Baking Whole Grain Bread with Low Gluten Flour
A gorgeous bread made with 100% Catawba wheat grown by CGA member Red Tail Grains. The wheat had a protein content of 8.5%, which, conventionally, would be far too low for bread. But use methods in this post, and you'll be able to explore the vast flavor profiles offered by regional whole grains. Source: M. Woodward.
One complaint we sometimes hear about bread wheat grown in the Mid-Atlantic, is that protein levels are not up to snuff. Protein content in wheat is commonly used as a proxy for gluten content, and bread is commonly thought to require levels of 12% or more. Yet farmers find these protein levels difficult to achieve in the Mid-Atlantic. In celebration of A Whole Day for Whole Grain with the Whole Grains Council, we wanted to ask why that is, do you really need high protein for bread, and how can you adjust your technique to make it easier to bake with whole grains?
First, why is high protein elusive? All plants operate like little economies, converting inputs (water, nutrients, CO2) into outputs (leaves, fruit), making budgetary “decisions” (use this extra sugar to increase defense compounds, to grow more, or put it into storage?), and navigating external trade relationships (like giving bacteria a place to live and food in exchange for nitrogen). In wheat, we eaters are usually interested in yield (lots of grains, which are the fruits of wheat flowers), lots of starch, and lots of protein. The problem is, because of these economic tradeoffs, the conditions that produce the first two tend to result in lower protein.
We don’t yet fully understand the physiological mechanisms behind this tradeoff; there is a laundry list of factors, both environmental and agronomic. So we’ll stick our necks out and guess that the two most important factors for our region are soil moisture and the timing of nitrogen applications. In drier areas, yield will be limited by water availability, so excess resources (including nitrogen, a main component of protein) will be put into non-growth related processes, including drought defense and, of interest to us, grain protein content. In the wet springs of the Mid-Atlantic, this will sadly not occur that often. Happily, the farmer has more control over the other factor: nitrogen timing. It seems the general rule of thumb is, before Feekes stage 5, nitrogen will go to increasing yield; after that, it goes to increasing grain protein. This is not strictly true, because N stored in the leaves during early growth, especially the flag leaf, is then re-mobilized for grain filling. Further complicating matters for farmers, even if late applications of N don’t result in higher grain protein, they still might change the plant’s allocation of N to result in better baking qualities.
But is protein content really that critical for bread making? Conventional wisdom aside, many bakers have found that it is not. Lower protein is even desirable for some styles, including French breads, like baguettes (European wheat typically has lower levels of protein than what is found in American bread wheats). It is not that surprising that the accumulated ingenuity of bakers has figured out how to use pretty much any flour. In pre-industrial days, it was use it or lose it. Now, for those of us looking to develop a post-industrial bread culture, we can learn a lot from the past, including “listening” to the grain. This is the idea behind the slurry test.
The slurry test is a low tech way of assessing the quality of gluten in a particular wheat or flour. To do this, mix 85g of water with 100g of whole wheat flour. It helps to compare a good commercial whole wheat flour with the one you’re testing. How does it feel? Is it sticky, sloppy, and wet, or is it relatively dry and coherent? This gives you an idea of that particular flour’s ability to absorb water. Cover it and let it sit. Feel it again after 30 minutes and then 90 minutes. Is the dough becoming more coherent, meaning that the gluten is developing? When you stretch the dough can you pull a windowpane (meaning that the dough stretches and thins without tearing)? Then, let it sit (covered) overnight and test it again. Comparing a weak wheat flour to a strong one, what you are likely to see in the morning is that the strong wheat retains its ability to stretch thinly, while a weaker wheat will tend to pull apart.
So, what is happening when the dough starts to pull apart? Ideally flour used for bread should have gluten in which extensibility and elasticity are well balanced. This means that the gluten network is able to stretch (extensibility), but also to pull back (elasticity), much like a rubber band. Weak gluten tends to be more extensible and its gluten networks tend to break down more quickly. When you stretch the dough in the morning and it tears, this means that its gluten is breaking down and can’t support that stretching.
Can you bake good bread with such flour? Absolutely! But you need to adjust your techniques. Here are some of the things you can do:
Reduce your hydration (the amount of water relative to the flour). More water makes the dough more extensible and the dough won’t be able to support itself. By reducing the amount of liquid, you end up with a stiffer dough that is more manageable.
Don’t do an autolyse. In an autolyse you mix the flour and liquid before adding your leavening and salt. With strong flours this helps by giving the bran an opportunity to absorb the liquid and starting the process of building the gluten network, but with weak flours it promotes excessive extensibility.
Speed up the process by using more sourdough starter and/or doing a same day bake. When you slow down fermentation through lower amounts of leaven or by retarding the fermentation in the fridge, you are giving the gluten more time to break down.
In extreme cases, it can be helpful to use additives such as diastatic malt, ascorbic acid, psyllium husk, or vital wheat gluten.
For more details on how to bake successfully with weak wheat, you may refer to the following articles: Baking Bread with Low Gluten Wheat and Protecting Gluten in a Weak Dough.
The upshot is, while it may be harder for Mid-Atlantic farmers to achieve high protein in bread wheat crops, we can still make awesome bread AND support the regional grain chain. And farmers can focus on finding the cultivars that produce quality bread with lower overall protein while still delivering good yields.
Mark Woodward is a co-author of this post. In retirement Mark has become passionate about baking bread, specializing in naturally leavened breads made with home milled whole grain flours, frequently using grains grown by farmer friends in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2019-38640-29878 through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LS20-327. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
