On 8/30/04 2:20 PM, "Wcsjohn" > wrote:

>>
>> Well, no... Gluten can be developed mechanically as you mention,
>> chemically (see supermarket bread labels for more on that), and by
>> hydration alone: Just mix some flour with water, and wait.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> --
>> Kenneth
>>
> Are you seriously saying that dough merely needs to be mixed and left and that
> it will, without further mechanical input, develop a gluten elasticity and
> structure that is good enough to make bread worth eating?
>
> John

John,

YES!

You can let hydrolysis do the heavy lifting and enjoy excellent levain
bread.

This is not quite so true with commercially yeasted breads. That form of
yeast works too quickly (unless severely retarded) for the gluten to develop
so you need to mechanically develop the dough.

High gluten/high protein flours and mechanical kneading (and aeration for
that matter) go hand-in-hand as technical "improvements" to facilitate
factory produced bread. I don't mean "factory produced" in a pejorative
sense here.

It took me longer to accept lower protein flours than hydrolysis. But that
subject would be another thread.

Will




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