On Food and Cooking

less concentrated gluten and a softer,
moister dough and bread.
Stirring and kneading the flour-water
mixture, actions that stretch and organize
the gluten proteins into an elastic
network.
Salt, which greatly strengthens the gluten
network. The electrically positive sodium
and negative chlorine ions cluster around
the few charged portions of the glutenin
proteins, prevent those charged portions
from repelling each other, and so allow
the proteins to come closer to each other
and bond more extensively.
Sugar, which at the concentrations
typical of raised sweet breads, 10% or
more of the flour weight, limits the
development of gluten by diluting the
flour proteins.
Fats and oils, which weaken gluten by
bonding to the hydrophobic amino acids
along the protein chains and so