Dough Enhancers for making Delicious Bread: Food Storage Recipes

Posted by Crystal-Everyday Food Storage on Monday, March 9, 2009 · Comments

One of my most commonly asked questions is about gluten and it’s purpose in a whole wheat bread. So that has also spurred on questions about a dough enhancer. You should definitely be using dough enhancers in your whole wheat bread because whole wheat flour is heavier and courser than all-purpose flour. The problem is that dough enhancer as a product can be very expensive and you can actually make your own! But in order to understand how to use the dough enhancers we need to understand their purpose in bread. Then you can make any whole wheat food storage bread recipe DELICIOUS with your own dough enhancers! After all we need to know how to make our recipes delicious food storage recipes!

Tips for using your own everyday items as dough enhancers in WHEAT BREAD: (It’s best to use ALL THREE of these enhancers when making whole wheat bread)
Gluten: use 1/2 T. – 1 T. per cup of flour (this means before you measure a cup of flour place the 1/2 T.-1 T. gluten in the bottom of your cup and then measure flour as usual)
WHITE Vinegar: use the same amount of vinegar that you are using for yeast (i.e. 1 t. yeast – 1 t. vinegar)
Potato Flakes: use 1/8 to 1/4 C. per loaf of bread you are making, experiment to see what works best in your recipe. (do not substitute in potato pearls, they don’t dissolve as easily and are artificially flavored which you will be able to taste in your bread)

Make sure to check back Wednesday for my video on how to make bread (non bread machine style!)

Filed under Baking, Bread, Cooking Tips, How To Video · Tagged with

Joyce Augustinis

Do you ever make french bread with the crispy crust and big bubbles inside?

eatfoodstorage

Yes, do a search on my blog for french bread.

Cindy Johnson

Thanks so much for explaining dough enhancers. Many of my friends use them in their bread making but no one could ever explain to me why. I am a why question person so this helps me understand why I am doing what I am doing.

deb bautista

am so glad i learned to make good bread after i found your site. it came handy last week when we got hit by a terrible storm here in the phil. we are lucky that the flood waters rose to just knee level and so we were still able to move around our home. some friends and relatives had to stay on the roof of their home and evacuate to escape the flood which competely covered 2 storey houses

dude

B h + K e

blossom

hi dude

Nancy Today

Although those three things may make your bread better, you can have excellent bread without using any of them. Water, wheat and yeast are the only necessities for making bread. You can make endless variations on those three, though.

Susie

Can't wait for your book to be available. I love your videos!!

Do I need to keep wheat gluten in the fridge?

You have inspired me to bake bread again.

Heather

Love all this info! I'm just eating it up! Thanks
Where is the best place you have found to buy Gluten in larger amounts?

Stephanie

Thanks for this post! I'm too cheap to go out and buy gluten, so it's great to know that I can use vinegar and/or potato flakes to improve the texture of my wheat bread. Awesome!

Eva

Wonderful videos! I have a question about the wheat flour. Do you use hard red wheat or soft white wheat and what is the difference?

Thanks for all you do to help us learn about cooking with food storage. I am 65 years yound and still learning.

Eva

Julie

I have found that if I want my bread to be nice and round with good texture for slicing, I have to use gluten and vinegar (lemon juice also works the same). If I only use the vinegar my bread tends to fall a bit and the top looks lumpy. It also ends up being more crumbly. Vital wheat gluten is wheat, hi gluten flour is more refined white flour. They work the same, it just depends on what you want.
I do have a question though. Is there anything you can do to 'rescue' your bread if the gluten hasn't fully developed during the mixing ( I do mine for 8 min in the bosch)? It's happened a few times when I haven't added any gluten. It still turns out okay, just not great.
Thanks!

debbie

Have you ever used powdered butter? I just purchased some from Macy's today and just trying to figure it out.

Jen T

This was a great video, but I also am wondering, do you need all of them or just choose one? Thanks!

luv2teek

Thanks for the information on dough enhancers. I have a 100% whole wheat recipe I use that calls for gluten, and it makes a very good bread. It's good to know these other things can substitute or be added along with the gluten. I'll have to try some of them next time I bake. Can't wait to see your post on the actual baking. Always open to learning new methods and healthy recipes. Thanks...smiles and sunshine...Bev

Emy

Is there a difference between vital wheat gluten and gluten flour?

gaby

thank you so much for the explanation

I use vitamin c in all the recipes that call for dough enhancer but if I can use the vinegar instead of the dough enhancer that really cool because it is very cheap I'll ready have it in my pantry so could you explain these a little more

so instead of dough enhancer I will use the vinegar and it will depend on the yeast that I add to my recipe? so I will not pay attention to the measure that call for dough enhancer?

thanks Crystal!!!!!

Stephanie

I sometimes use 500 mg. Vitamin C tablets as a dough enhancer in my bread. Use 1 tablet for every 5 cups of whole wheat flour. You can mill these with your wheat berries, or crush them with between two spoons.

Joyce

Thank you, Crystal!

This is a wonderful instructional video.:) I'm beginning to reconsider trying bread making again. I've been so discouraged, that I finally gave up and decided that my family would have to eat quick breads we couldn't buy our bread.

Joyce

Laura

Thanks for the info. I am glad that you did not suggest the store-bought "dough enhancer". I have used it before and NOT been impressed. "Vital Gluten" is a great thing! I am convinced that it makes my homemade bread "slice-able" and hold together SO much better than the bread I had growing up! Knowing that vinegar can be a "dough enhancer" is VERY handy information too. I have added potato flakes before, but just for added nutrition, not as a help to the yeast. You have really done your homework and it is fantastic!!!!! Thanks SOOOO much for what you are doing!

Carlene

Thanks for the great explanation. I never knew why people used gluten or dough enhancers. I have the same question as Annie. Are you supposed to choose one of the dough enhancers at a time? Also, I love the viengar idea. At what point would you add the vinegar to the dough?

Thanks again for all you do!! You're making a huge difference in a lot of lives!

Annie

So, are you supposed to use all 3 of these dough enhancers at a time, or just choose one? I have bought dough enhancer and gluten, but have yet to try the gluten and now I'm excited that I don't really have to have both on hand :)

Amy

Your cookbook looks amazing! I can't wait till it comes out. Thanks for the details on dough enhancers.

pam

Thanks, I do have a recipe that I add the vit. C too, I will have to give the vinegar a try, I always have it around and its a lot cheaper. Thanks forthe tips.

Shayleen

Thanks for telling us all why we need dough enhancers. I do use gluten and potato flakes. Do I also need to use vinegar then? Also, I only use 4 t of gluten (3 c of whole wheat flour & 1 c of white flour). Do I need to increase my gluten to 4 T?
Also, I would love more texture in my whole wheat bread. How do I add more texture with either oatmeal or wheat or something. I'm always nervous to venture out of what I know works for our family ;)
One more question. I live in OH and would love to buy gluten in a bigger container than the little box at Kroger. Do you know where I can get that (or order that from)?

Shreela

Great instructional movie. I recently bought wheat berries, but was worried about making heavy, dense bread. Now I'll wait until the next segment of this comes out before trying.

"Goo, it's called goo", cracked me up 8^)