Baking Bread: The Chemistry of Bread-Making

https://www.compoundchem.com/2016/01/13/bread/

by dredmorbius • 6 years ago

13 4 6 years ago

skat20phys• 6 years ago

Most of that is oriented toward yeast breads, but as a minor point that was confusing to me for awhile:

At least in the US, there is no technical legal definition for baking powder. So companies vary widely in what is included in baking powder. Ideally, baking powder would include a dry acid and base that react only in typical baking temperatures, but this is not the case. Some are very similar to baking soda in formulation, and others use different ingredients that require heat to react to any substantial extent.

There's an article somewhere I found that has a really great discussion of the issues, with history and reviews, but I can't find it. This is a sort of abridged version that smooths over some of the differences you'll run into:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12997/baking-powder

dredmorbius2• 6 years ago

For sourdoughs, the story's roughly similar. Soda breads use alternate leavening, chemical (baking soda) rather than biological (yeast).

Flatbresds remove leavening entirely.

And alternative (gluten free) flours require either forgoing the gluten-based network structure providing dough integrity (say, with cornbread and some ricecakes), or substituting alternative binding agents (as with xanthan gum), also mentioned.

The piece does. not discuss much of proportions -- baker's percentages, measuring by weight rather than volume, hydration), dough working and formation (kneading vs. stretch and fold or slap and fold), fermentation and proofing methods, steaming, baking temps, covered vs. uncovered baking, scoring, all of which I've been playing with for the past week or so.

But it's a good quick intro.

prike• 6 years ago

Does anyone know some similarly good source on food science? This is interesting.

dredmorbius2• 6 years ago

There was a book published ... years ago ... author interviewed on Fresh Air circa 2001. Let me see if I can track it down....

Russ Parsons, How to Read a French Fry, 2001.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/how-to-read-a-french-fry-and-...

Interview: https://freshairarchive.org/segments/los-angeles-times-food-...

Baking Bread: The Chemistry of Bread-Making

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