FAQ for alt.bread.recipes

Flours

Flour is the basic structural material in bread. It supplies the gluten, the foundation of normal bread structure in wheat breads. Gluten is the stretchy protein matrix that spans the starch granules that give bread its mass, holding them in place, and traps the gases that result from fermentation, causing the dough to rise.

Flours used in breadmaking also include blends of wheat flour with non-gluten-producing cereals such as corn or rice, and with root crop products such as potato, tapiocal, yam, etc., or leguminous crops such as soy.

Technically, other grains, notably rye and corn, produce gluten when mixed with water just as wheat does. These glutens are of a different type, however. They are important to people who are sensitive to all forms of gluten; but they are not important in breadmaking, as they do not form the elastic, gas-trapping matrix needed in bread.

Bread flour is made both from hard spring and hard winter wheats. Spring wheat is preferred, as it provides better hydration and better mixing tolerance than winter wheat.

To be continued, at great length. This is just barely a start on this topic.