Re: NHS Sorted!
Originally Posted by
Julie1962
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I learned to make bread at school the chemistry as well as the practical I am not struggling to make a loaf at all been doing it for over 40 years.
Please understand I was not criticising your bread making, I'm sure you are very happy with your loaves and that's what counts. I'm rather just challenging your statements because they are not correct and that in turn suggests your understanding of the chemistry is off a little.
Originally Posted by
Julie1962
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Yeast needs food it gets it from the sugar, I have made sugar free bread before it doesn't rise well and tastes rather salty.
As I previously stated this is not correct. Yeast needs NO ADDED SUGAR to work or to raise a good loaf, none whatsoever. When flour, water and yeast are mixed together the enzymes in the yeast break down the large starch molecules from the flour/water and convert them to sugars. The yeast consume the sugars and that "fermentation" results in the 2 by-products of ethanol and carbon dioxide, the latter being the substance that raises the loaf.
Originally Posted by
Julie1962
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OK refined sugar so still no bread etc you have to use refined sugar in many things or the recipes won't work, chemically it just won't rise.
Again this is wholly untrue. Chemically and practically you do not need to add any sugar, refined or otherwise for a loaf to rise magnificently.
The ONLY ingredients you need are Flour, Water, Yeast and a little Salt. Nothing more.
Bread making is a lost skill and craft that has been making a come-back in recent years. There is a vast difference between what some might call "mum's bread making" and real artisan bread making. The former typically involves adding all manner of unnecessary things to the dough mix inc sugars, butter, sometimes milk, flour enhancers and so on. The latter involves simply understanding the chemistry of what goes on in the dough (flour rheology and yeast action) and learning how one can create a multitude of different loaves, flavours, crumb types and crust types by simply varying the times and temperatures involved, yet still using nothing but Flour, Water, Yeast and Salt. It's all about technique and skill.