In today’s hectic world, many of us are victims of sacrificing high food quality for convenience. When it comes to bread, it shouldn’t have to be. Breadmaker machines are one of the greatest inventions of the modern kitchen.
I love my bread machine, it make the bread, with less than half of working time using traditional methods. There are some things they have left out of the recipe booklet, though. The moisture content of flour can vary depending on the age & the environment, and no matter how strictly you follow the recipe, sometimes the bread doesn’t come out to perfection. There are two components, we can help to turn the bread out better.
Wheat gluten is a grain protein which you can add. This is because not all flour has the same protein content. Bread flour has the highest which is followed by all-purpose flour and at the bottom is cake flour. Bread flour costs the most but you don’t have to have it. All-purpose flour works well for the making of bread if you add wheat gluten. So instead of buying all different types of flour for the different things you make why not buy all-purpose flour and use wheat gluten when you are making bread. Wheat gluten is not very expensive and you use a tiny amount when making bread. As little as two teaspoons per a loaf, so it will last a long time.
When you add wheat to the bread machine recipes , the best results obtained in is adding it with the flour.The manufacturer of my bread maker machine recommends adding water before flour so I go and add the wheat gluten straight after I put the flour in as to keep it away from the water.
The next secret ingredient is Dough Conditioner. Their are lots of commercial bread improver’s which have slightly different ingredients- a combination of wheat gluten, yeast and other chemicals like ascorbic acid(Vitamin C), ammonium chloride, DATEM, different salts of calcium, and maybe some soy.
It is a common problem with bread maker machines that have vertical pans to have a lighter crumb at the top of the loaf and a denser crumb at the bottom. Dough conditioners are here to help solve this problem by strengthening the texture and giving the bread a more consistent rise, leading to a more consistent crumb.
As in the case of wheat gluten, you do not have much. In fact, very few. For 1 1 / 2 pound of bread, I think it is only a teaspoon 1 / 4 of dough softeners enough to give me good results.
Whether it’s wheat gluten or dough conditioner, you’ll want to check the suggestions on the package for suggested amounts. With the dough conditioner, different brands will give you different results.
Learn more about Bread Maker Machines. Stop by John Ashley Stephens’s site where you can find out all about Bread Makers and what it can do for you.
Tags: bread, bread making, bread making tips, Cooking, food
