Sourdough bread

“Sourdough” is one of the oldest forms of cereal fermentation utilized primarily for baking purposes. It is the result of the fermentation of flour from cereals and pseudocereals or legumes, among others, by the action of the microorganisms present in the preparation. Some sourdoughs can also incorporate added microorganisms.

Sourdough is the oldest form of leavened bread used as early as 2000 BC by the ancient Egyptians.

Sourdough breads are produced when a sourdough starter is combined with flour and water to make dough. This sourdough starter contains lactobacilli bacteria that feed on the flour, producing gases that get trapped in the flour-water mixture and cause the bread to rise.

Most lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from sourdough belong to the genus Lactobacillus, but species of Pediococcus, Leuconostoc and Enterococcus are occasionally found or used.

LAB produce a number of metabolites such as organic (lactic and acetic acid), exopolysaccharides (EPS), anti-microbial substances (i.e., bacteriocins) and a variety of species specific enzymes (i.e., α-amylase, pectinase, phytase, etc.) that have been shown to impart beneficial effects on the texture, nutritive values, and staling of bread.in sourdough processes.

Sourdough provides multiple benefits to the quality of the products:
*Extending of the life of the bakery products due to the lowering of pH, which induces the inhibition of microbial development, and to the decomposition of starch during lactic acid fermentation, resulting in staling delay.
*Products with greater aroma and sweetness, due to the hydrolysis processes and the compounds generated in the Maillard reaction during the baking process.
Sourdough bread

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Bread product of bagel

A bagel is a round yeast roll with a hole in the middle. A true bagel is completely plain and is made with white wheat high gluten flour, then boiled in water and then baked, which gives the bagel its characteristics hard, glazed crust.

The name bagel comes from the German word beugel meaning a round loaf of bread. The first mention of the bagel was in 161 in Kraków, Poland, when it was mentioned in a piece of literature that it would be given to women in childbirth. Jews from central Asia, where similar type of ring bread still exist, might have brought the concept to eastern Europe during the Middle Ages.

Bagels are mostly steamed and are offered in every conceivable flavor, from the more traditional pumpernickel or onion to the sweetened blueberry or chocolate chip versions, as well as many other flavors in between.

The largest bagel ever made was on July 23, 1998 in Mattoon, Illinois. It was blueberry bagel and weighed in at 714 pounds.
Bread product of bagel

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Baked items

Bread and other such as cakes, cookies, rolls, pies, dough, nuts, etc. are important items belonging to the class of foods that is sold in ready to serve form.

Some of this product are partially baked and require a final baking prior to serving. Freshly baked goods a desirable flavor and texture. These highly desirable attributes diminish rapidly with a lapse or time after baking.

The most bakery products are made of the same few ingredients- flour, shortening, sugar, eggs, water or milk and leavenings – therefore it is no difficulty understanding the importance of accuracy in the bakeshops slight variations in proportions or procedures can mean great differences in the final product.

It is scientific in the way that the ingredients are proportioned and also in the way they are prepared. Both of these points will have an effect as to how the item will react when placed into heat.
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Leavened bread

Bread a food prepared from the meal or flour of the cerealia, by kneading it together with water into dough, and exposing it to the action of heat or baking it.

There are two principal kinds of bread fermented or leavened and unfermented or unleavened. Wheat flour is ideal for leavened bread because wheat contains gluten, a protein that becomes sticky when mixed with water.

For the fermented or leavened bread the dough is first made to undergo a kind of fermentation by the addition of leaven or dough, which is already in a fermenting state or of yeasts.

Legend has it that leavening was discovered by an Egyptian baker who set some wheaten dough aside in a warm place. The dough, having been contaminated with wild yeast and/or bacteria, rose significantly as the microorganism grew and multiplied.

It is common in dirt and floats unseen in air. There are many varieties of yeast, some better suited to baking some to brewing.

No doubt, the person who sampled the accidentally leavened dough after baking was favorably impressed with its light airy texture.

The ancient Hebrews learned how to make leavened bread from the Egyptian in 1300 BC.

As a staple of the standard American diet, leavened bread is prepared with yeasts or baking soda to make the dough rise before baking.
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French bread of baguette

The baguette is the basic French breakfast bread. It is a descendent of bread first developed in Vienna, Austria in the mid-19th century when deck or steam ovens were first brought into common use.

Baguette, the hard crusty loaf currently associate with France, dates only to the Industrial Revolution. It has a white crumb with a regular structure, a few bigger cells and a thin shiny golden crust.

A baguette is a long thin loaf of the type more commonly known as French bread. The bread should be made only with lean doughs that produce a craps crust.

French bread and banquette are commonly manufactured by the straight baking procedure and using very simple formulation consisting of flour, water, salt, yeast and malt.

Nutritionally, 3 slices of French baguette contains:
85 calories
3g protein
1g total fat’
1 g fiuber
17g crbohydrates’2mg cholesterol
204mg sodium
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Food group of bread, other cereals and potatoes

Foods are divided into food groups. Within the Balance of Good Health model there are:
*Fruits and vegetables
*Breads, cereals and potatoes
*Milk and diary
*Meat, fish and alternatives
*Food containing fat and sugar

Bread, other cereals and potatoes are good sources of starch, and about a third of the food eaten should come from this group.

Bread
Commercial whole wheat bread often contains more white flour than whole wheat. It offers some iron and thiamine, both essential for healthy blood and high energy levels. It’s low in fat and cholesterol.

Wheat is used most in bread products because of its unique and functional-making properties. Although there will be some small changes in the nutritional qualities as a result of the milling and baking process, wheat-based breads continue to provide significant sources protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamin and minerals.

Cereal
Major cereals include wheat, rice, corn, and barley. Wheat and rice are the most important cereals with regard to human nutrition and they account for 55% of the total cereal production.

Cereals are the important sources of protein especially for vegetarian and people who eat only a small amount so food or animal origin.

Nutritionally, they are important sources of dietary protein, carbohydrates, the B group vitamins, vitamin E, iron, trace minerals and fibers.

Potatoes
Potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and vitamin A.  They are good source of calcium, potassium, sulphur, iron, folic acid and copper.

Potatoes contain a variety of phytonutrients that have antioxidant properties. Eating the skins of starchy vegetables such as potatoes and sweet potatoes helps to increase dietary fiber.
Food group of bread, other cereals and potatoes 

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Flour for bread

The baking quality of a flour determines its technological properties. The baking value of a flour is an indication of its ability to produce attractive and good tasting bread under optimal production condition and with the best yield.

This flour is made from the endosperm of the wheat kernel. It can be used together with all-purpose flour, if the dough kneaded by machine.

The baking quality of flour is related to the quality and quantity of proteins and of the gluten that derives from them.

Bread flour typically is milled from hard red spring wheat kernels, with high protein-to-starch ratio, and is capable of holding a lot of water – 2 cups flour holds 1 cup water. It can produce the largest loaves of any flour, because it has a high amount of protein.

Protein becomes gluten and forms an interlocking network of elastic strands that trap the gas produced by yeast, causing the dough to rise.

Hard spring wheat has a greater protein than hard winter wheat. Gluten flour is made from spring wheat that has been milled in such a way to retain the gluten. It may contain 40-45% protein.
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Nutritional value of bread

Healthy concepts related to nutritional value are emerging as fundamental quality attributes of bread products.

Bread is a nutritious food. It is starchy food that contains other vital nutrients. It is recommended to eat six slices of bread a day.

The excellent bread can be made from with flour, yeast, salt and water. Of the four ingredients, flour is the only variable, and the nutritional value of that will change according to the extraction rate or by addition during milling.

The nutritional value of bread can be increased by such addition as fat, milk, sugars, malt fruit and nuts.

Despite the fact that the nutritional composition of bread varies with the type of bread, bread is an energy dense product due to the carbohydrate content in the form of starch.

Bread is particularly important as an energy for food, providing 20-30% of the total energy requirements of the people.

It has 70 calories in an average slice. In some tests overweight people have succeeded in shedding pounds on diets of 1,200 to 1,500 calories of which almost half were from bread.

In term of protein, bread has an approximate protein content of 8%. About 20% of the protein intake of the people is provided by the bread baker. It is the cheapest source of protein.

It is also provide the amount of dietary fiber and does not contain cholesterol.

Although breads may appear similar, their ingredients vary widely. Breads made mostly from whole-grain flours provide more benefits to the body than breads made of enriched, refined, wheat flour.

Some ‘high fiber’ breads may contain purified cellulose or more nutritious whole grains. Low carbohydrate breads may be regular white bread thinly sliced to reduce carbohydrates per serving, or may contain soy flour, barley flour, or flaxseed to reduce starch content.

Whole grains breads provided the kind of dietary fiber that reportedly helps prevent such intestinal problems as constipation, diverticulosis and cancer of the colon.
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Technology of bread baking

The function of baking is to present cereal flours in an attractive, palatable and digestible form.

Most bakery products are made of the same few ingredients – flour, shortening, sugar, eggs, water or milk and leavenings.

The dough is kneaded by hand or machine. After the dough rests for some time (about 2 hours) it is manipulated to push out the gas that has been evolved.

Three process are commence when the ingredients for bread making are mixed.
*The protein in the flour begin to hydrate and to combine with some water , to form gluten.
*Air bubbles are folded into dough. During the subsequent handling of the dough these bubbles divide or coalesce.
*Enzyme in the yeast start to ferment the sugars present in the flour and later sugar released by diastatic action of the amylases on damaged starch in the flour, breaking them down to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The dough is then moulded into loaf shape and allowed to rest in the baking pan for 45 to 60 minutes at 38° – 48° C for final proof and is then baked for about 30 minutes with steam injected into the oven to produce a glaze on the crust.

Loaf sized are breads is baked in an oven pre-heated to 204° C. After the first 15 minutes of baking, the temperature is reduced if the crusts become to brown. Baking is continued until the bread is fully baked.

There are four major changes to the dough piece which can be seen as it is baked:
*A large reduction in product density – the dough gets thicker, associated with development of an open porous or flaky structure
*A change of shape associated with shrinkage or spread and increase on thickness
*A reduction in moisture level, to between 1-4%
*A change in surface coloration
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Anadama Bread

Anadama Bread
Anadama breads have been around since at least the mid-nineteenth century and most often appear n old-fashion New England cookbooks.

This is not surprising since cornmeal and molasses often teamed up in dishes in the region in Colonial times: Indian pudding.

Boston brown bread and anadama bread are just several of the many heritage recipes still being prepared that take great advantage of this twosome.

This yeast anadama bread made with cornmeal and molasses originated on the North Shore of Boston. The Cape Ann town of Rockport and Gloucester are among those that claim to have invented it.

According to competing popular legends a farmer or a local fisherman grew tired of eating the cornmeal and molasses porridge that his wife incessantly prepared for him.

He dumped flour and yeast into the bowl and threw it in the oven, grumbling, “Anna, damn her!” Others say it was Anna who got so fed up with her husband that she left him returning home, her distraught husband threw random ingredients into her unfinished cornbread, muttering, “Anna, damn her!”

More appreciate versions claim than Anna’s spouse pronounced his defining epithet with pride as he munched thick slices of her tasty bread or that Anna’s tombstone fondly read, “Anna was a lovely bride, but Anna, damn ‘er, up and died.”

The bread is also known as amadama bread allegedly derived from the irate husband who cried, “Where am’er, damn’er?” when his wife was away.

These stories traceable in written for only to the nineteenth century, are repeated by local restaurant and bakeries that serve anadama bread. The bread’s varying legends reveal a simple, home-cooked regional food.

Whether created by a colonial settler who added flavorful indigenous ingredients to an English yeasts bread or by a post Revolutionary housewife, in a community whose cuisine harked back to seventeenth century English cooking anadama bread embodies the fierce local pride and deep English roots of the North Shore of Boston.
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How to Make Baked Products Rise

How to Make Baked Products Rise
The first known breads were flat, with a heavy, close texture. They were describe as unleavened, which means they had no raising agents added.

Consumers now prefer light, open textured bread, cakes, pastries, batters, meringues and cold sweets. This is achieved by incorporating gas into the mixture.

Raising agents work by releasing gas when the mixture is heated causing it to rise.

There are three gases which make food mixture rise:
*Air
*Steam
*Carbon Dioxide

The raising agents used to produce carbon dioxide may be chemical raising agents or yeast. Yeast is used to raise dough.

Air
Air is incorporating into mixtures by mechanical methods:

*Sieving flour (cakes, pastry, batters)
*Creaming together fat and sugar (cakes, some biscuit)
*Rubbing fat into flour (shortcrust pastry, scones)
*Whisking egg white (meringue, whisked cake)
*Beating mixtures (batters, choux pastry)
*Rolling and folding (flaky pastry, rich yeast pastries)

Steam
For steam to make mixture rose, two conditions are needed:
*A high proportion of liquid in the mixture
*A high boiling temperature

When the liquid content reaches boiling point steam is given off. This forces its way up though the mixture to stretch and raise it.

The mixture cooks and sets in the risen shape, with large pockets of air left after the steam has escaped.

Food products which are raised mainly by steam have a very open and often uneven texture.

Steam also can be combined with:
*Air and carbon dioxide in cakes and bread
*Air in shortcrust and flaky pastry

Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is produced in two ways:
*Chemically from the action of bicarbonate of soda with an acid
*Biologically from the fermentation process of yeast

How to Make Baked Products Rise

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Bread Products

Bread Products
Bread has been a staple food for thousands of years, originally it was made from a variety of crushed grains such as rye and barley.

These were more likely savory biscuits than the bread products made today.

Bread now is the main products made from wheat.

The range of breads available is vast. Most countries in the world produce some type of bread (e.g., pitta, chapattis, focaccia, parathas, rye, and sweetened breads).

White sliced is still very popular. Other breads sold include wheat-germ, malted wheat grain, soft grain white, bran enriched and multigrain.

Morning goods are small bread items traditionally baled in the morning after the ovens are cooled, but are now produced throughout the day.

These include muffins, crumpets, rolls and scones.

At the beginning of the 20th century most bread was made and consumed at home.

Today 20 000 independent bakers sell bread on a local basis. Large scale production at plant bakeries became possible as production methods and mechanical slicing and wrapping methods developed.

Plant bakeries now produce 78 percent of all bread consumed. The manufacture of bread products is one of the largest sectors of the food industry.

The million large loaves of bread are consumed every day.

Independent bakers still have an important role but they have lost some trade to in-store bakeries. These use a technical development known as the bake-off system.

Retailers buy in partially baked or unbaked frozen dough to finish on site.

A supply of freshly baked products is available throughout the day, so less is wasted.
Bread Products

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