Different Ways of Making Bread

Bread has been called the staff of life.

Freshly baked homemade bread fills the kitchen with its warm fragrance. Breads require flour, made from wheat, rye, corn or barley; a liquid; and a rising agent. A chemical reaction takes place between the liquid and the rising agent which causes the gas bubbles. These bubbles are trapped by the bread dough. As the bread bakes the chemical reaction stops but the tiny air bubbles are incorporated into the bread.

Flour

White flour is the least difficult to work with. It absorbs liquid, rises reliably and produces a fine-textured loaf. Whole wheat flour is heavier and usually mixed with white flour for home bakers. Rye flour is heavier still and is a challenge, but once mastered produces a rich, full-flavored, chewy bread. Barley isn't often used at home. Corn meal or flour doesn't work well with yeast and is most often used in quick breads. Its texture is cake-like rather than bread-like.

Yeast

Yeast are microscopic fungus that consumes sugar or starch in a wet, warm environment and produces carbon dioxide and alcohol as a waste product. Yeast is used in making beer and wine as well as bread. It's a different kind of yeast, but yeast nonetheless. Test yeast by putting it in warm but not hot water to which you've added a good pinch of sugar. Within five minutes you'll see bubbles, which means the yeast is alive and well. If you don't see bubbles after 10 minutes the yeast is dead. It won't raise the bread. Get new yeast and test it again. Incorporate the live yeast into the warm liquid and add the liquid to the flour and butter or shortening. Yeast breads need kneading, or stretching the dough, for an even texture. These breads also need a period of resting undisturbed for the yeast to activate and raise the bread. Most yeast bread recipes call for a second rising after the dough has been formed into loaves.

Quick

Quick breads depend on baking soda, baking powder or sometimes both, as the rising agent. There is no waiting for the bread to rise as in yeast breads. The dough is made, shaped into biscuits or poured into a loaf pan and baked. The dough rises because of a chemical reaction between the baking soda or baking powder, and acid in the liquid used, most often milk, which causes gas to be produced. Baking soda and powder are not interchangeable in a recipe. The difference between a quick bread and a cake is somewhat arbitrary. Cakes are sweet with a finer texture than breads. Cake recipes sometimes call for cake flour.

Sour

Sour breads are made with a starter, sometimes called a mother. It's a combination of yeast, water and flour that has been allowed to sour. The chemical reaction causes the starter to rise and to taste pleasantly sour when baked. When it's added to bread dough, it acts in the same way that dry yeast does. Every time the starter is used, an equal amount of flour and water must be added back. Starters are delicate and once ruined can't be reused. The starter is used in sourdough biscuits as well as white sourdough bread, sour rye and sour pumpernickel.

Liquids

Water works for making breads with yeast or sourdough starters. An acid is required for quick breads. Milk is often used. If you don't have milk, you might be able to substitute orange juice, diluted sour cream or diluted yogurt or buttermilk. Results with these substitutions are not guaranteed.

References

• "Bread Alone"; Daniel Leader et al.; 1993
• Michigan Agriscience: How Does Yeast Work