Whey Protein In Gluten Free Baking

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If you have ever tried to bake something, made of gluten-free flours only to find out later that you can't even touch it without it falling apart on you.. then this post may help.

I am a natural bodybuilder and naturally I like protein. Not because it helps grow muscles. No, not really. My career in bodybuilding thought me a few things - one of them is nutrition and the importance of giving your body all the nutrients it needs to perform at its optimum.

This is one (big) reason why I balance my products with protein... but it's not the only one..

Read on.

There are quite a few important reasons why whey protein should be used in baking:

* It adds the missing protein in gluten-free flours. Yes, I know, some of them like the bean flours, sorghum, quinoa, etc. aren't low in protein, but wheat is higher in protein (gliadin and glutenin) than most of them. So, we need to add more protein no matter what flour blend we use for our gluten-free baking.

And this isn't even the most important reason. But, still, by adding whey protein to make up for the low levels of most gluten-free flours, we even create a better flour since the proteins in whey have extremely high biological value (no missing essential amino acids; amino acids in ratios that the human body can use easily to create its own proteins).

In comparison, the wheat proteins do not have high BV, not to mention their other actions on most human bodies...

So, here are some more (important) reasons for using whey protein in your baking:

* It provides better rise of chemically leavened and yeast leavened baked goods. Try baking with and without protein and you will see what I'm talking about.

* It improves crumb structure. Now you know why your GF bread falls apart when you try slicing through it. Try with whey.

* It possesses water-binding properties, which helps slow down starch retrogradation (staling) - better mouth feel, longer shelf life. By the way, staling isn't just losing the water from the crumb. It's more complicated than that, but still water-binding capability means a lot.

* It helps with the browning of baked goods - Maillard reactions - reactions between proteins and sugars that result in brown color of the crust..., and better flavor!

* It improves flavor and taste of baked goods. Nothing more to add about that.

So, what do you think? Should we use whey in baking or not? I know your answer...