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Milk powder and sugar in bread recipes
Hello,
I have a ton of awesome bread recipes and some of them ask for milk powder and/or sugar. How does this affect my bread in terms of its consistency and taste, as well as what it will do to the behaviour of the yeast?
Thanks for the course! I'm loving it so far!
(My colleagues are loving all the baked goods, haha)
Kind regards,
Ané
2 Answers
Hi Ane,
The sugar is there as a food for the yeast, while the yeast breaks it down it creates carbon dioxide which helps your bread rise. Or it's there to add a little sweetness to the recipe depending on the quantity that is called for or the what kind of bread you are making.
The milk powder is used for a few reasons. In bulk baking it is much easier to weigh than fresh milk. More relevant to most of us is that the powdered milk gives bread a softer, lighter texture. Powdered milk is usually missing an enzyme (glutathione) which can weaken gluten bonds. What this means is that a bread with lots of the glutathione enzyme won't rise as much as it should resulting in a denser loaf.
If you would like to use fresh milk you can scald it quickly to about 80C before using in the recipe, this will also reduce the presence of glutathione. Although you will need to check the conversion between the powdered milk and fresh milk carefully.
Bye for now.
How do you make bread? With large baker or programmable bread maker? I bought the later after reading a bread machine review on this page: https://www.cfone.net/5-best-bread-machines.html
