Category: Understanding Ingredients

Lecithin A Natural Way To Keep Your Bread Fresh

2/16/2015

Lecithin is a pure vegetable fat that is essential in the cells of the body. It can be found in many foods, including soybeans and egg yolks. Lecithin is taken as a medicine and is also used in the manufacturing of medicines.

Lecithin A Natural Bread Preservative
Not all preservatives are artificial. Lecithin is a natural preservative that comes from soy or egg yolks. Adding lecithin to your regular loaf of bread helps keep it fluffy and light. At the same time, it acts as a natural preservative for your bread. Powdered ascorbic acid is another well-known natural food preservative used in bread. It reduces the growth of microorganisms plus helps the yeast rise faster. You can crush a Vitamin C tablet with a mortar and pestle if you don't have powdered ascorbic acid. Honey, ginger and cinnamon, are all flavorful natural food preservatives and good additions to your breads.

Bread Preservative Recipe
This recipe comes from a friend that uses it in all her breads to keep them fresh longer
1 c. dried lecithin (available thru the Co-Op)
1 T. ginger dried
1 T. citric acid

Mix together and keep in the refrigerator
Add 1 tsp. per loaf of bread to keep it from going stale.

10 Health Benefits Of Lecithin

1. It breaks up cholesterol and fats in our body so it's advisable for those who want to lose weight. Consuming more lecithin means increasing the body's metabolism rate.

2. It's beneficial to anyone who wants to enhance their memory skills. Those with Alzheimer's or amnesia are advised to include lecithin in their diet.

3. Lecithin also cleanses the kidneys and liver which is important to those who are suffering from urinary tract infection and those who love to eat salty and spicy foods. It prevents diseases like gallstones and gallbladder infections.

4. Protects against heart diseases and lowers your cholesterol level while preventing toxins from clogging the arteries.

5. Helps our body absorb essential nutrients better and supports the movement of our body fluids inside and outside our cells.

6. Lecithin nourishes our skin and lessens the possibility of dealing with skin problems like pimples, acne, whiteheads, and blackheads.

7. Increases your physical performance, for those into sports and people who are always on the go. Lecithin can boost the body's energy level without making you fat.

8. If you are suffering from arthritis, lecithin is especially helpful in dealing with this painful ailment. Lecithin contains essential fatty acids that keep muscles, bones, and joints strong and healthy.

9. There are also benefits of lecithin for pregnant women. Studies proved that it can contribute a lot to the development of the fetus' brain and nervous system.

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The Maillard Reaction

1/13/2015

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Ever notice that most recipes for baked goods direct you to “bake until golden brown?” Just why do those baked beauties brown, anyway? Behind every lovely golden loaf of bread is the Maillard reaction, which is actually a series of reactions.
The reaction is catalyzed by oven heat, the reducing sugars react with amino acids in the bread, cookie, pretzel and biscuit dough yielding a delectable aroma and a golden brown exterior.

The Maillard reaction which occurs most readily when the surface temperature of the food is more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The reaction takes place only when both protein and carbohydrates or sugars are present. Cooked at high heat, protein breaks down into its building blocks, amino acids, which then react with a group of sugars known as simple sugars. The reacting amino acids and sugars rearrange themselves to form ring-type structures that reflect light in such a way that the food takes on a brown hue. These transformations also produce the flavor and aroma compounds, which combine with one another to produce even more tastes and smells. Ranging from malty, grassy, and chocolaty to oniony, meaty, and earthy, they depend on the exact composition of particular foods.

In baked items the type of sugar in the recipe can have a great effect on results from the Maillard reaction. Baked items sweetened with sugar alcohols (xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, etc) don’t brown? Those sweeteners don’t participate in the Maillard reaction. Also be careful subbing Splenda for sugar – Splenda doesn’t brown in many baked goods, so you’ll need to make a few recipe adaptations, if you want a color change when baked.

Caramelization of a food happens at a higher temperature around 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike the Maillard reaction, caramelization is exclusively the breakdown of sugar molecules under high heat. Sugars such as glucose and sucrose unravel, and a wealth of sweet, bitter, and nutty flavor molecules are formed. These chemical reactions not only bring about a color change, they also produce hundreds of flavor compounds that create the rich, savory notes and appetizing aromas we associate with baked, roasted, grilled, and seared dishes The aromas that are noticeably absent from foods cooked by wet methods like steaming, boiling, and poaching.

For a food to reach such high surface temperatures, it must be fairly dry on the outside. When in direct contact with a hot skillet or surrounded by the scorching air of a 400 F oven, the water molecules on the surface of foods quickly vaporize, resulting in the familiar sizzling sound of searing or roasting foods. Once all the moisture has evaporated, the dehydrated exterior of the food becomes hot enough to trigger the Maillard reaction in just a few minutes.

By contrast, foods cooked by wet methods are only able to reach 212 F, the boiling point of water. One product I use often in my kitchen is the crock pot, it's not known for browning the food, so most recipes have you sear the meat before you put it into the crock. The Maillard reaction can take place at lower temperatures, but it takes much, much longer, such as when meat broth develops a dark color and rich flavors after hours of simmering.

The ratio of the Maillard reaction to caramelization that transpires on a piece of food depends on its protein and carbohydrate content. Carrots, for example, have lots of carbohydrates, so roasting these root vegetables will result in considerably more caramelization than Maillard compounds. Seared steak, on the other hand, will have been browned and enriched mostly from the Maillard reaction.

I hope this information will give you some insight into the chemistry of why food browns when baked and the wonderful aromas and tastes it creates.

Sources:
Food Explainer thanks Jeff Culbertson of Washington State University.

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The Functions Of Salt In Bread

1/13/2015

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I often get asked can I make the bread without adding any salt since we are watching our salt intake. The answer is no, salt does much more than just add flavor to the bread. Yeast breads have very few ingredients but each ingredient plays a role in the end quality of the bread. I find if you understand the ingredients in your recipe you will ultimately be a better baker.

Salt's Function in Bread
1. Flavor
Salt's main function is to bring out the flavor of the baked product. Salt tends to bring out the good flavors and mask the off-flavors.

2. Inhibits Fermentation
Salt will actually dry up the yeast cells much like the sun will dry up a grape and turn it into a raisin. When you are adding your salt to your bowl, it's best not to add it directly on top of the yeast you just added. Since salt slows down the fermentation it can be can be used to control the fermentation rate of sponges or sourdough breads. Slowing down fermentation rate means that less sugars are metabolized by the yeast into acids. The result is that the pH of the dough will be higher and the crust color will be darker.

3. Salt Toughens the Gluten
The fact that salt toughens the gluten, could be helpful when using a flour with less gluten like Spelt compared to Hard Red flour. Since it strengthens the gluten it also lengthens the mixing time when making bread. It's common to delay the addition of the salt to the mixer until the end of the mix especially if you are kneading the dough by hand.

4. No Salt Creates A light Colored Crust
Lastly, bread with no salt will have a crust which is lighter in color (given the same baking time and oven temperature). This can be explained as follows. Salt will slow down fermentation, so when there is no salt, the yeast activity will increase i.e. the yeast will metabolize more sugar in a given period of time. As a result there will be less sugars left in the dough and the pH of the dough will be lower (more acids will be formed). Sugars play (together with proteins, moisture and heat) an important role in the Maillard reaction. But the Maillard reaction is also influenced by the pH : a higher pH will speed up the Maillard reaction. So in this case where the pH is lower and where there are less sugars left, the color of the crust is lighter.

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Allow Your Bread To Raise To New Heights

1/13/2015

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Fats and Oils are added to breads to improve flavor and provide a moist texture and rich taste. Butter, margarine, shortening, nut olives and vegetable oils add flavor and make bread tender and moist. They slow moisture loss, helping bread stay fresh longer.

Liquid fat, like oils and melted butter that is incorporated in the bread dough before kneading will inhibit the gluten formation. Gluten is the (protein) elastic bands that allow the bread to raise. If the recipe calls for you to add melted butter or oil to the dough, then kneed the dough first to develop the gluten or you will not achieve the greatest height on your loaf. In fact, recipes that require no fat will raise higher than recipes that add fat before the gluten is developed. Adding fats to the dough especially butter and olive oil, add a lot of flavor, keep the crumb tender and improve the shelf life of your bread.

You can have the best of both worlds, all the benefits of the added fat and a high loaf. How and when the fat is added to the dough is the secret. You can use this trick with any recipe, just add the fat at a different time in the mixing process.

It's hard to get a light loaf using 100% whole grain but using a method developed by the French to add the butter after the gluten has been developed really helps when making 100% whole grain breads.

What I do is develop the gluten with the mixer or by hand and the last couple of minutes of kneading, I add cold butter which has been cut up into small pieces to the dough. I poke holes with my fingers in the dough and insert a piece of cold butter into each. Then I put the dough hook back on the mixer and knead or continue kneading by hand. At first the dough will start to fall apart but as you incorporate the cold butter the dough will pull together and the finished result is amazing.

Think of the cold butter like putting cream rinse on your long hair (gluten strands). The butter de-tangles the developed gluten strands which allows them to stretch to the fullest extent, and the bread to raise to new heights.

Next time your struggling with a recipe that for some reason never seems to raise very well try this technique. With bread making the ingredients are simple but sometimes the techniques make the difference between a brick and a high light loaf.

Happy Baking
Tamara

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The Function Of Sugar In Bread

1/13/2015

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The Types of Sugars And How It Effects Breads
Have you ever looked at the ingredients on a store-bought loaf of bread? There are a lot of other ingredients compared to homemade bread. I believe you are what you eat, so keeping the ingredients simple and to something you can pronounce is important to me. If you understand how these simple ingredients affect your loaf it will make you a better baker.

There are two types of breads
1. Enriched breads which have sugar, dairy, oil and other ingredients these breads are usually loaf breads, or sweet breads. The crumb has a soft light even texture along with a soft crust and are baked at a lower temperature due to the fact that sugar browns the loaf.

2. Lean breads breads are usually baked into crusty loaves or boules they are flour, water, yeast and salt. Their texture is chewy with large holes and are baked at a higher temperature, than enriched breads. Lean breads are usually baked with steam which creates a thick crunchy crust.

What Sugar Does
Sugar adds sweetness, as well as contributing to the product's browning. The main role for sugar in yeast breads is to provide food for the yeast. It will also speed up your rise time during proofing. Sugar is not an essential ingredient for the yeast to grow and multiply. The yeast can convert the starch in the flour to sugar as in a lean bread. Adding the sugar gives an added boost to the yeast as the yeast grows and multiplies. The yeast uses the sugar, forming by-products of carbon dioxide and alcohol, which give the bread its characteristic flavor. The sugar that is not utilized by the yeast tenderizes the bread by preventing the gluten from forming. Sugar also holds moisture in the finished product which makes your enriched loaf stay fresh longer.

Sweet dough recipes call for a much larger proportion of sugar than a basic loaf bread recipe. One would think that with so much sugar available, the yeast would grow uncontrollably. But the reverse actually happens. The yeast “overdoses” on the sugar; and the chemical balance becomes upset. Sweet breads due to the higher amount of sugar can take a longer time to double the bulk of the dough. To compensate for this problem, most sweet dough recipes specify twice the usual amount of yeast.

Type Of Sugar Used In Enriched Breads
1. Refined Sugars:
White or brown sugar can be used in bread making and will not affect the liquid ratio of your recipe. If added in moderation (1-2 Tablespoons) to your 1-2 lb. loaf will feed the yeast but will not make your loaf sweet. So if your watching your sugar intake this is a good ratio if you just want to feed the yeast.

2. Honey
Honey is a great sweetener for bread, with one small warning, honey has antiseptic properties, and may kill the yeast. The first time you use a fresh jar of honey, make sure you test it with your yeast. Proof the yeast, if there is no problem use the rest of the jar. Another consideration when using honey is it's a liquid and depending on the amount you are adding to the bread, it may throw off your recipe (flour to liquid ratio). You may have to add more flour to your loaf to compensate. If you are using honey instead of what the recipe calls for, lower the oven temperature by 25°F because honey tends to brown easily, also extend the baking time 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Blackstrap Molasses
This is my choice of sweeteners, because of the health benefits. Blackstrap molasses is rich in iron, high in calcium and magnesium, along with a good source of vitamin B6 and selenium. When adding it to your bread you're not adding that much but, the yeast not only needs the sugar it also needs minerals which are provided by the blackstrap molasses. Note, breads made with molasses brown more quickly like honey, and the temperature of the oven should be lowered by 25°F, also the baking time extended by 5- 10 minutes.

Side Note:
Unlike refined sugar, blackstrap molasses has a moderate glycemic load of 55. This makes it a good sugar substitute for diabetics and individuals who are seeking to avoid blood sugar spikes. Moreover, one serving (2 T.) of black-strap contains only 32 calories, making it suitable for a weight loss diet.

4. Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners do not provide food for the yeast so they cannot be used in breads. Remember, the first function of sugar is a food source for the yeast.

Sources
Redstaryeast.com
Miracle of Blackstrap Molasses
KIng Author Flour

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All About Yeast

1/13/2015

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All About Yeast Fellow Whole Grain Bread Makers:
I wanted to share some information I learned about yeast. I hope you find it informative and will help you when baking bread. I have had a few folks ask why their bread does not raise as much as mind did in class. My first thought is how old is your yeast? When that is not the issue the type of yeast may be a problem.

Cake yeast which really is not available to most of us is live yeast which needs to be dissolved before using.
Active dry yeast which is the traditional yeast you buy in the small envelopes or the 4 oz jars. How this is made is each granular has a coating of dead dried yeast and an inner core of live dried yeast. Active dry yeast must always be hydrated in liquid to activate the yeast. The liquid will wash away the dead yeast exposing the dried live yeast inside each granular. Ounce for ounce this form of yeast has less active yeast, which in turn means less raising power when it comes to bread.
Instant yeast is made different, the dried yeast is coated with citric acid (vitamin C). Citric acid is a yeast booster, and will help give the yeast a better environment to live and grow. This yeast is more concentrated than the Active yeast since it does not have the dead dried yeast as a coating. Instant yeast may also be added directly to the flour no need to bloom in the liquid.
Rapid Rise yeast has several yeast enhancers added to it. This yeast is made for bread machines and sometimes is marketed as bread machine yeast. You do not have to bloom this type of yeast before adding to the flour. The main draw back to this yeast is timing if you let it rise to long there is no going back. Since it’s made to work quickly the flavor of the bread will not be as good as a longer raise.

If you are having problems getting a high light loaf, check the date on the yeast make sure it’s still good but if that’s not the problem look into Instant yeast. Instant yeast is what I use and have never had problems. I keep mine in the freezer and is good for years if kept frozen.

If active dry yeast is what you have try adding a bit more to the recipe. Another tip that may help is adding vitamin C as a yeast booster. The vitamin C will make the yeast work harder and longer. It will also act as a preservative to prevent mold and bacterial growth on your bread. I have used vitamin C pills crushed or Fruit Fresh used in canning. You will need about 1/8 teaspoon per loaf of bread so not that much.

I do sell 1 lb. instant yeast, for $6.00 will last you years if kept frozen.I hope this information will help make your baking experiences rise to new heights.

Tamara Carl

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Lecithin A Natural Way To Keep Your Bread Fresh

The Maillard Reaction

The Functions Of Salt In Bread

Allow Your Bread To Raise To New Heights

The Function Of Sugar In Bread

All About Yeast

Yeast Bread
Education

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Lecithin A Natural Way To Keep Your Bread Fresh

The Maillard Reaction

The Functions Of Salt In Bread

Allow Your Bread To Raise To New Heights

The Function Of Sugar In Bread

All About Yeast

Yeast BreadEducation

Archives

Categories

Yeast Bread
Education