The history of the bakery is parallel to the history of human civilization – the bread could have been one of the first foods processed by man and was certainly is the first to be produced on a large scale.
Bread is either leavened or unleavened. Leavened bread is made from a mixture of flour, yeast, salt and water. Unleavened bread does not contain yeast and therefore does not rise. It is a flat bread that is quicker to make than yeast-bread.
Wheat is more popular than any other cereal grain for use in baked goods. Its popularity stems from the gluten that forms when flour is mixed with water. Without gluten, raised bread is hard to imagine. Wheat is also preferred because of its mild, nutty flavor.
Bread flour typically is milled from hard red spring wheat kernels, with high protein-to-starch ratio, and is capable of holding a lot of water – 2 cups flour holds 1 cup water. It can produce the largest loaves of any flour, because it has a high amount of protein.
When flour is mixed with water, glutenin and gliadin form strands of gluten, important in the structure of baked goods. The main function of gluten in dough during dough mixing is to swell and hold water, forming cells with strong elastic walls which capture carbon dioxide formed during fermentation.
Wheat is the only common cereal grain that contains sufficient glutenin and gliadin for the formation of good-quality gluten for bread making.
Wheat flour for baking bread
