Science of Baking - science

Science of BakingBread science

You can get hundreds of different kind of bread! You can have one of the thinnest flatbreads to the fluffiest brioche¹. Some bread are really simple, some others are not.
Leaveners come in two main forms: baking powder or soda and yeast.
Baking powder or baking soda works quickly. That is caused by all the chemical reactions in acidic and alkaline. It compounds to produce the carbon dioxide² necessary to blow up the dough or batter. Baking powder and baking soda are used as well to leaven baked goods that have a slight structure, ones that blow up quickly as carbon dioxide is produced, such as quick breads like cornbread and biscuits.
Yeast³ is a living single-celled fungus⁴. There is more than 100 species of yeast, and many of them live around us. But most people are familiar with yeast in its form as this beige granules that come in little paper packets. This organism is starting chemical reactions being in contact with warm water. When it’s reactivated the yeast begins feeding on the sugars in flour and releases the carbon dioxide that makes the bread blow up (Rise, grow etc.), but in a much slower rate than baking powder or soda.

Gluten is a composite of the proteins ‘gliadin’ and ‘glutenin’. 80 percent of wheat seed is gliadin and glutenin; there is also gluten in rye and barley but not in soya beans, rice and maize. Gluten is also a Latin word which translated means ‘Glue’ – and that is how it works. It makes the kneaded dough its elasticity. It works like this:

1)      When you add water to wheat flour, water molecules combine with two proteins, Gliadin and Glutenin.

2)      To begin with, the protein molecules are really chaotic. But if you keep mixing the dough they line up with one another to form longer strands of gluten.

3)       During the kneading the molecules are getting closer and the gluten becomes stronger and more elastic.

4)      Now the dough will be able to hold the gases produced by the yeast and the bread will rise.

Did you know that?

Just one gram yeast contains 25 billion cells.
Yeast is an important ingredient in beer because it can produce alcohol.
Louis Pasteur was the first to discover that yeast was a living organism (1857).
Yeast is also known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
If you’ve got Aspergers (not ass-burgers) syndrome you can be allergic to gluten.
There is a bread museum in German.
Notes and references

1= Brioche is a French bread containing lots of egg and butter, but also milk, sugar, flour and yeast.
2= Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) is a chemical compound composed on two oxygen atoms bonded to a carbon atom. (Carbon= C. Oxygen= O.) Atoms consist of a core and several electron shells of negatively charged electrons in.
3= Yeast is the beige coloured stuff also known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. All information about that topic comes from http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/bread_science.html
4= Fungus is a member of a large group of organisms and microorganisms like yeast and moulds, as well as the more familiar mushroom.