Braided Bread with Blueberry and Cream Cheese Filling - G'day Soufflé (2024)

FAQs

What are four types of bread? ›

Think of baking soda and baking powder as sprinters while yeast is a long-distance marathoner. When you combine baking powder or baking soda with yeast, the sodium bicarbonate will fizzle out while the yeast is just getting started. It is possible to mix them, however.

The amount of yeast you use in your bread dough has a significant bearing on how quickly it'll rise, and thus on your own schedule. By reducing the yeast, you ensure a long, slow rise, one more likely to produce a strong dough able to withstand the rigors of baking.

Things like the water and air temperature, humidity, how large the pieces of dough are, the vessel the dough is in, and how it was shaped will all change the way and the speed that dough rises,” says Maggie.

In most breads as baguette, soft bread, sourdough bread, mantou, yeast is more desirable, however, in a bread like Irish soda bread, using baking soda is indispensable to achieve the dense texture that distinguishes this type of bread.

Aside from leavening, baking soda also increases the pH of the dough it is added to. This creates thickness, while weakening the gluten, to create tender baked goods.

You can substitute yeast with equal parts lemon juice and baking soda. So if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of yeast, you can use half a teaspoon of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of baking soda. Keep in mind that the bread will not need the typical proofing time and the dough will begin rising right away.

That being said, many home recipes, particularly older ones, use more yeast than this; so when you double or triple the yeast, you may find that your dough is rising too fast — faster than you can comfortably deal with it.

What happens if you add too much yeast to a bread recipe? ›

This can affect the bread by adding a "yeasty" taste if you put too much into the dough. General amounts of yeast are around 1 - 2 % of the flour, by weight. Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand.

While sugar and other sweeteners provide "food" for yeast, too much sugar can damage yeast, drawing liquid from the yeast and hampering its growth. Too much sugar also slows down gluten development. Add extra yeast to the recipe or find a similar recipe with less sugar.

For best results, base your yeast dough on wheat flour — only wheat-based flour provides the type and amount of protein yeast dough needs to support its structure. Whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, bread flour, or all-purpose flour are all good choices.

Yes, you can easily slow down the rising time by lowering the temperature of the dough ("retarding" it, as the pros say). You can either put it in a cool place or refrigerate it; the colder it is, the slower it will rise.