Q&A for How to Add Gluten to Flour

Unless the flour you are using is specially made, all flours contain gluten. Bread flours generally contain added gluten, so when you supplement all-purpose flour with your own essential gluten protein, you are making it into bread flour. Whole wheat, rye -- it matters not. Gluten is what holds a dough together when it is under stress during bread making. Now, whether you should add it to pasta dough or not is another matter. Pasta is basically soggy, unleavened bread. Since you're not trying to make it rise, there wouldn't be any use in trying to fortify its ability to make gluten strands.

Yes, you can.

"Improver" is a general term that is applied to a number of things, from diastatic malt powder to nuts, grains, juice, etc., and yes, gluten. "Bread improver" is anything you add to your bread that "improves" it.

Yes. You can add it directly to the flour and mix thoroughly to evenly distribute it.

Yes, you can add wheat gluten to cake flour, but after you do, it will no longer be cake flour -- and will be usable for making bread if you put the right amount in. For cake flour to become flour for making bread, I would add about 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten per 2 cups of cake flour and be sure to mix it well.

Yes it can. That said, a light, fluffy, open texture versus a crumbly texture is more about dough handling then about the amount of gluten. If you are using pastry flour, you can add gluten to make it more like bread flour. If you are using regular whole wheat flour, it generally already has enough gluten so adding extra gluten may not be the best solution - lit may make the bread gummy. You might first try mixing bread flour with the whole wheat (50/50 as a start) and see if you get the results you want. Then increase % of whole wheat as you practice handling the dough.

Vital wheat gluten is made from the protein in wheat, so it's not gluten-free. In my experience, adding it to gluten-free flour works well.

A good starting point is to add 1 tablespoon of whey gluten to every 1 cup of arrowroot flour.

Yes, it is possible by knowing the amount of gluten you are adding and its protein content. For example, adding 2% vital wheat gluten with 75% protein results in a flour protein content of 13.5%.

No. The ratio depends on the recipe and the desired texture and flavor of the final product, so you should adjust the amount of vital wheat gluten based on the specific recipe.

You do not need to use more water if you add gluten. Gluten helps give breads and other baked goods their structure and texture, and adding it to a recipe does not require additional water.

Yes, they can. The proteins in egg whites help create a stronger gluten network, resulting in a fluffy, light texture and a more elastic dough, allowing for a uniform rise in baked goods.

It depends on the recipe, but generally 1% to 2% wheat gluten can help improve its structure and texture.

To raise your flour's gluten percentage to 14.5%, first determine the total weight of your flour. Multiply this weight by the difference between 14.5% and your flour's current gluten percentage. This product will give you the weight of VWG to add. For example, if you have 500g of flour with 12.5% gluten, add (14.5% - 12.5%) x 500g = 20g of VWG.