i was Talking wiTh an equipmenT salesman noT long ago. He grew up in a baking family, and he told me an interesting story. We go through life only once, as far as I can tell. We make choices and don’t always stop to realize that they can affect everything in our lives. Sometimes the way we die is a reflection of how we have lived. Here is the story as it was told to me. . . .
The salesman is French, and he has lived in the United States for many years. He was born and raised in Paris; his parents were bakers. As a boy in the ’50s, his parents bought a bakery in one of the outer arrondissements of the city. The owner was an old woman, a widow who had run the bakery for years after the death of her husband. For a baker, she was unusually prosperous; in fact, she was rich. Although these days we hear from time to time about a baker becoming wealthy, usually as a result of attaining some measure of celebrity status, throughout most of history, and right up until almost the end of the twentieth century, a rich baker was practically unheard of. How had this old woman amassed her considerable wealth?
During World War II, Paris was occupied by the Nazis, and the people were hungry, as they were all over Europe. Bread became more important in peo- ple’s daily diet. As it became more scarce, it became more important still. Meat virtually vanished, and so too vegetables and cheese and most of the foods that had once been abundant. But the bread, the bread— please let us have the bread! Gradually, money too became scarce. What would people do now? For hundreds of years, bakers in France had sold their bread on credit to their customers (using a system called taille, the baker would notch a wooden stick in
order to keep track of the number of loaves for which a customer owed; normally between forty and one hundred loaves would be accounted for on the taille stick). During this time of extremity, bakers again offered their bread on credit. The widow, though, refused to do this, and as people became more des- perate, and as she continued to insist on payment, her customers began to bring in their valuables. Gold, silver, jewelry, family heirlooms and treasures—all these found their way into her till. Gold for bread. When faced with the hunger of one’s children or par- ents or spouse, who would not trade gold for bread? By the time the war ended, the widow had accumu- lated a considerable fortune.
The widow sold the bakery to the parents of my acquaintance in the early ’50s, and moved to a fashionable quartier in central Paris to enjoy her retirement. Even after the purchase of a fine home, the fruits of her greed had left her with a great deal of remaining gold and jewelry and other valuables. These she would not put in the bank, for fear they would be lost or stolen. Instead, she put them in boxes in her cellar. Every day, she would walk down the cellar stairs to look at her wealth. She did this daily, the daily walk down the stairs to gaze at her riches. One day she slipped, fell down the stairs, and was found dead at the bottom.
This is the story as it was told to me by my acquaintance. It isn’t necessarily a story with a moral, but it could be. There may not have been any con- nection between the glitter of the jewels in the dark basement and the manner of the widow’s death. But when he told it, it made me pause for a moment. The lives we lead; the choices we make.
value of the baked goods. Finally, the coagulating property of eggs gives an even texture and grain to the finished product.
milk
The food value of milk is significant, and when used in baked goods, there is an increase in the protein and mineral content of the products. Lactose, a sugar that is present in milk, caramelizes on the surface of baked goods, imparting a rich color, and also neces- sitating baking precautions similar to those for eggs and granulated sugar. Along with the lactose, the fats present in milk contribute to a soft and even grain in the crumb of baked products. Bakers often replace whole milk in bread formulas with dried milk, largely because the shelf life of dried milk is of course vastly greater than that of fresh milk. Four ounces of dried milk replace 1 quart of whole fresh milk, with the liquid being made up with water.
fats
Fats used in baking coat the gluten strands during mixing, making baked goods more tender. Cell struc- ture in the baked products is more close-grained. The presence of fats also increases shelf life. Fats are derived from either animal or vegetable sources. Those produced from animal sources include butter and lard. Butter is of course the preeminent fat used in baking, and is unsurpassed for the aroma, rich color, delectable mouthfeel, and exceptional taste it provides. Solid at room temperature, butter melts at temperatures lower than body temperature, and this contributes to the smooth mouthfeel imparted to baked goods made with butter. Unsalted but- ter is always recommended. For one reason, it gives the baker thorough control of the amount of salt used in his or her formulas. Even more importantly, salt is used as a preservative in butter, and typically salted butter is older, often carrying off flavors. The perishable nature of unsalted butter makes it more expensive than salted butter, but the additional cost should in no way tempt the baker or cook to settle for inferior, salted butter. For those who prefer to eat moisture they are also able to survive for hundreds
of years. When conditions again become suitable for the yeast, it resumes its life cycle, unperturbed by an interruption of a few centuries.
sugar
Sugar (as well as honey and malt syrup), although not used often as an ingredient in bread making, has some important characteristics worthy of note. Beyond simply providing sweetness to the finished loaves, sugar also imparts more crust color to the fin- ished loaves. Therefore, the bake temperature is lower than for doughs made without sugar. When levels are low, 5 percent or less, there is little extra crust coloration; as sugar levels increase, so too does crust coloration. Hearth loaves baked directly on the floor of the oven may darken excessively on the bottom unless precautions are taken. Although inefficient, it may be necessary to finish baking on sheet pans once loaves have baked about halfway. Breads like challah, which contain not only sugar but other crust-darken- ing ingredients as well (oil and eggs), bake entirely on sheet pans, at much lower temperatures.
When sugar levels reach 10 percent, as in the production of certain viennoiserie goods, the level of yeast activity decreases. Sugar (like salt) is by nature hygroscopic, that is, it attracts moisture. As the per- centage of sugar increases, it claims moisture that would otherwise be absorbed through the outer membrane of the yeast cells and applied to the fer- mentation. The lack of moisture available to the yeast reduces its activity. Yeast levels are comparatively high in viennoiserie production in order to offset the effect of higher sugar levels in the doughs.
eggs
Eggs also impart color to the crust of baked goods, due to the lipids in the yolk. Therefore, baking tem- peratures must be reduced to prevent an excess of coloration. Eggs also provide flavor, again from the yolk (there is relatively little flavor in egg whites). When eggs are present, the protein, calcium, iron, and potassium they contain increases the nutritional
added to the liquid oil, the result being the forma- tion of a new form of fat, called a trans unsaturated fat. These hydrogenated fats are in fact solid at room temperature, with melting temperatures of 115°F or higher. Since this is above body temperature, the eat- ing quality of products made with these fats is not as smooth and melting as those made with butter. Although there is no cholesterol in these plant-based shortenings, the human body has difficulty recogniz- ing hydrogenated fats, and one alarming character- istic of them is that they wreak havoc on the body’s ability to regulate cholesterol. This in turn can lead to serious health side effects.
less butter, my advice is not to alter properly propor- tioned formulas, but instead to have a thinner slice of the product.
Fats derived from vegetable sources are either natural or, as in the case of shortening and margarine, hydrogenated. Natural oils, such as olive, soy, and canola, are liquid at room temperature. When used in bread doughs, these oils are liquifiers, and as such their weight is included with that of the water when computing dough hydration.
Liquid oils are susceptible to oxidation, and there- fore subject to rancidity. Science developed the pro- cess of hydrogenation to prolong shelf life and curtail rancidity. During hydrogenation, a hydrogen atom is
there are a relatively small number of techniques