"betty hodge" <bettyho65@home.com> wrote:
>Will someone please explain to me the difference in vital wheat gluten and
>wheat gluten flour.
Betty,
Gluten is the protein in wheat flour that enables bread to rise by trapping
the gas produced by yeast fermentation -- like a balloon being blown
up. What you're calling "wheat gluten flour" is probably otherwise known
as "high gluten flour", that is, a wheat flour containing more gluten than
all-purpose or even bread flour. Cake flour and pastry flour have the
least gluten, all-purpose has more, bread flour has more still and high
gluten has the most.
Vital wheat gluten, which can be found in health-food stores or ordered
from King Arthur, is not flour, but just the gluten protein extracted from
wheat flour. It can be added to recipes to increase the amount of avilable
gluten. You need to mix it well into the dry ingredients before you add any
liquid.
Your recipe, which calls for both, probably includes another type of flour
such as rye, which has no gluten and therefore won't rise, unless it's
given special help through the use of high gluten flour and added vital
wheat gluten.
Mark Judman <Mark_Judman@colpal.com>