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Home made bread: playing with leaven

Bread making machines for the general public have put ""home-made bread"" back on the table, but the inside of the bread, country loaves and baguettes is not always fully cooked. You can play around with different kinds of flour and baking times. The machines can be used to knead the dough or you can do this by hand and simply bake the loaves in the oven to vary the shapes. The essential thing is that what gives your bread its character is the yeast.

Bread making machines for the general public have put ""home-made bread"" back on the table, but the insides of the bread, country loaves and baguettes is not always fully cooked. You can play around with different kinds of flour and baking times. The machines can be used to knead the dough or you can do this by hand and simply bake the loaves in the oven to vary the shapes. The essential thing is that what gives your bread its character is the yeast.

Leaven bread, baker´s leaven or a blend of the two, yeast is what allows you to get a full range of scents and that slightly acidic touch that is the charm of genuine home-made bread.

Yeast, leaven or baking powder

Baker´s yeast: alcoholic fermentation

Bread is fermented food. Under the action of the ferment, or more exactly the micro-organisms that it contains, the sugar in the flour is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic gas.
In concrete terms, it makes bubbles, the dough expands and it gives the bread its taste. The alcohol, which is only produced in tiny quantities, will evaporate during cooking.

For the ferments in your yeast to decompose the sugar and work properly, they need to be in a ""cocoon"": the dough must be at the right temperature.

  • Too cold and the micro-organisms will hibernate and the dough will not rise.
  • Too hot and they will be over-excited and ruin the job (your bread will have no taste and it will rise erratically).
  • Hotter still and they will die.
  • Professionals, who are obliged to make very similar bread every day, work to the nearest degree, but for us, the rule is more flexible. Our dough must be at least 18°C (64.4 F). If the flour is stored in the kitchen, your will generally need to add water at room or a slightly higher than room temperature.
  • Beware of draughts! The water that evaporates on the surface will be cold, the surface will dry out and the micro-organisms will stop working…
  • Be sure to dissolve the yeast in water that is between 24 and 30°C (75 - 86° F). Any hotter and you may kill the enzymes.
  • For our ´traditional´ home-made bread, forget about baking powder

    Leaven: lactic fermentation

    For leaven breads, the main micro-organisms responsible for fermentation manufacture lactic acid without producing carbonic gas.
    It will be a little more difficult for your dough to rise, because there is no production of gas, but lactic fermentation develops the characteristic aromas that we so love.
    Keep your dough nice and hot! (around 30°C (86° F)
    A simple calculation will allow you to be sure that your dough will rise in the best conditions: it is called the ""70 rule"".
    Atmospheric temperature + the temperature of the flour + the temperature of the water must exceed or be equal to 70°C but the water temperature must absolutely be between 30 and 35 °C (86 - 95° F).

    Beware! If you are using tap water, allow the chlorine to evaporate. If you store your water for 2 hours in a salad bowl, that will do the trick. The chlorine will be gone.

    Leaven on yeast

    You can combine the advantages of yeast with those of leaven by mixing these two ferments.
    The bread you obtain will be more flexible and well-risen but it will be slightly acidic and have the delicate aromas of lactic enzymes.

    Baking powder

    Now we are leaving the land of the living, because in contrast to yeast and leaven, baking powder does not use micro-organisms to produce fermentation gas and raise the dough. It is in contact with heat that the gas is produced.
    Gastronomes generally prefer to use natural processes that are considered to be healthier and richer in scents.
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