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Cereals have been present in the human diet since ancient times. Even today, bread made from them is one of the staple foods in most parts of the world. The technology of making bread has changed over time, but its essential ingredients remained the same.
You don’t need a lot of ingredients to bake high-quality, tasty bread. The purpose of this post is to explain what are the main ingredients in bread and their functions.
The main ingredients of bread are wheat flour, water, salt, and a leavening agent, which can be yeast or a sourdough starter made of water and flour.
• The starch and protein content of wheat flour gives the bread its structure and bulk.
• Water is necessary for the swelling of gluten and starch, and its conversion to steam during baking helps the leavening of the bread.
• Salt is a flavoring agent, but it also strengthens the structure of gluten and starch and influences fermentation.
• The leavening agent produces carbon dioxide gas, which is necessary for bread leavening. It also affects the taste of the bread.
In addition to the main ingredients listed above, bread can also contain other ponents, such as seeds, flakes, or spices.
In the case of factory-made bread, the use of various additives became necessary due to the shortened preparation time. Let’s now take a detailed look at the function of each ingredient in the bread-making process.
1. Flour
Flour is made from ground cereals. The first flours made by man were probably created by roasting and grinding wild grains.
The use of sifted white wheat flour for making bread was started by medieval bakers.
The parts of the wheat grain are the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. White flour is made by grinding only the endosperm, which is rich in proteins and starches.
For home use, all-purpose flour is the most mon, but bakeries use a variety of flour with different properties and qualities. The quality of the flour depends on the type of grain and its growing conditions. It is important to choose the right flour for different baked goods.
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The bread yield depends on the type and quality of the flour, which means how much bread we get pared to the amount of flour used. This is expressed as a percentage and ranges between 150-170%.
Flours made from wheat are the best for making leavened bread, as they contain the largest amount of proteins necessary for the structure of the bread. Flours with a protein content between 10.5 and 12% are most suitable for home use.
Whole grain wheat flour contains the whole grain of wheat, together with the bran and germ. Used alone, it produces a heavy, dense bread dough despite containing gluten. Therefore, it is mostly used mixed with white flour.
We can make high-quality, well-risen bread from a mixture of whole grain and white wheat flour mixed in equal proportions.
What are the ingredients in th 5
Gluten
Strong flours made from hard wheat are best for leavened bread. They contain large amounts of glutenin and gliadin. These are proteins from which gluten develops as a result of moisture and mixing.
Only flours made from wheat contain the right amount and quality of gluten to make high-quality leavened bread.
Starch
White flour also contains 68-76% starches, which make up the bulk of the bread.
Starches are carbohydrates made from simple sugars. A small part of these breaks down in
to sugar as a result of grinding, which feeds the yeast in the bread dough.
Starch functions as a binding agent during the kneading of the dough. It absorbs a lot of water and swells. During baking, the starch forms a brown, solid crust on the bread.
Enzymes
Flour also contains enzymes, the most important of which is amylase. It breaks down the starch and allows fermentation without adding sugar to the dough.
Other types of flour
The flour of other cereals contains no gluten at all or only a small amount. Therefore, in the preparation of leavened bread, they are mostly mixed with wheat flour. The flour of these cereals, such as corn flour (maize), is suitable for making various flatbreads.
Corn flour (Maize)
Corn does not contain gluten at all, which is important information for people with gluten se
nsitivities. However, it contains other useful proteins. Cornmeal is mostly made by grinding only the grain, as the germ has too much oil.
Corn flour can be finely ground or coarse, which affects the structure of the bread.
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Rye flour
Rye flour does not contain the right amount and quality of gluten to make leavened bread, so it is mostly used mixed with white wheat flour. 20-40% of the white wheat flour can be replaced with rye flour to make nicely risen bread.

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