How Bread Making Ingredients change bread characteristics?
As I described in How to Make Bread and then again in Basic Bread Recipe, most bread recipes include four ingredients (not counting the sugar that the yeast ate) and a very straightforward mixing method.
There are infinite types of yeast bread in the world, everything from bagels to pizza, focaccia to cinnamon rolls, cheese bread to laminated yeast dough croissants.
If you study the recipes carefully, you will find that they are all based on these four bread-making ingredients. Yes, substitutions and additions can and should be made, but the essential four ingredients stand.
Now, let’s look at some of those substitutions and additions, as well as some tweaks to our baking procedure to give us exactly the taste and texture we want.
Yeasts
Yeast are single-celled organisms that live solely to eat sugars, give off gasses, and reproduce. In the US, your choices for yeast are fresh or cake, yeast, active dry yeast, and instant, or rapid-rise yeast. Fresh yeast is difficult to find for a home baker, can get moldy if left too long in the refrigerator, and can be temperamental. Many bakers swear by fresh yeast, but there are more standardized choices for the home baker.
Rapid rise, or instant yeast, is a relatively new type of dried yeast. It can be added along with dry ingredients without proofing, producing a very rapid rise. However, what you gain in time, you lose in flavor, so the third choice is probably the best.
Active dry yeast is just that—active, dormant yeast until you add it to water. Active dry yeast does better if you proof it first—add it to slightly warm water with a bit of sweetener (for food) until it gets bubbly and creamy. When using a recipe that calls for fresh yeast, use ⅓ to ½ of what is called for. For example, for 1 oz. of fresh yeast, you will use ⅓-1/2 ounce (approximately 9-14 grams) of active dry yeast.
Flour
Flour provides bulk and structure to the bread. Wheat flour contains two proteins, gliadin and glutenin, which combine and produce gluten in the presence of water. This stretchy protein substance lets wheat bread rise, rise, rise, and then set, locking in the cells where the air bubbles used to be.
The higher the flour's protein content, the more gliadin and glutenin are in it, and the more gluten will form. The flours highest in protein are made with hard winter wheat. Look for them labeled as Bread Flour or even High Gluten flour.
Our standard recipe contains white bread flour. Many other types of flour can be substituted for part or all of the bread flour. Remember that white bread flour will contain the most gluten, so bread made with a mixture of other flour will be more dense and not rise as high.
Some types of flour, such as rice and corn flour, do not contain gluten, so to get a decent rise, you must use at least part white bread flour. You can also use whole wheat, rye, buckwheat, chickpea, bean flour, sprouted wheat, spelt, oat, and soy. I am sure that there are others out there, as well.
Fats
Fat that is incorporated in bread dough will inhibit gluten formation. The resulting loaf will not rise as high as a loaf made without fat. On the positive side, fats, especially butter and olive oil, add much flavor to the finished product.
Fats keep the crumb tender and can help improve the shelf life of your bread by a day or so. Almost any fat can be added to a bread dough.
Eggs
Eggs added to the dough help with rising. A bread dough with eggs will rise very high because eggs are a leavening agent (think genoise or angel food cake). The fats from the yolk also help tenderize the crumb and lighten the texture a bit. Eggs also contain the emulsifier lecithin. Lecithin can add to the overall consistency of the loaf.
Sugar
Adding more sugar to a recipe than the yeast can eat will, no surprise, add sweetness to the finished product. Sugar aids in browning, can help tenderize the bread and holds onto moisture to help inhibit staling.
Be careful, though—too much sugar will severely inhibit gluten production. So, unless you plan on adding additional gluten to the dough (in the form of vital wheat gluten or gluten flour), keep the sugar in the recipe to no more than two tablespoons/cup of flour.
Salt
Salt gives bread flavor, and it also inhibits yeast growth. This might sound counterintuitive, but without some salt, yeast growth will continue until the flour matrix can no longer support it, and your bread will deflate. Too much salt and your yeast won’t give you enough rise. Too little, and your bread will rise too much. The trick is to get the right salt-to-yeast ratio.
Water
Water provides for gluten formation and yeast reproduction. Without water (either straight water or as a component of another liquid, such as milk), all you have is a pile of flour, salt, and yeast. No amount of tossing together will yield a dough unless water is added to the mix. Water rehydrates yeast and activates gluten formation. For bread making, more challenging water works better than soft water because harder water will yield more stable dough.
Milk
We’ve already established that liquid is a necessary bread-making ingredient, but that doesn’t mean we are limited to water. Replacing all or part of the water with milk will lend itself to a more tender, sweeter product.
The sugar in milk, lactose, is not eaten by the yeast, so it is left to add a subtle sweetness to the finished bread. Milk also increases the nutritional value of the bread by adding additional proteins. A dough made with milk will brown more readily than one made with water.
Add-in Bread Making Ingredients
This is where you, the baker, can get creative. If you make savory bread, you can add anything from shredded cheese to roasted garlic, nuts, and olives.
If you make a sweet bread, all sorts of toasted nuts and dried fruits can be added. And don’t forget about herbs and spices, either.
The Crust of the Matter
Even using the same recipe, it is possible to get a different crust just by doing one of the following:
Crackly, shiny crust: This is brought about by steam. You are not alone if you don’t have a steam injector in your oven. I’ve heard of lots of different ways to get a really good steamy, humid atmosphere in your oven: boiling water in a cast iron skillet in the bottom of the oven, throwing ice chips into a cast iron skillet in the bottom of your oven, spraying the dough with water before putting it in the oven—I’m sure you can think of more ways.
For optimum crackliness, spray the dough and use one of the other methods. The water gelatinizes the starches on the dough's outside, which helps result in a crackly crust. You can also use a wash of water with a bit of cornstarch mixed in during the last five minutes of baking.
Soft crust: This is as easy as not introducing extra steam or water. Don’t spray the dough, and don’t make steam. Another way to get a soft crust and impart some flavor is to brush the crust with butter when you remove it from the oven.
Golden, shiny crust: Apply an egg wash (egg and a little water beaten together) before baking, being careful not to let the egg wash get on the rim of the baking pan as this could, in essence, glue the bread down and inhibit a total rise.
Soft, sweet crust: brush with milk with some sugar before baking.
Sweet, sticky crust: brush the crust with simple syrup or honey right when it comes out of the oven
Shiny, soft crust: brush the bread with olive oil before and after baking
Changes in Process Equal Changes in Product
The single most important thing in making flavorful bread is time. It takes time for yeast to entirely run its life cycle and develop a complex flavor in the final product.
While it is possible to get reasonably good bread with just a single rise, the more you give the yeast time to do their thing, the better your bread will be.
Ways to increase the time it takes to make a loaf from start to finish include slower, cooler rises, refrigerating the dough overnight, and using some leftover dough from a day or two before as part of your mix. You can also make a sponge and let it rest for several hours before continuing.
A sponge is a loose mixture you make by combining your yeast, liquid, and half of your flour. After the sponge has “worked” for 2-3 hours, add the rest of the flour and continue with the recipe.
I hope you feel ready to approach bread baking with less trepidation. Now that you know the function of all the bread-making ingredients, the process of making it, and have an excellent fundamental recipe with which to practice, it is time to practice and “get a feel for” dough that is ready to be kneaded and dough that has been kneaded enough.
Once you can leap those two confidence hurdles, there will be no stopping you.
