Want to read the series? Find Part One here.
Also bits and bobs can be found in my sporadic tweets on twitter.
One should never underestimate the power of flour. Although butter, sugar and eggs (= fat, sweetener & binder) make baked goods taste delicious, it is only with flour that one can achieve baked-goods at all. It sounds so basic and elementary. It is. But these descriptors make the process of baking in another country from the one you're used to, no less complex or challenging. Or both. And then some.
Flour, or I should specify, wheat flour, is a multifaceted creature with many outfits. It can be cruel one day and loving the next. It can hold your sandwich bread-house up or pet your cake into melting submission. One day your crumb is light, even and perfect, the next it's dense and dreadful.
Wheat is a transformational grain, and depending on what you need it for, highly reliable.
But flour is changeable. Every bag of the powdery stuff is a snowflake, and terroir is of utmost importance. Who knew?
Bread bakers. Bread bakers knew.
There has always been bread. Pastries* came much much later. {*We have the Catherine de Medici to thank for that. Grazie Bella!}
Bread bakers are a rare breed. They are tough yet emotional, intuitive yet scientific, sorcerers and alchemists yet methodical, regimented time-keepers. They, too, wear many pairs of socks. To be a bread baker one must understand flour intimately because all bread is is flour and water (= moisture content.)
Which brings me to gluten. Gluten is protein living in wheat. It exists in many other non-wheat flours, and there are also a whole slew of flours where gluten is completely absent. Protein is structure. It is strength and spine and 2X4's and taut; gluten is the superhero hiding inside every grain of wheat. Just a bit of agitation will coax it out and, voila!, Wheat with a big W on it's chest and a long flowing cape emerges chest out, fists clenched. Ready.
It sounds like a tangent but it is not.
Perhaps my writing style is too flowery?
Protein is an umbrella term for what we professional cooks call all "dead animal" in the kitchen. It's a simplification of the food group but there it is. In this example, though, it's an important piece of the flour puzzle.
When you place a steak, a piece of fish, or even slabs of tofu in a hot pan the first thing you will notice is a seizing, a tightening, of that piece of protein. The protein contracts. It pulls in like you do when you step out into the snow in a T shirt. Know how to tell when a lamb chop is rare, mid rare and well done? You touch it and test for varying degrees of tenderness. The tighter the protein feels, the more "done" it is.
See where I'm going?
The reason for kneading bread dough is to work it. Work it! Push and pull, press and release, stretch and ricochet--- all that work is for coaxing gluten. Notice what happens when you begin to knead? The dough gets warmer, more elastic. In turn, if too much gluten is ignited, depending on what your end baked-good desired result is, you either need to throw out and start over, or rest said dough in a cool or freezing environment.
Gluten thrives in heat and sleeps in cold.
This is why most pie doughs (= pate brisee) will have you chill them before rolling out. Rolling dough is like kneading-- it is a form of agitation. An over activation of gluten where you don't want it creates "toughness."
But what does it all mean?
When you build a house, which is what a loaf of bread is, on a smaller scale, you need structural walls. Something needs to hold the roof up. But inside that house there are walls that separate rooms and they can be knocked out without the house falling down. Not all living structures are equal. In some bread you need a lot of structure, aka gluten, in others, not so much; and in sweeter breads, aka cookies and cakes, gluten needs to be present a bit, so that your baked good holds together, but not nearly as much.
Gluten is a thirsty protein. The stronger the flour (stronger = higher in gluten) the more moisture it is going to require. In turn, the stronger the flour, the drier your baked good will be, finished. The rate of moisture absorbtions also based on the grind of the flour. A grain ground finer will be thirstier, in turn more drying. [But we won't concentrate on grinds in this post-- too much information and you're likely to quit eggbeater altogether. One geeky point at a time.]
Moisture is not just water. It is sugar and fat as well. Sugar is many things: sweetener of course, but also color attractor, tenderizer and moisturizer. Inherent in many fats is the presence of water, as well.
Understanding the make-up of your flour is the beginning of being a better baker. As we all know, there are many variables in baking. We have so many choices! [Too many?] Some things needs to be constants. Decisions need to be made. If you're baking at home you can experiment every day. But in a commercial environment consistency is key.
In the last days I have made many of my tried and true recipes for cakes and quick breads. I have learned that in that England the "regular," (All-Purpose in America) Plain Flour here is very strong. The learning curve is steep and frustrating at first but the challenge brings great rewards, because with process comes education. A deeper understanding of the craft.
A renewing of re-learning and remembering.
And to be sure, a delicious appreciation of England's fantastic dairy, which will not be a post, per se, but an homage, if I can do it justice with mere words on a screen.
Until then, my pretties ~
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