Neil's Harbour White Bread Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What ingredient controls yeast? ›

1) Salt controls yeast fermentation

Adding salt prevents the yeast from reproducing too quickly, thus allowing you to control the rate at which the dough ferments.

Yeast feeds on sugar and converts it into alcohol and carbon dioxide through fermentation. Alcohol is useful in beer making and carbon dioxide is responsible for stretching and expanding the dough, something we see as the dough rises.

Butter and especially stronger oils, such as walnut, can also add flavor to bread. Dry milk powder adds flavor to bread and can soften its texture, as in the case of this basic white sourdough. Add it to dough with the flour.

Salt acts as a natural antioxidant in the dough and not only adds taste but especially helps bring out the flavors and aromas present in the flour and other ingredients. Next to its role in boosting the flavor of your bread, salt plays a role in tightening the gluten structure and adding strength to your dough.

If a large amount of salt (or sugar, which is also hygroscopic) were to be combined with a small amount of yeast and left for a long time it could, in theory, eventually rob the yeast of water to the degree that the yeast cells would begin to die off.

Too Hot to Survive

Once water temps reach 140°F or higher, that is the point where the yeast will be completely killed off. If you're doing the wrist test, 120°F feels pretty hot, whereas 140°F feels extremely hot.

Instead, it starts to eat: sugar (sucrose and fructose) is its favorite food. If there is sugar in the dough, that's what the yeast eats first; once that's gone, yeast converts the starch in flour into sugar; thus flour is capable of providing yeast with a continuous food source.

When you add yeast to water and flour to create dough, it eats up the sugars in the flour and excretes carbon dioxide gas and ethanol — this process is called fermentation. The gluten in the dough traps the carbon dioxide gas, preventing it from escaping. The only place for it to go is up, and so the bread rises.

If you're looking to ramp up the taste of your favorite bread recipe, we recommend adding a bit of fat. A fat like butter, olive oil or coconut oil in small quantities will help your bread achieve a higher rise and it will also boost its flavor by tenfold.

If the area is too warm, bread will rise too fast and begin cooking before the yeast has finished acting. This will impart a "yeasty" taste to the dough that will be transferred to the finished baked loaf. Using old ingredients (rancid nuts, "old" shortening) will cause yeast breads to taste old or have an "off" taste.

Why does my homemade bread have no taste? ›

Your bland bread could be the result of rushing the process. Try a slow overnight rise in the refrigerator. Plan ahead to proof your loaf overnight. This hands-off time in the icebox will slow the fermentation process in your dough and result in a complex-flavored loaf.

The whole egg contributes to the richness and moisture content of the dough and enhances the overall flavor and texture of the bread. The yolks, being rich in fats, enhance emulsification and ensure a smoother texture. Whereas, the whites, when beaten, create stable foams, adding a light and airy quality to the bread.

This can affect the bread by adding a "yeasty" taste if you put too much into the dough. General amounts of yeast are around 1 - 2 % of the flour, by weight. Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand.

Just remember: the less yeast, the longer the rising time (and/or the warmer the rising temperature). Start by cutting the yeast in your recipe by 50 percent and if the results are reasonable, lower the amount even more next time.

SALT. Salt regulates the rate of yeast activity, providing a slow, steady rise. This allows the yeast to develop the characteristic bread flavor. Salt strengthens the gluten structure of the dough, not allowing the trapped carbon dioxide bubbles to expand too quickly.

To activate yeast, you need water and a touch of granulated sugar. Follow these steps to activate yeast: Adjust your tap water until it feels lukewarm. The ideal water temperature to proof yeast is 100–110 degrees Fahrenheit.

In addition, salt helps to regulate or control the action of yeast and thereby the rate of fermentation. This is done due to the salt's osmotic pressure that it exerts on yeast. Sugar: In yeast-raised products like bread and rolls, sugar provides food for the yeast and gives a sweet taste to the finished product.