Beyond the recipe: Focus on Gluten

Being a home baker I have spent years following and creating recipes without truly understanding how my product went from being a bunch of ingredients to a finished product. I would pick up tips here and there, such as the importance of unsalted butter, but when a recipe would come out unexpected I was always left back at square one wondering where I went wrong. I continued to gain knowledge (thanks to the Food Network), but I desperately wanted a source that laid it all out for me. These past weeks I finally found my source at Elgin Community College. I am spending a semester learning and taking in as much as I can about the culinary world. Since this is not an opportunity we can all take advantage of, I don’t want to keep the knowledge to myself. After just one session in Baking I my eyes were opened to the baking process and all of those little bits of knowledge from multiple years all came together.

As a little kid I always asked why and wanted to know everything and anything. At some point, I lost that wonder and excitement and began to accept things the way they were without knowing why or how. Yet, as I learned WHY baked products came out the way they did and WHY every step in a recipe is so important, I somehow felt like a little kid again who wanted to learn as much as I could. I realized that learning the process of baking is not that complicated, but requires looking past a recipe.

When I learned the science behind baking, a term I heard over and over again was GLUTEN. This is the protein strand, present in wheat flour and provides the STRUCTURE and STRENGTH of baked goods. However, the way most people tend to hear about gluten these days is through the explanation of celiac disease. Celiac disease as defined by the Mayo Clinic is “ a digestive condition triggered by the consumption of the protein gluten, which is found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust, and many other foods containing wheat, barley or rye”. The amount of people affected by celiac disease is on the rise causing those in the food industry to completely transform how they make everything from pasta to cookies.

Whether you need to eat gluten- free or not, understanding the function of gluten in baked goods is essential. My explanation below outlines its reaction with other ingredients as well as ways to control for gluten development.
· Gluten and leaveners- The leaveners in a baked product give off gases when they react with heat. The gluten traps these gases so they can’t escape the baked good. Without the gluten the gases would escape and the product would deflate.
· Gluten and eggs- The protein from the gluten and the protein from the eggs form the structure through the process of coagulation or thickening of the proteins. The process of coagulation only begins when the proteins are heated to a high enough temperature. During the process the gases continue to expand, but once the process is complete the product can no longer rise and the structure is set. This stage is also known as the par- baked stage because the product has reached its final shape and if you removed it from the oven it would not collapse. The par- baked bread you can find at the grocery store would be an example of this.
· Gluten and fat- Whether you use butter or actual shortening any fat in a baked good is called shortening because it shortens the gluten strands to keep them from getting tough. Fat is the tenderizer of a baked good. This is why French bread which is meant to stay chewy has a very low amount of fat.
· Gluten and sugar- Similar to fat, sugar can also stop gluten development. Sugar attracts the water that is primarily used to hydrate gluten, so when the sugar is present the gluten is no longer the only source soaking up the water.
· Gluten and water- Water is essential for gluten to develop. During the coagulation stage stated above, the extra moisture absorbed is released because it no longer has a purpose to serve in the baked good and is evaporated as steam. Water is also a main component for the starches in a baked product through a process called gelatinization. During gelatinization the starches absorb water and add a great a deal of bulk to a baked product.

If you want to be in control of gluten development there are three ways to alter the outcome.
1) Control the amount of liquid
Less liquid equals a tender product – pie crust
More liquid equals chewy product- bread
2) Control the amount of fat
A good balance between fat and gluten development is essential. When you have a high fat content, but little gluten development your product will come out short.
3) Choosing the right flour
Flour ranges from strong to weak and the type you use for every product can produce a different result. Strong flours have higher protein content and will lead to stronger gluten development compared to weak flour.
4) Amount of Mixing
This is an extremely important step since it affects the development of gluten.
If you mix a product to long the gluten will be overstretched and your product will come out sticky and stringy. For products meant to be tender, such as cookies, the mixing should be kept very minimal. For chewier products you will need to mix a little longer for the gluten to develop.