Yeast

Bread

No. 1: History & Ingredients

An introduction

• What is your favorite kind of bread?

– Imagine you were stranded on a deserted island like Tom Hanks in “Castaway.” The Bread Fairy comes and tells you that you can have a pound of bread every day, but you have to pick only one kind. What would you pick?

• Were your two answers the same?

Bread Basics

• The oldest forms of bread center in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. They are mostly unleavened.

• Tortillas, pita, lavash, are unleavened. What do you think that means?

• They are flat.

• Leavened breads rise, and that gives them a lighter texture.

Bread Basics

• In France, there is a law that regulates what can be in bread if you are going to call it French Bread.

Flour, water, yeast, salt.

• Anything else goes in, you can’t call it French bread.

And their

Ingredients

Functions

and their

Flour – gives the bread its structure by the formation of gluten. Gluten strands are formed by proteins in the flour.

•Flour also provides starch which gives the body the nutrient, carbohydrates.

•So bread’s structure comes from proteins and starches.

Yeast is a single-celled organism (a plant). •When it has the right conditions it grows. Yes, your bread dough is alive in a certain sense. Yeast needs the right temperature (105F to 115F is best), food (it likes carbs like sugar and flour) and water.•Yeast is killed by temperatures beginning at about 125F. •If you add very hot water to your yeast – it will be dead, dead, dead and your bread won’t rise.•You can add the yeast to the dry ingredients and then use water between 120 and 130F. The flour absorbs some of the heat and keeps the hotter water from killing your yeast.

Liquids:

•Water (or milk, or juice) – hydrates the bread allowing gluten to form.

•It also dissolves things and thus allows salt, sugar and flavorings to be distributed throughout the dough.

Salt – is a dough conditioner. It strengthens and tightens gluten. •It also inhibits the growth of yeast. Without salt, dough will over rise and then collapse. This can lead to bread with low volume (because the yeast has no food left to continue reproducing.)•Lack of salt or too little salt can cause your bread to have a rough texture (especially on the top).•If you bake it before the collapse, your bread can have too much volume and become a bread monster.

Bonus ingredients

Fat – Butter, oil, shortening, lard.– Fat is a tenderizing agent. Add fat to your

baked good and it will be more tender.– There is a limit. Too much fat and your baked

good will just be greasy.

•The term for a dough with fat is short. Cookie dough is short; pizza dough is short. French bread is not short; bagels are not short, and neither are tortillas. These breads are called hard or lean.

Sugar – Sugar is a tenderizing agent.

– A dough can only hold a certain amount of sugar and still stay together.

– It also is a stealth liquid ingredient. Sugar liquefies when it gets wet or hot.

End

of No. 1

notes

She blinded me with science … and then made yeast bread.

Yeast Breads Notes

No. 2: Science

Types of Flours

• Bread Flour – high protein, best for yeast breads. Generally milled in the North. Highest gluten content. Use of bread flour means your dough will require a second rise.

• All-purpose flour – middle protein content, O.K. for bread, O.K. for cake, biscuits and muffins. A flour that is for all purposes.

• Cake Flour – low protein content. Generally milled in the South. Good for very tender baked goods, like cake, biscuits and muffins.

Chemical Leaveners• Chemical leaveners (Baking powder and baking soda)

work by producing gas which makes baked goods rise.

• Baking powder (often sold as Double Acting) releases the most gas when it is heated. Baking powder is baking soda with the addition of a dry acid like Cream of Tartar.

• If you have no baking powder, you can substitute. 1 teaspoon baking powder is replaced by 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

Chemical Leaveners• Chemical leaveners (Baking powder and baking soda)

work by producing gas which makes baked goods rise.

• Baking powder (often sold as Double Acting) releases the most gas when it is heated. Baking powder is baking soda with the addition of a dry acid like Cream of Tartar.

• If you have no baking powder, you can substitute. 1 teaspoon baking powder is replaced by 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

Yeast Breads No. 3: Mixing Methods

Steps in Making Bread

• Scale or measure ingredients• Mix ingredients• Knead• 1st rise (Fermentation)• Punch down• Shape• 2nd Rise (Proofing)• Bake• Cool• Package

Traditional Method

• Most familiar method of mixing– Add warm water (105 to 115F), sugar,and yeast to

bowl and allow to sit till bubbly– called proofing the yeast. (You’re just proving it’s going to work.)

– Add flour to mixture to make a soft dough– Knead in flour until dough is smooth and elastic– Allow to rise (fermentation) until

doubled in size– Punch down, divide and shape– Allow to rise again (proofing)– Bake

This dough has seriously over risen. Bad things can happen when you leave your dough alone too long.

• Fermentation occurs when the yeast grows because it has the right temperature, a food source and water.

• During fermentation, the dough is developing flavor.

• The dough rises because during fermentation the yeast is producing carbon dioxide gas, and the gas inflates the dough.

Mixer Method

• You can (and should) use a mixer to speed mixing time and

shorten kneading time.• Don’t over work the bread. Bread that

has been kneaded too long will be tough. 10 minutes is O.K. – 20 minutes is too long.

• When ready, the dough should be smooth, elastic and still soft.

•Batter Method• Batter bread is made with a very wet dough.• Gluten is formed by stirring or mixing – not by

kneading• It is the only method that doesn’t require

kneading.• Batter breads are often multi-grain.

One-rise bread

• Requires the use of fast-rising yeast– After kneading dough, cover and let

rest– Shape dough and allow to rise– Bake

• The need for 2nd rising is removed.

• Sacrifice flavor for speed.• Must use all-purpose flour• Bread flour requires a second rise

Bread Types

No. 4: Types & Quality Control

Bread Types

• Hard, Lean Dough– French and Italian

bread, baguettes, sourdough

– Consists of 0-1% fat and little if any sugar

– Most basic yeast dough

– Made solely of flour, water, yeast and salt

– Have a relatively dry, chewy crumb, and hard crust

Bread Types• Soft Medium Dough

– Steak house (American) dinner rolls, Parker House rolls, Challah (Jewish bread with egg in the dough)

– Challah is often braided (the braid is the most difficult shaping for beginning bakers).

– Consists of –9% fat and sugar

– Elastic and tears easily– Have a soft crumb and

crustChallah

Dinner roll

Parker House roll

Brioche

Brioche is a French bread. It is a soft medium dough made rich with butter and eggs.

It is baked in a special fluted pan, like the one shown at left or in a muffin pan.

Bread Types

• Sweet Rich Dough– Coffee cakes,

cinnamon buns, and doughnuts

– Incorporates up to 25% fat and sugar

– Structure is soft and heavy

• High gluten allows the dough to support the additional fat and sugar

Bread Types• Rolled –in Fat Yeast

Dough– Croissants and Danish

pastries– Through a folding action

and cold butter, dough yields many thin, alternating layers of fat and dough

– As the dough bakes, the heated fat releases moisture making steam and lifts the dough

Crescent Rolls

• Crescent rolls are the American cousin of the Croissant.

• Crescent rolls are made with the rolled-in fat method.

• They are cut in triangles and then rolled up.

Quality Control

• What are the features of a high quality bread product?– Evenly browned crust

that is not too rough or craggy.

– Uniform crumb (crumb is the inside of the bread).

– Well-developed flavor.– Light texture, high volume

Quality Control

• If you don’t proof your bread for long enough, then you will likely end up with a final product that has a heavy texture.

• One of the causes of bread that is dry and crumbly is an oven temperature that is too low.

Random stuff you needto know for the yeast breads test

No. 5

Microwave thawing bread dough

• You will not need this in the real world, but it is on the test.

Steps to MICROWAVE THAW FROZEN BREAD DOUGH:

1.Microwave 1 cup of water until boiling (3 to 5 minutes)

2.Place bread dough on microwave-safe plate and cover with waxed paper or plastic wrap.

3.Microwave on defrost or low power for 5 to 8 minutes.

4.Let stand for 10 minutes. Check dough.• Repeat 1-4 until dough is thawed. Make sure to

check that dough is not drying out.

Microwave Proofing Bread Dough

• More stuff you will not need, but it is on the test.

1. Microwave 1 cup of water until boiling (3 to 5 minutes)

2. Place bread dough on microwave-safe plate and cover with waxed paper or plastic wrap.

3. Microwave on low power for 1 minute, let stand in oven 15 minutes.

Microwaves and bread

• Why don’t people bake bread in the microwave …

– Microwaves dry out food, so microwave bread will be very dry.

– Microwaves don’t brown food, so your bread will not have a browned crust.

Bread Machines

• A machine that mixes, proofs shapes and bakes bread by itself.

• Water added to bread machines is added at room temperature. (Traditional recipes use warm liquids.)

• Bread machine bread often has a very thick, hard crust.

• Bread machines are expensive. This is why most consumers don’t own one.

Adapting (changing) recipes

• Extra moisture added to a recipe will cause the bread to crack on top from the escaping steam. If a recipe consistently cracks on top, it has too much liquid.

• Adding extra ingredients to a recipe will cause the bread to need a longer rising time.

• Add an egg to a bread recipe, and you need to decrease the liquid amount by ¼ cup.

One last thing

• You should have learned

this from Foods 1.

• What is the proper method to measure flour?

Spoon into the measuring cup. (Don’t tap.)

Level by scraping a straight edge across the top of the cup.

Yeast Breads

Random stuff you need

to know for the test

or study guide ~ No. 6

Types of flours• Cake – soft from Southern wheat, has low

protein content, produces light baked goods like biscuits, cakes and muffins

• All-purpose – has a medium protein content, is O.K. for cakes and biscuits and O.K. for bread.

• Bread flour – has high protein content and produces the strongest and most elastic gluten.

• Whole wheat flour – made from the whole wheat berry or grain. Has the bran and germ included, and produces bread with a heavier texture. Is generally mixed 2 parts white flour to 1 part whole wheat.

High quality bread products

• High quality bread products have an even crust, a uniform crumb and a pleasing texture.

• Bread with lumps of dry flour (undermixing) is poor quality.

• Bread with a tough or rough crust is poor quality.

• Bread with a crumbly crumb or dry texture is poor quality.

Bread Facts• Starches and proteins in flour give bread its

structure.• The proper method to measure flour is spoon flour

into cup and then sweep off with a straight edge.• Ovenspring is bread’s last great rise.• If you decide to adjust a recipe by adding an egg,

the liquid should be decreased by 1/4 cup.• After the 1st rise of yeast bread, it is punched down

to release carbon dioxide gas and to redistribute the yeast and make sure each yeast cell has a new food supply to use. The 2nd rise is needed to break up small clusters or colonies of yeast cells so they can get in contact with more air and food, which is why the 2nd rise is usually shorter than the 1st rise.

More bread facts• Fermentation (the first rise) is where gas bubbles

develop to raise the bread.• As the yeast grows and multiplies, it uses the

sugar, forming byproducts of carbon dioxide and alcohol, which give bread its characteristic flavor.

• Extremely long kneading time (like 20 minutes) will cause your bread to be tough.

• Too much flour in a recipe will also cause bread dough to be tough.

• You know the fermentation and proofing stages of bread dough are finished when the product has doubled in size. Liquids also turn into steam during baking, contributing to the tenderness of the product.

Hey….here are more facts.

•Fat coats gluten molecules so they can't combine as easily, contributing to the finished product's tenderness. Yeast breads that have a high proportion of fat to flour are much more tender, don't rise as high, and have a very tender mouth-feel. Fat also contributes flavor to the bread, and helps the bread brown while baking.

•Eggs are a leavening agent and the yolks add fat for a tender and light texture. The yolks also act as an emulsifier for a smooth and even texture in the finished product. When lots of eggs are used, they contribute to the flavor of the finished product.

Temperature Teaser

• What temperature can liquids go to if the yeast is added to the flour instead of to the liquid?

• 120°F to 130°F because the flour insulates the yeast against the higher temperatures.

Crescent Rolls

• Crescent rolls – made by cutting dough into triangles and rolling them up.

Cloverleaf Rolls• Place three balls each in greased muffin

cups. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes and then bake.

Dinner Rolls• Roll into balls and place in shallow

greased baking pan with sides touching. Cover loosely with cloth. Let rise in warm place until double in bulk and then bake.

Parker House Rolls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5UP-RnxVDM• is a bread roll made by flattening the center of a ball of dough with a rolling pin so that

it becomes an oval shape and then folding the oval in half. They are made with milk

and are generally quite buttery, soft, and slightly sweet with a crispy shell.

Brioche

• Brioche is a rich bread from France. It is made in a special fluted pan. It can also be made in a muffin tin.

French or Italian Bread

• a long thin loaf that is commonly made from basic lean dough. It is distinguishable by its length, crisp crust, and slits that enable the proper expansion of gases.

Challah

• Challah (Jewish egg bread) is made in a braided shape. This shape is very difficult for beginning bread makers.

Cinnamon Rolls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ck-qCnXXw

Danish Rolls• Separate dough into 8 rectangles; firmly

press perforations to seal. Spread each rectangle with about 2 tablespoons cream cheese mixture. Roll up each, starting at longest side; firmly pinch edges and ends to seal. Gently stretch each roll to about 10 inches.

• On ungreased large cookie sheet, coil each roll into a spiral with seam on the inside, tucking end under. Make deep indentation in center of each roll; fill with 1/2 teaspoon preserves.

• Bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown. In small bowl, blend all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over warm rolls.

Bread Machines

• A machine that mixes, proofs shapes and bakes bread by itself.

• Water added to bread machines is added at room temperature. (Traditional recipes use warm liquids.)

• Bread machine bread often has a very thick, hard crust.

• Bread machines are expensive. This is why most consumers don’t own one.

Adapting (changing) recipes

• Extra moisture added to a recipe will cause the bread to crack on top from the escaping steam. If a recipe consistently cracks on top, it has too much liquid.

• Adding extra ingredients to a recipe will cause the bread to need a longer rising time.

• Add an egg to a bread recipe, and you need to decrease the liquid amount by ¼ cup.

One last thing

• You should have learned

this from Foods 1.

• What is the proper method to measure flour?

Spoon into the measuring cup. (Don’t tap.)

Level by scraping a straight edge across the top of the cup.