Eliminating vital gluten from the artisan five minute bread
hi! I just started the artisan five minute bread, and I made a batch of the master formula. I am however frowning at the amount of vital gluten being added. I have been trying to get away from added gluten and yeast. I have been trying to use more natural ways to make my bread like sourdough. It's a personal choice, and I have been trying to do 100% whole grains. Can someone suggest alternatives to vital wheat gluten that is natural?
And if anyone has converted the master recipe to whole grain (whole wheat) and sourdough, can anyone suggest things I would need to add, subtract, ect? I know artisan bread in five minutes blog has given a few pointers on replacing vital gluten ( by adding more all purpose flour I think) and using sourdough, but I just wonder if anyone has any more personal advice to give? Thanks everyone!!!
sourdough, the only way to do that is to use 100% whole grains water, salt and sourdough. What VWG does is to give more lift and proof and spring to the dough and bread. But just leave it out and realize the dough and bread will likely be less lofty. No worries at all without the VWG. Can't get more natural than that.
Happy whole grain baking the natural way.
I think the 5 minutes a day recipes rely on high hydration and time (couple of days or so in the fridge) to develop gluten in the dough without kneading. I'm not sure if this would happen spontaneously in a whole grain, naturally-leavened dough, but it's worth a try for sure. I used to make their oatmeal bread (adding raisins and cinnamon) and found that the resulting bread was pretty dense, so now I have modified both the formula and the method, and it is no longer 5 minutes a day! Not too much more work though. I pre-soak the oats and raisins both, and work the dough a bit before putting it in the fridge. The resulting dough structure (and finished crumb) is much more pleasant.
is another book by the same authors. I'm pretty sure I remember it having some whole grain recipes.
Also, I don't know that VWG isn't natural. Depends how it's made I suppose. I'm not sure (again), but I seem to recall that it can be made without using anything artificial or chemical.
Totally natural process that vegans use all the time to make seitan.
Just get some WW flour and make a 60% hydration dough ball. Let sit under water in a large mixing bowl for 30 minutes. Gently knead the ball under water n the bowl. When water turns clear, dump the water and replace with clear water, Keep kneading under water and dumping the cloudy liquid until the water stays mostly clear. What you have left is the vital wheat gluten or seitan, what vegans call mock meat.
You can cut off small pieces of this and knead it into your dough to up the protein and gluten content of the dough, or you can do what I do roll as thin as possible and dry it in a dehydrator at 105 F so the protein isn't denatured. Once dried you can grind it in a coffee grinder into powder.
So VWG is nothing miore than the pure natural proteins found in whole wheat.