Chemistry of Gluten Free Baking

This week Annie and I started our research for the “chef’s problem” project, working with Susu Alyward of Susu’s Bakery in the ville. Our assignment is to transform one of their top selling bakery items into a gluten free item. We plan on investigating the chemistry of gluten, the properties of wheat flour substitutes, and how these substitutes might react chemically with the other ingredients in the recipe. I think this will be an interesting topic because while “gluten” and “gluten-free” are very popular and trending food lingo, I am not sure if we all know what they really mean. I learned that gluten found in wheat flour is only formed when it is mixed with water. It forms an extensive interconnected network of coiled proteins, gliadin and glutenin molecules, that produce the “chew” we associate with breads and other pasteries. The challenge in transforming a pastry to be gluten free lies in replicating this mouthfeel and texture with flours that do not contain any of these long chained proteins. From the culinary sources I have found, it seems that most gluten free recipes call for a blend of gluten free flours (in various ratios), the use of either xantham gum or guar gum, and further alterations in baking time, temperature, and the amounts of other ingredients like baking soda. This coming week we will start our baking trials, determining how all of these factors play a role in altering the texture and taste of our transformed gluten free pastry.