Dough (pâte in French, pasta in Italian) is a thick paste made out of the flour of any cereal (grain) or leguminous food, moistened and kneaded but not baked. This step is a precursor to its use in cooking in numerous ways such as making bread, pasta, noodles, pastry, cookies and muffins among other uses. Dough differs from batter in having a lower water content.
The elasticity of dough depends on its gluten content. The chainlike molecules form an elastic network that traps carbon dioxide from the leavening agent, expanding with it. The gluten content of wheat flour varies from 7% to 15% and is dependent both on variety and on the weather.
For bread making, a high gluten content is desirable, but for other baked goods where lightness is a desirable quality, lower gluten doughs are preferred. All-purpose flour attempts to strike a happy medium between the extremes of bread flour and
pastry flour through the mixing of different varieties. In some recipes, the gluten content of the dough is attenuated through the use of cornstarch or other refined starch products that are gluten-free.
To make bread from cereals with low gluten content, some alternative means of providing an elastic structure are necessary. This can be supplied by the protein in eggs or by precooking all or part of the flour to produce a gelatinous mass, which can then be leavened and baked afterwards. Alternatively, flour from the low-gluten cereal may be mixed with high-gluten wheat flour.
