference I did yesterday was that I had to leave my house in a rush and didn't have enough time to knead the dough as I always do.  When I came back, I noticed the dough was not quite where I would like it to be so I tried to work at it.  Fortunately, my experience dealing with yeasted bread did save the day.  The loaves turned out just fine and they will be delivered this afternoon.

I have posted pictures of the final products here

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11889/despite-struggles-these-two-turned-out-all-right-i-think

When I wrote my last post I was more thinking out loud but probably too loud that my message confused people.  I apology for the misunderstanding.    I thank you for taking your time to reply my post.  That's very kind of you.  People like yourself are what keeping this site one of the best on the Internet.  Best regards!  Al

Yes, I realized what a difference 5 minutes could make.  It's a lesson well learned.  I am glad too that the loaves turned out well.  Since I started making sourdough breads I make my efforts to avoid using commercial yeast.  I still use it for the odd baking but for my breads, they are all sourdough these days.

Pertaining to Bread Baking I love using VWG in my ingredients for my Whole Wheat Breads that I mill my own wheat berries for my flour.

Buying VWG in large qty's is very expensive and if it is Organic, it's extremely rare as I've only found 1 company and it's $47.00 for a 5# bag.

My question is how do they make VWG and does anyone know the ingredients?

I know how to make Gluten or seitan, is VWG the raw gluten (the stuff that looks like brains), then dehydrated and ground into powder. Is this VWG?

I have got to know the ingredients and how this stuff is made, I'm just hoping its what I just mentioned but I'm probably not talking apples to apples.

Please Help.

Thank you in advance.

Ronnie

Gluten is the protein that remains after the starch has been washed out of wheat flour.  It is then dried and ground into a powder.  As such, it has no 'ingredients' and isn't 'made'.  It is simply a fraction of the wheat flour. 

It really isn't necessary to use vital wheat gluten in bread making.  In most cases, simply using techniques that make the most of the naturally occurring gluten in your flour will yield appetizing bread.  You save money, too.  There's also the fact that a lot of the gluten being sold originates in China, which hasn't had a good track record for producing safe and healthful food products in recent years. 

Paul

See Modernist Bread for VWG % add to rye etc.  Method matters as it's all about getting the water into the flour.  If in doubt go Van Over and find out the truth!