Raising Agents; Dough And Mixes - Miele H6461 Recipe Book

Raising agents

Raising agents are used to make the
dough rise and help it keep light and
airy after kneading or mixing.
Yeast
Yeast is available either in dried form or
fresh. It is particularly suitable for
baked goods made with wheat flour. It
needs to be mixed with a liquid (e.g.
water), starch (e.g. flour) and sugar and
then needs to be kept warm at a
temperature between 35 °C and 50 °C
to help it rise.
Sourdough
Sourdough is available in liquid form or
dry form. The typical strong but
pleasantly sour taste comes from
converting the glucose into lactic acid
bacteria. Sourdough is used for heavy
dough such as those used for
wholegrain and rye bread. It is easy to
make liquid sourdough by mixing 250 g
of rye flour with approx. 200 ml of
lukewarm water. Leave to stand for 48
hours at room temperature and then
use as directed in your recipe.
Baking powder
Baking powder is generally used as the
raising agent in cake mixes. Together
with liquid and warmth baking powder
helps cakes become light and airy.

Dough and mixes

Bread/rolls
Bread and rolls should be light and
have a good crust. The raising agents
used to achieve this are yeast and
sourdough.
The taste of bread is affected by the
choice of ingredients and how they are
used. Freshly ground or wholemeal
flour made using the whole greain
retains all its fibre, minerals and
vitamins.
Liquids should be lukewarm for making
dough (30–35 °C).
Bread dough should be kneaded until it
is glossy and then left to rise. It should
double in size during the first proving
phase. Subsequent proving phases are
normally shorter because the dough will
rise quite a bit during baking. Once
baked bread should be of a
consistency that is not too crumbly and
that is easy to slice.
When tray baking bread make sure that
the surface is smooth without any
creases or folds in it. If there are they
should be on the underside of the loaf.
Grease loaf tins before use.
With Automatic programmes the dough
goes into the oven without being
proved first. The proving phase and the
duration are part of the programme.
Baking
11