I give up on the VWG
I bought some vital wheat gluten when I was attempting to bake with some brown rice flour I had been given. Didn't like results, gave the brown rice flour away on Freecycle to someone trying a gluten-free diet.
I still had the VWG, so decided to see what it would do for my usual bread recipe. Sourdough: biga, mix dough, autolyze, machine knead, French fold, retard overnight, shape, proof, and bake.
One teaspoon of VWG to approximately four cups of flour resulted in bread with a hard crust, low rise, and little oven spring. Too gluten-y, I would guess. I cut the VWG to half a teaspoon and had close to the same results.
I was hoping for the same structure and flavor I get when I splurge on KA white bread flour rather than my usual Gold Medal Better for Bread. Doesn't work. Takes the right grain in the first place, not just upping the gluten content.
What to do with the VWG? I suppose I could make seitan.
such a small amount of added VWG in 4 C of Gold Medal. Shows you how bad GM BFB flour is to begin with:-)
I baked the other day, my usual sourdough bread with mostly white bread flour (about 24% ww). No VWG. Bread had nice crust, crumb, oven spring. Much better than my VWG experiments. I do not know why the experiments failed. Oh well.
I do not think that the BFB flour gives quite the same depth of flavor as the KA, but I simply cannot afford the KA. If my loaves are very very good but not great, I can live with that.