Gluten has been feared and revered, misunderstood and maligned. A common misconception is that gluten is part of flour. Gluten is formed from flour when water is added. That bag of all-purpose flour sitting on your counter contains two proteins necessary to form gluten: glutenin and gliadin.
When water or a liquid including water, like milk is added to these two proteins, they link together, forming gluten. The higher that protein content, the more gluten-forming protein a specific type of flour contains. When you mix batter made with cake flour rather than all-purpose, less protein is present; as a result, the batter will develop less gluten.
Bread flourmelleruds öl gluten the other hand, has a protein percentage of All-purpose flourmeanwhile, has a protein percentage comfortably in the middle of this range at An important note on whole-grain flours: The total protein content of whole wheat flour is That's because bran has sharp edges when ground, which cut some of the gluten strands and interferes with their structure.
You can read more in our post on choosing the right flour about how this leads to shorter, denser bread. In that case, how is gluten developed? When liquid is added to glutenin and gliadin, they start forming bonds that link together, developing strands of gluten.
As you mix and knead batters and doughs, you encourage the gluten to develop further. Remember how there were two different types of protein found in flour? They each do something slightly different in dough as gluten develops. Glutenin gives the dough elasticity so it can snap back like a rubber bandwhile gliadin contributes extensibility which means the dough can be stretched.
You know that network of gluten strands we talked about, that forms when dough or batter is agitated? This web is capable of trapping gas bubbles; the stronger it is, the more gas it can hold, leading to more air in a baked good and thus a higher rise.
At the same time, those interconnected strands become longer and stronger the more the gluten develops, which leads to more chewiness and toughness in the final product. For breads, you want a lot of dough strength to create chew and trap gas as dough rises, while for cakes and other tender baked goods, you want a delicate texture.
To achieve each of these goals, you need to control the extent to which the gluten is developed. You can tell your gluten has been properly developed when it comes time to shape your dough. One way to ensure you hit the right sweet spot is to follow the visual cues for your dough called out in a bread recipe, and err on the side of too much kneading rather than too little.