Five
Factors to Get Your Bread to Rise
There
are five important factors that make the difference between light, airy
bread and a dense flop. None is difficult to manage—in fact, yeast
is quite forgiving—but you’ll be a better bread baker if
you understand these factors.
Yeast is a living
organism. As with any other living organism, it needs an acceptable
environment in which to grow and multiply. As the yeast grows, it produces
carbon dioxide gas that lifts the dough and creates an airy structure.
There are five factors
that affect how fast yeast will grow.
Factor 1:
Temperature
Yeast is extremely
sensitive to temperature. Ten degrees difference in the temperature
of the dough profoundly affects the growth rate of yeast.
The temperature
where yeast grows best is around 78 degrees. The temperature of the
dough is the result of the temperature of the water that you use, the
flour temperature, and the temperature in your kitchen. Water that is
110 to 115 degrees mixed with cooler flour is intended to create a dough
temperature close to this 78 degrees. In a bread machine, we use cooler
water because of the warm, closed environment of the bread machine.
If you want to be
a great bread baker, use a thermometer.
Factor 2:
Time
The longer the yeast
is allowed to work, the more gas is created. In the right environment,
yeast doubles and doubles again.
Bread is ready for
the oven when it has doubled in volume, become soft, and is full of
gas--not when the timer goes off. In a cooler kitchen, that might take
a while.
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With a bread machine,
the bread begins to bake when the timer goes off whether it has risen
or not. Since we can’t manipulate time when using a bread machine,
we control yeast growth with other factors so that has risen optimally
when the bread begins to bake.
Factor 3:
Quantity of Yeast
The quantity of
yeast in the recipe makes a difference. Usually, a baker controls the
rise with other factors and does not change the quantity of yeast. However,
in a very cool environment you may want to increase the yeast slightly
and in a very warm environment, reduce the yeast.
Factor 4:
Quantity of Water
Dough must be soft
and flexible in order to rise properly--a factor of how much water is
in the dough. If the dough is stiff, it is difficult for the expanding
gases to lift the dough and create volume. After your dough is kneaded,
it should be soft and nearly sticky. As a general rule when mixing bread,
error on the side of too much water.
A softer dough will
rise much more quickly than a stiff dough and so in your bread machine,
a stiff dough will not rise properly before the baking begins. One of
the easiest adjustments that you can make to a bread machine recipe
or mix that doesn’t perform quite right is adjust the water by
a tablespoon.
Factor 5:
Salt
Salt kills yeast
and a too salty dough will impede yeast growth. One-half teaspoon of
salt in a recipe makes quite a difference.
Always measure salt
carefully. If you want to speed up the rise, reduce the salt by 1/2
teaspoon. Add a similar amount to slow the rise.
Why do we care how
fast the bread rises? In a bread machine, it is critical. On the counter,
within reasonable bounds, it probably doesn’t make a difference.
In fact, the flavors trapped in bread dough improve with age. A long,
slow age creates terrific bread. Still, you are a more competent baker
if you understand what is going on inside that ball of dough.
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