Generally, most types of wheat flour contain gluten, but not all kinds of wheat flour will have the same gluten level. For instance, high gluten flour is a specific variant of flour that many recipes will require.
If you have never tried high gluten flour before, you may be thinking, “What is high gluten flour?” I looked up the facts, and this is what I learned!
What Is High Gluten Flour?
High gluten flour is flour that has high gluten levels, which is normally 12-15% gluten. Typically, high gluten flour provides a lot of upward rise and stable structure, which is ideal for bread recipes. Since high gluten flour is commonly used for bread recipes, high gluten flour can be called bread flour.
Do you want to learn what high gluten flour is made of, how you can make high gluten flour, and what you can substitute for high gluten flour? Keep reading!
What Is High Gluten Flour Made Of?
Normally, high gluten flour is made of hard red spring wheat since hard wheat usually has more gluten than other types of wheat.
Occasionally, high gluten flour may be made from a mixture of different kinds of hard red wheat, such as hard red spring wheat, hard red winter wheat, and Canadian wheat.
Which Flour Is High Gluten Flour?
Typically, high gluten flour is any flour that has 12-15% gluten, which is bread flour.
What Is High Gluten Flour Used For?
Generally, high gluten flour is used for recipes that require a lot of structure, meaning the high gluten flour will help the dishes rise and spread upward.
Therefore, high gluten flour will normally be used in recipes, such as bagels, bread loaves, and more.
Moreover, high gluten flour is excellent for recipes that require a stable structure with a light and airy texture, such as pizza dough.
When you continuously knead or mix the dough with a high gluten flour, more gluten will develop throughout the dough to make your dish more “elastic.”
If you were to use low gluten flour instead of high gluten flour, you will notice that your dish will not rise and it will spread outward, which would not be ideal for recipes like bread loaves.
Additionally, you may find that using low gluten flour in a recipe that needs high gluten flour will be too soft.
How Do You Make High Gluten Flour?
You can make high gluten flour by combining all-purpose flour with vital wheat gluten, which is flour that is completely gluten and has very little starch.
For most recipes, you can mix one cup of all-purpose flour (with 1 ½ teaspoon of all-purpose flour removed) with 1 ½ teaspoon of vital wheat gluten.
Ideally, you should sift the vital wheat gluten and all-purpose flour or use a whisk to combine them thoroughly.
Keep in mind that making high gluten flour at home may not be as good as buying high gluten flour.
Generally, homemade high gluten flour may have an unknown gluten level, especially if you are new at baking.
Additionally, even experienced bakers are not sure how much vital wheat gluten should be added to the flour.
Moreover, the type of flour you use to create high gluten flour may not be made from hard red wheat, which is what high gluten flour normally contains.
What Is The Difference Between High Gluten Flour And Regular Flour?
As you can guess from the names, high gluten flour contains more gluten than regular flour since high gluten flour can have up to 15% gluten whereas regular flour has 8-11% gluten.
Since they have different levels of gluten, high gluten flour creates much more structured and larger baked goods but regular flour will not provide as much rise.
Additionally, high gluten flour can create light results, but high gluten flour can also make your recipes fairly chewy while regular flour can create somewhat softer dishes.
While high gluten flour and regular flour are both made of wheat, high gluten flour is made from hard red wheat while regular flour is created from a mixture of soft and hard wheat.
Is High Protein Flour The Same As High Gluten Flour?
Technically, high protein flour can be the same as high gluten flour because the more protein the flour has, the higher gluten the flour contains.
For instance, high protein flour that has roughly 12-14% protein will also have 12-14% gluten.
Therefore, some brands may use the terms high gluten and high protein interchangeably when referring to high gluten flour.
However, keep in mind that some brands may advertise their products as “high protein flour” for people who want to eat more protein in their diets, such as bodybuilders.
Is High Gluten Flour The Same As Vital Wheat Gluten?
Firstly, high gluten flour and vital wheat gluten have vastly different gluten levels because high gluten flour has 12-15% gluten whereas vital wheat gluten has 75% more protein.
Therefore, you cannot use vital wheat gluten as you would use high gluten flour. Instead, vital wheat gluten is added as a “supplement” to low gluten flour.
Is High Gluten Flour Keto-Friendly?
High gluten flour is usually not keto-friendly because most variants of high gluten flour contain 70 grams of carbohydrates per cup.
What Can I Substitute For High Gluten Flour?
Normally, you can add some vital wheat gluten into all-purpose flour to replace high gluten flour in most recipes, but you will not know how much gluten this mixture will contain.
If desired, you can skip on the vital wheat gluten altogether and only use all-purpose flour, but you will not get much rise or structure in your recipe.
Have a look at our other articles to discover what konjac flour is, what Kamut flour is, and what kuttu flour is.
Conclusion
Typically, high gluten flour is any type of flour that contains 12-15% flour, which is normally bread flour and high gluten flour is used to create structured baked goods like pizza and bread loaves.
While you can mix vital wheat gluten with regular flour to make high gluten flour, it is always better to get high gluten flour from the store to know how much gluten is in your flour.