I seem to owe an apology to Mitch and perhaps others of you who might
have taken exception at my attention to conciseness rather than
preciseness.
Yes, I know: The way a mill increases the gluten potential of its bread
flour is to blend different wheat berry sources by testing the
properties of each carload of wheat that comes in, and combining the
wheat berries according to the desired type of flour being prepared
(short version: they increase the gluten in their bread flours). (Maybe
I could I blame my impreciseness on the flour mills who sell 'High
Gluten Flour?')
However, from you first paragraph, Mitch, one could possibly infer that
duram flour might be higher in gluten than red wheats since you relate
the gluten potential to the protein content. Hopefully that isn't what
you meant to imply.
A TIP to anyone who wants a wonderfully RICH TASTING YEAST BREAD: Try
replacing a portion of your bread flour with duram wheat flour. Do treat
it like you would other lower-gluten flours though (rye for instance)
and increase you gluten in the recipe in some other way, or expect a
denser loaf (which will, however, still taste sinfully good).
Sorry, Mitch, after all my years I still haven't learned how to keep it
'definitively accurate' AND short n' sweet! Thanks for 'setting us all
straight.'
Raphael