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> A lot of breads in North America have a lot of added sugars. The sugar feeds the yeast to make the bread rise. No sugar == solid lump of rock-hard bread-roc
by dingaling 11y ago
> A lot of breads in North America have a lot of added sugars.
The sugar feeds the yeast to make the bread rise. No sugar == solid lump of rock-hard bread-rock.
Sugar is one of the key ingredients in Western-style fluffy loaves, particularly wholegrain flours which need an accelerated fermentation process so that they rise before being 'set' by cooking. Which is nicely ironic since we've been conditioned that wholegrain is the healthy choice!
Sugar also helps to prevent staling, which is critical in home-baked breads which barely last 12 hours even with that assistance.
- mfoy_ 11y agoI'm not saying we should have NO sugar in our bread. But it's to the point where if you google "Why is American bread so sweet?" you'll find countless examples of Europeans comparing American bread to cake. This is well beyond the scope of "feeding the yeast".
- rleigh 11y agoThe amount is tiny though. I make my own bread, and you can use just half a teaspoon in a loaf, it's just to get the yeast going, and they probably metabolise most of it. I've also experimented with using part milk so they use the lactose instead, and this also gives a nice consistency to the bread (still working on further improving this though!)
- bigfudge 11y agoThis is incorrect. It's perfectly possible to make light fluffy bread without adding sugar. Sugar might be added to accelerate the process for economic reasons, but that's something else.