Am planning to make a no-knead-style Rye loaf for Reuben sandwiches (am also corning a brisket). I have King Arthur Bread Flour, and am thinking something like a 25-30% portion of rye flour (Bob’s Red Mill) and instant yeast. I also have Gold Medal AP flour.
At the supermarket I grabbed a bag of vital wheat gluten, as I’ve read that rye needs a protein boost, but I notice rye-bread recipes pointing to AP flour with vital wheat gluten. So, is using VWG with bread flour called for, or redundant? I only need a bit of VWG, and that pound bag cost $10, so I might return it if it’s not really needed.
KA high-gluten is a whopping 14.2% (im guessing this almost has to be machine kneaded!)
From the KA website, “A tablespoon or two added to whole wheat, rye, oatmeal, or other whole-grain breads strengthens structure while lightening texture and promoting a good rise. Vital wheat gluten will absorb moisture from the dough; you may need to adjust the dough’s consistency by adding another tablespoon of water.”
I’ve used KA High-Gluten Flour. It is indeed pretty tough stuff. Suited to NY-style bagels, I think. Over-high protein for pizza and most breads. IMO.
The high-protein of KA Whole Wheat I’ve found not to offset the gluten-shearing qualities of whole wheat bran shards, so one still needs some boost—admixture of white flour, or vital wheat gluten, etc.
About KA High Gluten and Sunshine842 mentioning machine mixing: I’m confident that kneading at any high speed at all would burn out the motor even of KitchenAid’s top-line current-day stand mixers. (Different story concerning the KitchenAid vintage machines with French motors.) I have found that my Zojirushi bread machine–which I mostly use just for kneading rather than baking–can handle KA High Gluten just fine, as could the better KitchenAIds at low speed probably. For surefire work with stand mixers, you’d need a commercial thing like a Hobart, or that Ankarsrum mixer from Sweden.
I did try hand kneading KA High Gluten flour at least twice. It’s perfectly doable but requires added patience. I bet I’d get carpal tunnel problems if I tried it daily.
I’d return it. I bought some because I thought it would help me avoid stocking bread flour, but then my AP did perfectly fine so the gluten is just sitting in the pantry.
ETA: Can you do a half-recipe trial? Here’s one that uses a similar rye proportion to what you described.
Thanks, Saregama! I will try that linked recipe sometime. It’s not a no-knead approach, though, and I’ve come to like the flavor of the long ferments there and will use it this time. But this looks like a promising quick version to try with my leftover Rye flour.
Same, I prefer the flavor of a slow rise — I’ve had success reducing yeast on other of her recipes back to 1/8 to 1/4 tsp with a long fridge rise. She’s got that described somewhere — maybe on her basic bread recipe. (The book and blog were COTM on chowhound a few years ago)
I keep vital wheat gluten around because I don’t want to stock both bread flour and AP flour - I just add a bit of gluten to AP to bring up the gluten percentage instead. If you are already using bread flour for the rest of your flour I don’t think you’ll need the gluten.
Here in the UK vital wheat gluten is pretty much unknown. Certainly no supermarket carries it. Two of the largest artisan flour milling companies do not sell it. One baking supplies company has it on their web site but customers have to search for it. GUessing that Amazon stocks it too.
Vital wheat gluten is never mentioned in the hundreds of baking books published in the UK and precious few if any of those published in the US; I know this because they are on the shelves to my right hand side.
This is what I do as well. I keep it in the freezer where it lasts forever right next to the yeast. Opens up a lot of space in the pantry for other flours. . .
Vital gluten is really helpful if you back with whole wheat flour. It gives you also a better structure when baking with rye and other non-gluten containing flours
