Ingredients
- 1 kg / 35,27 oz flour (for exemple bread flour),
- water.
Preparation
Place 1 kg (35,27 oz) of flour in a large bowl. Make sure it has more than 10 g (0,35 oz) of protein per 100 g (3,53 oz) of flour : this is very important ! Add 500 ml (16,91 fl oz) warm water and form a regular dough. Knead until you obtain a certain elasticity, which you can check by touching the dough with your fingertips. It should more or less return to its original shape. Leave to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
Place the ball of dough in a large bowl and immerse in cold water. Knead the dough gently. The water will become opaque and white like milk. The dough should hold together a little, but it may start to fall apart. When the water is completely opaque and almost viscous, put it aside for another recipe: it is full of starch (for example to make vegan bacon) ! Keep the ball of dough in the bowl; if it falls apart, use a sieve to transfer the white water to another container.
Immerse the dough again and repeat the process twice.
In the fourth bath, it is not necessary to keep the starch water, which is no longer as concentrated as the previous baths. The dough should start to clump together again, forming a sort of elastic filament.
Continue washing until the water is almost clear, but not transparent (6 baths in principle).
At this point, remove the ball of dough, which has shrunk to 3 or 4 times its original size, and place it on a board. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
Take out the ball of dough. Its texture should now resemble chewing gum. The gluten is now ready to be cooked, and in particular to make seitan yourself !
