gluten ?

[Anne]

I add gluten to my yeast breads - they are whole grain and tend to the heavy side. Should I add gluten to non-kneeded bread? I haven't been because I thought the kneeding process was what brought the gluten into the mix. I saw a recipe for a quick bread last week that called for glunten. It made me wonder if I have been missing the point. I thought gluten was the 'elastic' that provided structure for the yeast to bubble against - quite the opposite from what I want in bannana bread.

[wallycat]

Gluten is usually parts of gluten and gliaden.
These proteins not only affect structure but elasticity of the flour.
If it can be more elastic, it can rise higher.
I'm sure I am not explaining all of this clearly.
I'm about to start supper and will come back incase no one else
answers.

[heavy hedonist]

gluten makes the protein structure of the bread, that basically holds it up long enough for the dough, which is heavier with flour than unyeasted breads, till it can bake through without falling. that's why the yeast bread has to have extra oomph to get it through the baking process.
desirable in a yeast bread, but not in most quick breads; there is some gluten in regular flour, which is why quick breads of all types advise gentle, minimal mixing to avoid "waking up" the gluten, and toughening the bread.
there is the odd recipe here and there for quick breads calling for gluten, bread flour, or other non-standard ingredients in the "tenderness' pantheon. personally i've always avoided those recipes, since i like my quick breads more delicate---

then again, muffins were originally more like a roll than a cupcake, as they are now. if you're sanguine about what the results of your recipe may be, follow it.

[Anne]

Thanks - that's kind of what I thought. I may try an experiment with the no-kneed with and without gluten but will pass on the quickbreads. Looking at the quickbread recipe again I saw they used pastry flour so maybe the gluten was to make that low protein flour more like bread flour? If so, why not just use ap or bread flour? Puzzling. I sometimes use ww pastry flour as is for the quickbreads if I don't have regular ww on hand.