How to Make High-Gluten Flour

So your pizza recipe calls for a high-gluten flour but you only have all-purpose-flour in your cupboard? How about if your recipe calls for “bread flour” but you can’t find it at the store? No problem. All you need is some Vital Wheat Gluten (VWG) to fortify the flour you do have and you’re good to go. VWG is fairly easy to come by, so the only thing that separates you from the correct flour you need is a simple calculation!

What does protein percentage mean anyhow?

When flours list their “protein content” or “protein percentage” on the label, they are referring to how much gluten is in the flour. The more gluten (protein), the “stronger” your final dough will be. But gluten is not just any protein like the kind found in meat or dairy products. Gluten creates microscopic strands that interlink and create a mesh that holds together.

Gluten is what creates the chewy texture in bread and what gives your loaf the ability to trap gas. That’s why bread expands like a balloon and why gluten-free bread is so much harder to work with.

Different flours:

Flours are named based on their percentage of protein as follows:

• Pastry Flour: 8.0-9.0%
• Cake Flour: 9.0%-10.0%
• All-Purpose Flour: 10.0%-12.0%
• Bread-Flour: 12.0%-13.0%
• High-Gluten Flour: 13.0%-15.0%+

Notice that you might find a bag of flour labeled “All-Purpose Flour” and the label says it is 11.5% protein. A different mill might call their 11.5% protein flour “Bread Flour”. You cannot reliably figure out the protein content of your flour by the name alone, but you can definitely know the range. Pastry flour will never have enough protein to make good bread, for example.

Its not always easy to know what percentage protein your flour is, even if you look online. The flour I use, which is from Central Milling, is 11.5%. Everything from Central Milling lists protein content. But if you use a different brand, you might have to work at it a bit to find out…and you should. Knowing the protein content of the flour you use is helpful to better predict the final product, to reproduce a favorite recipe properly or to even be assured of success with your recipe in the first place.

The Calculator

So now let’s get back to the task at hand: You have an all-purpose 11.5% flour in your pantry and need a 12.5% flour to make some pizza. I’ve made this handy calculator below to make that a reality (credit to my math-wizard wife for coming up with the formula 🙂 ).

Let’s assume you are going to fortify your weaker flour with Vital Wheat Gluten (VWG). This comes in a bag you buy at the store and it is usually easy to find. Bob’s Red Mill makes an excellent product which I recommend and use a lot.

Simply plug in the numbers and you’ll get very close to what you need.

Formula

Update: July 2022

Due to the many request I have received, I am including the formula for the gluten calculator below:

((g Total Final Flour*Final protein percent desired)-(g Total Final Flour*Percent protein in VWG))/(Percent protein in main flour-Percent protein in VWG)

Example calculation

Let’s do a quick scenario using King Arthur Flour (they do list all the protein percentages and it’s easy to find). You have their All-Purpose Flour (APF) and want to get their version of High-Gluten flour.

King Arthur APF is listed at 11.7%. King Arthur High-Gluten flour is listed at 14.2%. You have some VWG and need to know how much of it to add to the APF to get High-Gluten flour. You need a grand total of 1,000g (1kg) of flour.

Plugging those numbers into the calculator gives you a result of 961g APF and 39g VWG. If you combine these together, you will have 1kg of High-Gluten 14.2% Flour.

What’s the difference?

Someone might ask, “so what’s the difference between a high-gluten flour I make myself versus one I buy pre-made at King Arthur Flour?”. That is an excellent question and I don’t have the definitive answer. Perhaps one day I will do a baking test to determine if there is any difference at all (but I doubt it). I have asked several master bakers like Didier Rosada and Peter Reinhart this exact question – they looked at me funny and shrugged. They didn’t know either.

All I can tell you is that I have been doing this for years with fantastic and predictable results. I am not really convinced many mills don’t do this same trick to create their higher-percentage flours in the first place!

Do you have a comment, question or experience with this? Please share your thoughts below.