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Sugar is not needed at all for bread baking. This is sadly a common myth. The yeast used in bread making cannot digest complex carbohydrates. Sugar does serve
by cyphar 7y ago
Sugar is not needed at all for bread baking. This is sadly a common myth. The yeast used in bread making cannot digest complex carbohydrates.
Sugar does serve a purpose in bread (flavour and colour -- sugars love to brown when heated) but it's not in any way a required ingredient. If you don't want your bread to be sweetened, don't add it.
- Tade0 7y agoThe yeast used in bread making cannot digest complex carbohydrates. Citation needed. I mean, I should've mentioned that I use brewer's yeast, but nevertheless.
- cyphar 7y agoYeah, after looking it up I don't think that explanation was right. However, I would argue the conclusion is correct though -- sugar is not a required ingredient for bread dough. The more correct explanation is that the primary source of sugar for yeast in bread dough is the starches in the flour -- adding a teaspoon of sugar won't impact the fermentation process enough to make any noticeable difference. I've tried baking doughs both ways and there really isn't any appreciable difference. Yeah, the bread with sugar tastes and browns better, but it doesn't rise any better. You also don't need to "bloom" your yeast (though it does help to do because it lets you check whether the yeast is alive or not). For other types of fermentation you do need some kind of sugar (ginger beer, Kombucha, etc). Beer also has sugar but it's in the form of boiled malts (which release a lot of sugar into the water).