Bread Machines For Dummies (8 page)
Read Bread Machines For Dummies Online
Authors: Glenna Vance,Tom Lacalamita
When your bread doesn't rise, quite naturally you blame the yeast or the bread machine. But other factors can also adversely affect yeast activity.
In some areas, the source of the water supply changes depending on the availability of water. When the change occurs, bread machine owners see either a decrease or an increase in the size of their loaves. I know this happens in areas of Florida. If you live in an area like that, rely heavily on bottled water for your bread making.
In the Southwest, the water is often unusually hard. That hardness adversely affects yeast activity, as does very soft water. This is especially true if you have a water softener, which increases the salt in the water.
Then there's the case of winter dryness, especially in northern climates. Just as your home becomes drier when you use your heating system, so do your flours. Even when you store your flour in an airtight container, it can dry out. Remember to check the consistency of the dough while it kneads to see if it needs more moisture.
Altitude dryness also occurs. Flours are naturally drier at higher altitudes. Often, increasing the liquid amount in the recipe is the simple solution to using a bread machine at a high altitude. Start with the given amount, but open the lid after the dough has been kneading about five minutes to look at the dough. It will probably be quite dry, so begin adding liquid, one tablespoon at a time, to let it work into the dough. Continue adding until the dough ball is soft and a bit tacky. Count your added tablespoons to give you a good idea of how much more liquid you will usually need in your recipes.
If you're in a very warm, moist climate, like the Gulf of Mexico area during the summer, you have to cool the water you use in your bread-machine recipe to as low as 40°. Yeast, like humans, is very sluggish in temperatures over 100°. So you have to begin with very cool water so that the dough doesn't get too warm. And you have to decrease the amount of water because the flour will have acquired moisture from the environment and will not be able to absorb all the liquid called for in the recipe.
When you purchase yeast, pay attention to the expiration date on the package. However, if you're in doubt about the activity of your yeast, you can check by using this easy activity test provided by Red Star Yeast & Products. It's called
proofing
the yeast.
In a 1-cup liquid measuring cup, pour 1/2-cup warm water. For accuracy, use a kitchen thermometer. The temperature should register 110° to 115°. Stir in 1 teaspoon of sugar and 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast (the amount of yeast in one 1/4-ounce package). Let set for approximately ten minutes. In that length of time, the yeast should have fermented the sugar and produced foam (carbon dioxide bubbles) that have grown to the 1-cup level. If this happens, the yeast is quite active, and you may use it in your bread machine. Pour it into your bread pan and add the other ingredients.
Be sure to decrease your liquid ingredients to adjust for the 1/2-cup water that you used to test the yeast.
While yeast activity is a biological happening that produces gases to expand dough, there are also chemicals that will react in a dough system to produce gases and expand the dough. You can use chemicals, either in conjunction with yeast or in place of it, to cause dough to rise. Here are just a couple:
Baking soda:
Baking soda is one of the main chemical leavening agents used in baking. You have to have a wet ingredient that is acidic, such as buttermilk, sour cream, or molasses, to activate the baking soda. As soon as baking soda combines with an ingredient like buttermilk, it starts producing carbon dioxide bubbles. The leavening action increases considerably when the dough is heated, so the greatest rise comes when it begins to bake.
If you have a Quick Bread cycle on your machine, you'll want to try our Irish Soda Bread recipe (see Chapter 16).
Baking powder:
You may already have baking powder in your cupboard, as it's the most common chemical leavener for home bakers. Baking powder has a double-acting reaction because its leavening agents produce carbon dioxide twice. The initial reaction occurs at room temperature when the baking powder is mixed with liquids, and the most volatile action occurs as the batter is heated and a huge amount of carbon dioxide bubbles are created.
If you have a Quick Bread cycle on your machine, you use baking powder instead of yeast. Because the chemistry of baking powder reacts instantly with liquid and then again with heat, the development time of the dough is much shorter. The dry ingredients get moistened and mixed only shortly before the bread machine begins heating to bake the bread.
Liquids: The Ingredients That Make It All Come Together
In This Chapter
Making sure your dough has the right moisture
Evaluating water and milk
Adding eggs for tenderness
Assessing liquid substitutions
I
t doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a food scientist) to know that everything changes when you add liquid to dry ingredients. In bread dough, the dry ingredients get moistened, the yeast dissolves, and the formation of gluten is stimulated. In this chapter, we'll give you the lowdown on all the yummy liquid possibilities, but remember: It's the degree of moistness that's crucial. In fact, it's the key to making good bread in a bread machine. If there's too much liquid, the dry ingredients don't get moistened, they get soaked. The growth of gluten is stimulated, but to a point where the dough will not hold a structure when it's baked. On the other hand, if there is not enough liquid, the bread won't rise as the gluten won't develop enough elasticity to stretch.
Even though recipes are honed to perfection, there always remains the variable of the flour's absorption quality. In other words, how much liquid will the flour absorb and still be able to maintain a honeycomb structure when baked? This is where you will want the quality control dough-consistency test. If it takes five minutes to assemble the ingredients in the pan, why not take another five to be sure your dough has the correct balance between wet and dry ingredients? Doing so will make all the difference between a small, dinky loaf (too dry), or a nice size loaf with a beautifully rounded top (right balance), or a flat-topped loaf (too wet), or a loaf that has a sunken, concave top (much too wet).
Dough consistency test:
You can tell if there is a good balance between the liquid and the dry ingredients just by looking at the dough during the first kneading time. And yes, you can open the lid and look at the dough; opening the lid does not interfere with the dough's development.
Check the dough about five minutes after the machine starts kneading; the dough should be a soft, slightly tacky ball.
Go ahead, touch the dough.
Just a tab bit should come off on your finger. If the dough is too wet, it will still be clinging to the sides of the pan. You need to add more flour, one tablespoon at a time. Let that flour work into the dough, and if that doesn't help the dough come off the sides and into a ball, keep adding flour, one tablespoon at a time, until it does.
On the other hand, you may need to add water, one tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too dry. (If the dough is in small clumps or it's in a ball, but the ball's stiff or not tacky, it's too dry.)
Your choice of liquid will affect the flavor and texture of the bread. Water, the most common liquid used in bread dough, brings out the flavor of grains and creates a crisp crust. You can also use a vegetable water, like potato water for example, and the bread will be sweeter than if you had just used plain water. (Potato water is the water left in the pot when you're done boiling potatoes.) Milk and milk products like yogurt, cottage cheese, or sour cream are common in breads and make the texture finer and more velvety and the crusts quite chewy. Buttermilk gives a characteristic sour taste and beer is sometimes used for a tangy, sourdough-like taste. And don't forget that eggs are a liquid, too.
No matter where you go the drinking water will taste different and for all sorts of reasons. Although water appears to be a rather simple substance, it can be highly complex, with many unique properties depending on its source. Fresh water is generally divided into two broad categories,
surface water
and
ground water
. The source of surface water could be rain or snow or it could come from rivers, streams, or lakes. Ground water is obtained from springs, shallow and deep wells, or is water reclaimed by removing the salt minerals from seawater.
Whether water comes from the surface or the ground has a major impact on its character. Surface waters usually have higher levels of organic, chemical, and microbial contaminants than ground waters. In urban areas you can count on the surface water being chemically treated for your safety. Rural areas with wells (a source of ground water) have water that is rich in mineral substances. We call this water
hard water.
Hardness in water is attributable almost totally to the presence of calcium and magnesium.
Soft water
has almost no calcium and magnesium, and many people have water softeners to counteract the mineral content. If your water is ground water, here are some things to keep in mind:
In the Southwest, primarily Arizona and New Mexico the water is quite hard.
Other areas known to have hard water are the states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.
The southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, and North and South Carolina have very soft water.
In some areas, like Florida, the source of the water supply changes during certain seasons of the year so the range varies from slightly hard to somewhat soft water.
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Why should you care? Because water characteristics dramatically affect yeast activity. A water of medium hardness is considered most suitable for baking bread because some of the minerals in it have a strengthening effect on the gluten of the dough. Excessively hard waters are undesirable because they slow fermentation by tightening the gluten structure too much, so the dough is unable to stretch easily. Soft waters are objectionable because they lack gluten-strengthening minerals and, as such, tend to yield soft, sticky doughs. Waters softened with water softeners will inhibit or slow down yeast activity. Both too hard and too soft water, as well as water high in fluoride and chlorine, will result in short stubby loaves. If you suspect you have a water problem, try substituting bottled water or milk. If you get better results, you can bet that the local water is causing your problem.
