SOY FLOUR
Soy flour is made from soybean, a member of the legume family. Soybean are cultivated worldwide, but only as a primary food crop in Asia. Elsewhere, soybean are more frequently used to produce oils, both edible and industrial, and as animal feed. Since soybean contain high levels of easily digestible protein and oils and are an excellent source of amino acids, their popularity and use in other forms are beginning to increase in Western culture. Soy flour is frequently used in creating baked goods for those people who have allergies to wheat protein. Soy flour is usually defatted to provent spoilage and heat-treated to remove the beany taste. When added to wheat bread in a percentage below 3 percent, defatted soy flour does not have any appreciable effect on the dough’s performance or taste, other than a slight increase in water absorption (see Pyler,pp. 401-403). Beyond this rate, it begins to disrupt gluten formation and good structure; soy flour has no elastic properties whatsoever. It is used in small quantites as a replacement for milk in breadmaking to improve texture and decrease staling. In doughnut making, up to 15 percent soy flour can be used to reduce oil absorption and improve shelf life. It can be added to chemically leavened baked goods in a higher proportion than to yeasted products.