There is plenty of reading material on what gluten is and what its function is in baking, so I feel like I have a decent understanding on that topic. However, I am not finding much on the reasoning behind gluten-free baking, as compared to "regular" baking. What are some good references that are detailed and thorough?
NOTE: I am not looking for recipes. For example, the following is more recipe-oriented:
I am looking for a detailed and systematic treatment of questions such as:
- What ingredients can help replace gluten in gluten-free recipes?
- When considering alternative flours, why choose one type of flour over another? For example, why choose sorghum flour over rice flour?
- When compared to baking with gluten, what differences are there in technique (hydration, kneading, warm rise, cold rise, etc), and WHY do these differences exist? For example, should your dough be wetter or more dry? Should you knead for longer or shorter periods of time?
- What differences are there in heat (temperature, duration), and what is the reason for these differences?
Best Answer
The reason behind "Gluten-Free" as a buzzword? Humans can be allergic to gluten strands. Unless you are using a recipe that is having low gluten or high gluten content related problems (too soft or hard due to gluten bonds), the only reason to reduce gluten is to accommodate someone's food allergy. In which case you need to eliminate gluten altogether. Many people who have severe reactions simply will not eat food unless they know it was prepared correctly. In a very American twist, I have met some of those people who are not allergic to Gluten, have no sensitivity to it, and treat "going Gluten-Free" as if it were something other than a dietary restriction; more like a lifestyle or weight diet than one that keeps your body from attacking itself.
Like any restriction, best practices are input control-based: (1) referencing what contains wheat or gluten and (2) making sure you don't buy any by reading the ingredients. In addition to actual gluten-specific sensitivities, the Candida diet requires that adherents avoid grains due to immune reactions to gluten (this is semi-dubious in that this is applied above and beyond the scope of defined allergy). In terms of any guide to gluten-free'ing your foods, it isn't that complicated. Basically you need to develop a back-catalog of substitutions. There is less concept, more trivia.
The degree of elasticity in bread is determined by its gluten content. In many problem-solving questions you will see offered that vital wheat gluten or other 'hard flours' can be added to doughs needing more gluten, or that 'soft flours' with low gluten can be added where a dough is coming out too chewy.
How to substitute; Each of the different flours has a different taste (garbanzo flour is nutty, corn flour tastes like corn) and texture (vital wheat gluten can replicate chicken flesh when cooked as seitan; or consider the difference to the tooth between white, whole wheat, and semolina flours). For gluten containing flours, each also has varying levels of gluten.
In dealing with Gluten in flour; for the purposes of food sensitivity, you can't diminish the gluten content by any technique. If it's there, then it's not going to be viewed by most people on a GF diet, and certainly much less anyone with Celiac's, as palatable. Here are some trouble-shooting points to consider with respect to navigating gluten;