Sweet Bread and Yeast
Did you ever wonder why flour tastes like sawdust but a French or Italian bread made with the same flour and little else has a pleasant sweet taste? The bread would not be bread without yeast and yeast can not work without sugars. Yeast is alive, living organisms and living organisms need food for fuel, in this case, simple sugars. But flour is mostly starch and table sugar (sucrose) is too complex for the yeast before fermentation. Amylase and invertase, enzymes present in the flour or created by the yeast, break down starch molecules into sugars. Some of the simple sugar molecules become food for yeast, and others to create the sweet taste is a good bread, including French bread, which has no sugar. As the yeast feeds on sugar, which creates two digestive byproducts of alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is what leavens the bread-gas filter carbon dioxide through the mass of the loft building. The alcohol evaporates during cooking.
Biological and chemical actions that take place as the bread rises and is called fermentation. In general, a long, slow fermentation makes for better flavor, texture and moisture retention. Many call for “slow” or slow the growth of yeast with refrigeration. If the dough is refrigerated, the yeast grows more slowly. Fermentation takes place is still at work within the enzymes amylase and sugar mass is released but at a slower pace. When the mass is heated and the growth of yeast is removed, there is plenty of sugar in excess yeast and sugar to sweeten the bread.
When yeast grows more slowly, is the richer, fuller flavor of breads made with ground delay. In the previous article, we discussed a focaccia that uses refrigeration to slow the growth of yeast and create the crust and desired flavor. Is it a good bread without delay? Yes, but delaying nuances that give desirable flavor and a more open crumb.
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