Flour chlorinated-soft

Why are chlorinated soft-wheat flours preferred for manufacturing cakes ... 

Flours are commonly treated with additives and enrichment premixes to standardize quality and meet regulations. The treatments commonly consist of flour bleaching, maturing or aging, enzyme supplementation, and addition of the enrichment to supplement selected minerals and vitamins. Hard wheat flours are, in some instances, oxidized with azodicarbonamide, ascorbic acid and/or, in some countries, with potassium bromate in order to improve functionality. Soft wheat flours are in some instances chlorinated to produce bleached cake flours. The normal range of chlorination ranges... 

Refined soft wheat flours treated with chlorine. Chlorination breaks disulfide bonds, weakens the gluten, lowers pH, and bleaches the flour. Hours usually contain from 7.5% to 10% protein and, upon hydration and mixing, yield weaker gluten doughs compared to regular soft flours. 

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