Flour is a key ingredient to any type of baked product. It contains the main component for dough texture and structure development: Gluten.
Gluten makes up 85-90% of the protein content found in wheat grains.
It is a water-insoluble network that makes the dough elastic and stretchy due to a series of hydrophobic bonding and disulfide bonding involving amino acids during mixing and kneading.
The higher the content of protein present in your flour, the more gluten it can develop.
So, for your next baking session, consider checking the protein content of the flour you are about to use. Typical yeast bread require at least 12% proteins and higher, while cakes and cookies only require 12% below.
Correction…cakes specially heavy fruited ones can benefit from high protein flour as it will help carry the weight of those materials. Meanwhile other cakes like pound cakes require medium protein, 10 to 11% protein. High liquid ,high sugar cakes ( hi ratio) requires low protein 8 - 8.5% …
Biscuits ,crackers and cookies is medium 10% to low 8.5% protein.
Further yeast breads can be satisfactorily made with 11% protein ( all purpose flour)…better for hand kneading as it takes less time to knead…Chorleywood Bread pProcess using mechanical dough development can even tolerate 10%flour protein but its laden with chemical additives and fast processing time.
