There are a number of seeds and grains that are cous- ins to wheat, and whose use can enhance the flavor profile of bread. Seeds such as sunflower, sesame, and flax, and grains such as millet, oats, roasted barley, cracked rye and wheat, whole rye and wheat berries, There are many advantages associated with the
use of sourdough in rye breads. Certainly one is that the presence of sourdough inhibits the starch attack and allows the baker to obtain good characteristics in the finished loaf. Another pertains to phytic acid, a substance found in the bran coating of cereal grains. Phytic acid interferes with the body’s ability to absorb calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, and copper. Phytase is a thermo-resistant flour enzyme that is at its most active as dough pH reduces. When dough is acidified with a sourdough phase, the phytase virtually elimi- nates the effects of phytic acid, making the bound nutrients available and improving the nutritional profile of the bread.
Other benefits connected with the use of sour- dough include the leavening power of a healthy sourdough culture, and the vastly increased storing ability of breads made with sourdough. This last is due to the correlation between the pH of a bread and its keeping quality. That is, as the pH decreases, the level of acidity increases, and the higher acidity in turn contributes to the increased life span of the loaf. Sourdough therefore provides the benefits of good eating quality, increased nutrition, good leavening ability, and good keeping quality. This commonplace miracle of nature has been of incalculable value over the centuries in lands where bread was the primary foodstuff and, being baked but once every three or four weeks, needed to be stored for lengthy periods.
Rye flour in Germany is categorized by its ash content. That is, a sample of flour is incinerated, the charred remains, or “ash,” is weighed, and the flour is labeled according to the percentage of ash it con- tains. The ash is almost all minerals, and the higher the percentage, the more whole is the flour. In this way, Type 610 rye flour contains .61 percent ash (in the United States, Type 610 would be labeled white rye), while Type 1740 has 1.74 percent ash (whole rye in the United States); in between are numerous gradations, each signifying ash content and the rela- tive lightness or darkness of the flour. The amount of ash correlates to the degree of extraction; Type 610 is about 60 percent extraction, with Type 1740 being close to 95 percent extraction. Beyond these grada- tions of rye flour, there is another German category called Schrot, which is a form of chopped grain. It
water
Water is an ingredient of considerable importance in bread dough. Although it is easy to overlook—after all, turn on the tap and it is there—it helps to be aware of the effects water has in bread baking. The most important attributes are the following:
• It is in the presence of water that gluten forms.
• Water serves as a solvent and dispersing agent (for salt, sugar, and yeast).
• Water is necessary for yeast fermentation and reproduction (and softer doughs will ferment more quickly than dry doughs).
• Water is responsible for the consistency of bread dough.
• The temperature of water can be varied in order to obtain dough of the correct temperature.
and cornmeal are all flavorful and nutritious addi- tions to breads. For the most part, these grains and seeds are soaked before being added to the mix. When using sunflower and sesame seeds, however, a lovely nutty flavor note can be added to the bread by toasting rather than soaking the raw seeds. Small changes like this provide the baker with additional ways to produce breads with subtle, individualized differences. Keep in mind that when seeds are used to cover the outer surface of a loaf, they should always be applied raw. If toasted, the additional cook- ing they undergo once the bread is in the oven will result in an unpleasant bitterness.
A number of packaged grain mixes are available today. These can save the baker the step of scaling several grains and seeds, but may also give his or her breads something of a generic character if the same mix is used in each grain bread. Of course, the cost per pound of the grain mix will always be more than that of the individual ingredients purchased by the baker.
ergoT
ergoT (ClaviCeps purpurea)is a fungus that thrives in damp conditions and affects cereal grains, with rye being the most susceptible. It can have devastating and lethal effects on people, and over the centuries outbreaks of ergotism have plagued many parts of Europe and elsewhere. The symptoms of ergot take two forms: gangrenous, char- acterized by a dry gangrene that affects the body’s extremities and eventually results in the afflicted parts falling away; and convulsive, characterized by crawling sensations on the skin, hallucinations (LSD shares structural similarities with ergot), delirium, and convulsions (known historically as St. Vitus’ Dance). Although ergot is clearly visible on infected grains, it was a common enough sight that for many centuries people did not connect the eating of ergot- infected grain with the horrible symptoms of ergot poisoning. An outbreak of ergot in southern France
in the year 944 killed 40,000 people. Here in Vermont, that is the population of Burlington, the state’s larg- est city; everyone dead, what a concept. Devastating outbreaks persisted for hundreds of years after that. In those centuries long before science provided credible explanations, it was easy to conclude that the Devil was at play. Corpses of the ergot victims were frequently heaped up and burned, an act that became known as St. Anthony’s Fire. Although occurrences are rare today, by no means has ergot been eradicated. France suffered an outbreak of what was most likely ergotism in the Gard region in the summer of 1951; in 2001 ergot in barley caused an outbreak in Ethiopia. In 1976, Linnda Caporael published Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem? This interesting paper connects ergotism with the Salem Witch Hunts in a most compelling manner.
universally consider bread to be of the highest qual- ity only when salt is used in appropriate quantities. Although it is quite insignificant in terms of the weight it contributes to a loaf of bread, salt is never- theless a major component in bread, and performs several important functions.
Salt provides flavor. Bread baked without salt will have a flat and insipid taste. On the other hand, bread made with an excess of salt will be unpalatable. Generally, the correct amount of salt in bread dough is 1.8 to 2 percent of salt based on flour weight (that is, 1.8 to 2 pounds of salt per 100 pounds of flour). Bakers who lack the ability to coax fermentation flavor from flour sometimes resort to an excessive use of salt. This dubious tactic of oversalting foods that have little intrinsic flavor is pervasive in the fast- food industry, and commonplace as well in canned, frozen, and microwave foods. But while salt provides flavor, it is not a substitute for the fine flavor of well- fermented flour. The role of salt is to enhance, not take the place of, true bread flavor.
Salt tightens the gluten structure. The tightening gives strength to the gluten, enabling the dough to efficiently hold carbon dioxide, which is released into the dough as a by-product of the yeast fermentation. When salt is left out, the resulting dough is slack and sticky in texture, work-up is difficult, and bread vol- ume is poor.
Salt has a retarding effect on the activity of yeast. The cell wall of yeast is semipermeable, and by osmosis it absorbs oxygen and nutrients as it gives off enzymes and other substances to the dough envi- ronment. Water is essential for these yeast activities. Salt by its nature is hygroscopic, that is, it attracts moisture. In the presence of salt, yeast releases some of its water through its cell walls, and since yeast cells require a certain degree of hydration in order to function, the water that has been released from the cells causes the yeast’s fermentation, or reproduc- tive activities, to slow down. If there is an excess of salt in a bread dough, the yeast is retarded to the point where there is a marked reduction in volume. If there is no salt, the yeast will ferment too quickly. So the salt, in a sense, aids the baker in controlling the pace of fermentation. Nevertheless, careful use of yeast, control of dough temperature, and the type, The degree of hardness in water is an indication of
the amount of calcium and magnesium ions present, expressed in parts per million (ppm). Soft water has less than 50 ppm, while hard water has more than 200 ppm. Generally, water of medium hardness, with about 100 to 150 ppm of minerals, is best suited to bread baking. These minerals provide nutrients for the yeast, and therefore can benefit fermentation. If water is excessively hard, however, there is a tighten- ing effect on the gluten, as well as a decrease in the fermentation rate (the minerals make water absorp- tion more difficult for the proteins in the flour). On the other hand, if water is excessively soft, the lack of minerals results in sticky, slack dough. Generally speaking, most water is not extreme in either direc- tion, and if water is potable, it is suitable for bread baking.
In the creation of a sourdough or levain culture, there is another consideration. If the water used is highly chlorinated, the chlorine can have a negative impact on the culture by inhibiting the metabolism of the developing microorganisms. In this case, simply leave a bucket or jar of water out overnight, uncov- ered. By the next day, most all the chlorine will have dissipated. Alternatively, filtered water can be used.
The amount of acidity in water, expressed as pH (potential hydrogen), also has an effect on fermenta- tion. Hard water is generally more alkaline than soft water, and can decrease the activity of yeast. Water that is slightly acid (pH a little below 7) is preferred for bread baking.
salt
For centuries, salt was a rare and expensive com- modity; the cause of wars and strife, it enriched some and impoverished others. Towns were named after it (Salzburg, for example, means “salt town”). Bread and salt have long implied welcome and hospital- ity; words like salary have their root in the word
salt. Taxes on it over the centuries have many times
resulted in riots and massacres.
Prior to the 1700s, salt was rarely used in bread production. Although there are still areas where salt is used in either very small quantities or not at all (Tuscany being an example), people today almost
generally, when using whole or cracked grains and seeds,they are first made into what is known as a “soaker”; that is, they are left to soak for a number of hours in at least an equal weight of water. The water, of course, is part of the overall dough water, and its presence in the soaker is accounted for in the overall formulation of the bread. The water for grains such as cracked or whole rye and wheat must be boiled, and the grains steeped overnight. This allows them to absorb water, soften, and become palatable once the bread is baked. Other seeds and grains, such as raw sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, and cornmeal, can be prepared with cold water since they soften more readily. In both cases, since the grains have absorbed water prior to dough mixing, they will not rob water from the dough. A common flaw in the production of grain breads is the inclusion of unsoaked grains in the mix, which not only give the sense of “eating the beach,” but also result in a significant drying of the crumb, as the grains suck up dough water.
Frequently, part or all of the salt in the formula is added to the soaker. There is good sense to this prac- tice: Once the grains have become hydrated, enzymatic activity commences, especially when adding boiled water to grains to make a hot soaker. During the warmer months particularly, the enzymatic activity can give an unpleasant sourness to the grains when the soaker is left at room temperature overnight. By adding the dough salt to the soaker, the enzymatic activity is reduced and the development of off flavors avoided. When to add the soaker to the dough? There are two schools of thought about this. One school advo- cates adding the soaker at the end of the mix. Using this technique, the dough is mixed to full gluten development, after which the soaker is added and incorporated on first speed until it is fully and evenly distributed throughout the dough. Considering the fact that the comparatively sharp grains in a soaker have a puncturing effect on the dough, and that therefore the gluten matrix develops more slowly in the presence of a soaker, it makes sense to add the
soaker at the end of the mix. Although this approach is sound from a technical perspective, in a practi- cal sense there may be advantages to the second method. In the second method, all the ingredients, including the soaker, are placed in the mixer at the outset and the dough is mixed until it is properly developed. The line of thought supporting this method goes like this: It is preferable to be able to correct the dough hydration early on in the mix than it is to mix the dough without the soaker and not be sure how the final consistency will be until the soaker has been incorporated. And the reason it’s difficult to forecast the final consistency of the dough is because the absorption of the grains in the soaker can be quite variable. For instance, in a soaker made with boiling water, some water may have evaporated before being poured on the grains. Also, older grains absorb more water than freshly milled ones. It follows to reason that if the soaker is added at the beginning of the mix, the baker can correct the dough’s hydra- tion within the first 2 or 3 minutes of mixing. It is true that more overall mixing time may be needed to develop sufficient dough strength (the friction factor may need to be increased in this case when calculating desired dough temperature), but at least the baker knows that the dough is mixing at the cor- rect hydration. When the soaker is added at the end, dough hydration may need adjustment after it has been incorporated. And it can be difficult indeed for the dough to accept added water once it has been fully mixed. Adding water to a fully developed dough can be a woeful sight, as the added water makes a sloppy paste that smears around the outer surface of the dough. Only reluctantly does the dough incorpo- rate this additional water.
Regardless of when it is added, breads made with a soaker tend to have a lovely whole-grain aspect, but at the same time they are comparatively light tex- tured, especially when the base of the dough is made with all or mostly all white flour. Another worthy aspect to these breads is their high moisture reten- tion, which prolongs keeping quality.
One other use of salt is useful to note. It is com- mon to include a portion of salt in a levain culture during warmer and more humid months. This addition of salt, at a rate of .2 to .3 percent, retards the action of the wild yeasts as well as the lactic acid–producing bacteria, and thus prevents the overmaturing of the culture. In the preparation of German-style rye bread, there is a similar technique that is occasionally employed, called the salt-sour method, in which a portion of the overall dough salt is used in the sourdough phase. The result is to slow the activity of the sourdough yeast cells (allowing the sourdough to be used up to forty-eight hours after the initial mixing), to reduce the production of acid- ity, and to strengthen the gluten structure.
The most common salts used in bread produc- tion are noniodized granular salt, sea salt (mineral salt), kosher salt, and, occasionally, iodized salt. While iodized salt may impart some off flavor to bread, it is quite difficult to detect any flavor differences among noniodized granular, sea, or kosher salt when they are used in breads. As with other bread ingredients, salt should be weighed. Since the granular structure of different salts varies so much, measuring with teaspoons or cups results in inaccurate weights. In other words, the same weights of kosher salt and noniodized granular salt provide essentially identical saltiness in bread, but a tablespoon of granular salt provides much more saltiness than a tablespoon of kosher salt because of the difference in grain size.
yeast
Yeast is a single-celled microorganism that is neither a plant nor an animal—it is a member of the king- dom Fungi—and it requires suitable conditions to thrive. These conditions include moisture, oxygen, food, and appropriate temperatures, and when they are provided, the life cycle of the yeast will become activated, resulting in both reproduction and alco- holic fermentation. Alcohol fermentation is the conversion by yeast of sugars into alcohol and car- bon dioxide, and it is primarily this attribute of yeast that pertains to the bread baker. (By contrast, lactic maturity, and amount of pre-ferment used are better
ways to control fermentation.
Salt indirectly contributes to crust coloring. This attribute is a result of the salt’s characteristic of retarding fermentation. Flour starch is converted into simple sugars by amylase enzymes, and the yeast consumes these sugars in order to generate fermen- tation. Since salt slows the rate of sugar consumption, more of what is known as “residual sugar” is available at the time of the bake for crust coloration. In the absence of salt, the yeast quickly consumes the avail- able sugars, and the crust on the baked bread will be pale and dull.
Salt helps preserve the color and flavor of flour. The carotenoid pigments naturally present in unbleached wheat flour are responsible for giving flour its creamy color and wheaty aroma. Salt has a positive effect on the preservation of carotenoids, because dough oxidation is delayed in the presence of salt. For this reason, it is preferable to add salt at the beginning of the mix. In this way, salt benefits the