Bread Machines For Dummies (5 page)

Bran:
The protective outer coating or skin of the wheat kernel. It's insoluble fiber, meaning it does not dissolve in liquid. Bran is not present in white flour. Many people sprinkle wheat bran on their morning cereal, include it in casseroles, or add 1 or 2 tablespoons to their bread dough to add fiber in their diet.

Germ:
The embryo or sprouting section of the wheat seed, the germ contains the majority of the grain's vitamins. It too is removed when white flour is milled.

Endosperm:
The substance within the wheat seed that nourishes the embryo, the endosperm is primarily protein and starch. When the endosperm protein is mixed with liquid, it's called
gluten.
Gluten is what makes dough elastic, so that it becomes pliable when kneaded. Gluten also allows CO
₂
bubbles created by fermenting yeast to develop a honeycomb of pockets in the dough, causing the dough to rise. Gluten is why wheat flour is almost always used in bread. Other flours can be added for flavor and texture, but wheat flour is normally in the largest proportion.

If you cook at all, chances are you have all-purpose flour in your kitchen or pantry. All-purpose flour is white flour milled from the endosperm of the wheat berry. Both the bran and germ have been removed. Of all the flours available, all-purpose flour has the greatest variety of uses. It's used to make cakes, muffins, pie dough, cookies, cream sauces, gravy, quick breads, and yeast breads.

While you can use all-purpose flour in your machine, it usually does not have enough protein to make the gluten needed to get dough to stretch when kneaded in a bread machine. This makes for undersized loaves. Therefore, we don't recommend using it. If you are using all-purpose flour in your bread machine and getting small loaves, switch to bread flour the next time you make bread.

Bleached flour is chemically whitened, usually with a chlorine gas or benzoyl peroxide. It is thought that bleaching flour strengthens the protein and gives it a longer shelf life. Bleached flour is preferred by American bakers because of the esthetics associated with white bread. Unbleached flour, on the other hand, is creamier in color although it does whiten with age.

Bleaching flour does not change the flour's nutritional value or functional use. Whenever you hear the word
chemical,
it may be an alert word that sparks a watch-out, avoid, or do-not-use thought pattern. However, chemicals are part of food production and are not necessarily harmful to your health. In the chemical whitening of flour, the bleaching agent evaporates and no harmful chemical residues remain in the flour.

Never use self-rising flour in a bread machine. Milled from soft wheat, it has baking soda and salt added and is used for dumplings, biscuits, and pancakes. Even if you think you can use it by omitting the salt in the recipe, your bread will not turn out okay. Self-rising flour doesn't withstand the rigorous mixing or kneading of the bread machine, and the bread will not rise well. Don't disappoint yourself unnecessarily.

Made from soft wheat, cake or pastry flour is very low in protein and is ideal for making flaky pastries and light-as-air cakes. Do not use it to make bread, however, as it produces too little gluten.

Bread flour is milled from hard wheat and produces the largest loaves of any flour, because it has a high amount of protein. Protein becomes gluten and forms an interlocking network of elastic strands that trap the gases produced by yeast, causing the dough to rise. As the dough is kneaded in your bread machine, the gluten network increases and strengthens. You can easily find bread flour in supermarkets, specialty stores, and ingredient catalogs.

As the name implies, flour producers use the entire wheat berry to make whole-wheat flour. When you make breads with whole-wheat flour, you will find them to be shorter and denser than breads made with bread flour. This may be true for two reasons:

If you use whole-wheat flour, the dough in the bread machine may look too wet at first. This happens because the bran in the flour resists absorbing the liquid. Therefore, it takes longer for the whole-wheat flour to absorb the moisture than it does for bread flour. Be sure to check the dough in your bread machine after about five minutes of kneading. If the dough is still too wet, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. However, if the dough is quite dry looking, add more liquid, 1 tablespoon at a time.

You can make 100 percent whole-wheat bread in almost every bread machine, but most recipes use a combination of whole-wheat flour and bread flour. Blending these flours makes the texture softer and the bread more palatable, while at the same time providing the fiber and flavor of the entire wheat berry. The whole-wheat flour found in most supermarkets is only of average quality for making bread. For you purists, purchase whole-wheat flour especially milled for bread making. It is available in some specialty food stores or mail-order catalogs. Also, there is a blend of whole-wheat and white flour on the market, which works beautifully in your bread machine.

This is a fairly new flour, milled from a new variety of hard winter-white wheat grown in Kansas. It has the same nutrient value as other whole-wheat flour but is milder and sweeter in flavor and lighter in color than flour obtained from hard red wheat. You may use it in any of our recipes that call for whole-wheat flour. We think it performs very well in a bread machine, either on its own or mixed with bread flour.

The germ is the embryo of the wheat kernel and is milled out of white flours. When it is added to bread, it provides fiber and gives a slightly nutty flavor. Wheat germ tastes better lightly roasted than raw. Usually, wheat germ is in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, but we have also found it with the dietetic health foods. After you open a jar of wheat germ, be sure to refrigerate it, as it will go rancid quite easily because of its high fat content.

Rancidity is the result of a chemical change in fat caused by exposure to air and age. Rancid fat has an unpleasant odor and taste. Whole grain flours, wheat germ, and wheat bran are susceptible to rancidity because of their natural oils. If you are in doubt as to whether your flour is rancid, wet your finger and touch the flour. A bit will stick. Taste this flour. If it's bitter, your flour is rancid and should be discarded.
Note:
Refrigeration prevents rancidity.

Wheat bran is the outer layer of the wheat kernel. Like wheat germ, it is milled out of white flours. You can add it to bread dough in very small amounts to increase the amount of fiber. Do not confuse wheat bran with bran breakfast cereal, as they are not the same. Wheat bran is a very small, thin flake. We usually find it in the dietetic health food section at the supermarket. Although wheat bran does not contain the amount of oil wheat germ does, it should still be stored in the refrigerator.

Millers are actually able to use white flour from hard wheat, remove the starch, and leave only the protein. They call this product
vital wheat gluten
(some call it
wheat gluten
or even just
gluten
). When you add it to bread, the dough becomes more elastic and expands easier. Although it is not absolutely necessary, vital wheat gluten definitely contributes to a higher volume and better texture in whole-wheat breads. We recommend 1 teaspoon for each cup of whole-wheat flour.

Do not confuse gluten flour with vital wheat gluten. Gluten flour is usually about 50 percent gluten and 50 percent starch. Professional bakers use it for bread, mixing it with low-protein flour. When we experimented with gluten flour in a bread machine, the bread was tough, so don't use it. See Table 3-1 for information on the protein content of different types of flour, and remember that adding vital wheat gluten can increase the amount of protein.

You can add vital wheat gluten to all-purpose flour as a substitute for bread flour. It increases the protein content and contributes to a higher volume than you would get by using only all-purpose flour. Directions for how much to use are on the vital wheat gluten package. We have found that 1 teaspoon per cup of all-purpose flour is adequate.