MARK: So we're going to talk about some doughs here.
One of which is a--
SPEAKER 2: Before we do it, I should show them
how a mathematician thinks about elasticity.
MARK: Yes.
[APPLAUSE]
SPEAKER 2: Has anyone made bread?
You should all go home and make bread.
So if you make bread, so there's this molecule in wheat, which is gluten.
Actually it's two molecules.
It's glutenin and gliadin.
And basically these are proteins that basically form cross-links
with each other.
They stick to each other to form a gel.
And then what happens is when you need them,
they tend to line up the molecules.
And the molecules, they're very long, and they like to stick to each other.
And by short range interactions, and that
basically gives bread dough its strength.
SPEAKER 2: Anyway, so if any of you have baked, what you'll learn
is that if you want to make the dough stronger, then you either add salt
or you use high protein flour, which gives it more gluten.
And there are also ways of making it weaker.
You can add fats or oil, sugar or add acidity.
And I think Mark and our friends at Johnson and Wales
have made for us three types of dough, right Mark?
MARK: Yeah, courtesy of the baking department at Johnson and Wales,
we have this one, this is made, they're all the same recipe.
One is made with cup for cup, which is a gluten-free flour,
also developed by a graduate of Johnson and Wales.
This is a high protein bread flour, which is around 30% protein.
And then this is vital wheat gluten, which is used often
in the processed food industry.
It's 75% gluten.
This is not why people have celiac disease, which is an immune deficiency
disease.
But perhaps gluten intolerance could potentially stem from this stuff.
SPEAKER 2: But we're gonna, this stuff is amazing.
We were playing with this before.
You guys all have to make this and go home and play with this.
That was cool.
MARK: Imagine that in your lower intestine, huh?
SPEAKER 2: But now let's try the bread flour, the normal bread flour.
This is actually high--
MARK: So this is like regular bread dough.
SPEAKER 2: This is regular, but this is high protein.
You guys didn't even use--
MARK: This is made and set overnight, too, so.
SPEAKER 2: Oh, that's pretty good.
MARK: You can go.
SPEAKER 2: Check that out, that's cool.
You let go.
Go do that again.
Oh, that's pretty cool.
OK now, this is the most amazing thing.
This is the gluten-free flour.
And by all appearances, it looks the same.
Do you see?
Doesn't it look like flour?
MARK: Allowed to develop.
SPEAKER 2: It's developed?
MARK: Overnight.
SPEAKER 2: Overnight.
Even longer than the regular flour.
OK, so should we do it?
MARK: OK, ready?
SPEAKER 2: Ready, you guys have to watch this fast.
Ready?
MARK: One, two, oh my, God.
It's like, it's like ricotta cheese.
SPEAKER 2: This is crap.
It's like--
MARK: How do you make anything from this?
SPEAKER 2: Do you make pasta out of this?
MARK: What was I thinking?
SPEAKER 2: How do you do that?
MARK: Yeah, I mean it's a challenge, as you can imagine.
SPEAKER 2: I mean gluten is really amazing.
MARK: It's magic, it's magic.
And the amount of ingredients necessary in this dough to poorly simulate--
SPEAKER 2: So you might be curious about what's in the gluten free flours.
MARK:
SPEAKER 2: So actually Mark gave me the ingredients in this gluten-free flour
for you all to admire.
So it has cornstarch, which doesn't have gluten.
It has white rice flour, brown rice flour, no gluten.
Milk powder, tapioca flour, no gluten.
Potato starch, no gluten.
But then at the end, there's this ingredient.
It's a white powder.
MARK: One that made this lovely sauce over here.
SPEAKER 2: It's the white powder that was used in the lovely sauce.
It's called xanthan gum.
And xanthan gum, as you saw in the sauce, it's sort of crappy.
MARK: Yeah.
SPEAKER 2: It does bind things together a bit,
but that's basically the only thing in there that binds things together.
Yep, yep, and that's decidedly the best version of a gluten-free flour really
available on the market.
SPEAKER 2: Right, and you compare that with this stuff.
And it's just unbelievable.
I mean this stuff basically has the property that like air doesn't get out.
I don't know if you've ever baked bread.
MARK: This is what makes Wonder Bread so delicious right here.
This stuff.
SPEAKER 2: They put this in Wonder Bread?
MARK: Yeah.
Because they don't want to, they don't want
to take the time to allow it to ferment and rise naturally.
SPEAKER 2: So they just put that stuff in.
MARK: Yeah.
It's easy, it's science.