I recently purchased some South Asian whole wheat flour,
just to see what it's like. Turns out it's milled from
durum wheat, though I didn't notice that on the bag.

Still, the bread it makes has a perfectly good flavor,
it just won't rise very well. Can the rise be improved
by adding wheat gluten, and if so how much? I've tried
adding KA bread flour, but even at 60% KA the rise is
modest.

There's a YouTube video of a ciabatta-style bread made
from durum flour at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-LkIdLCcX0

The finished loaf appears to rise quite well, despite use
of considerable oil. I'm using no oil at all, just flour,
water, starter and sparing salt. Final rise is at warmish
temp (80-95F) for ~4-5 hours. I've avoided adding any
oil, thinking that will inhibit the yeast. Am I mistaken?

Thanks for reading, and any ideas....

bob prohaska



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