June 1, 2010 - 3:34pm
Why does sugar affect gluten development?
Hi,
recently I'm doing lots of croissants:-) and I'm experiencing lots of negative effects on gluten development by sugar: while without sugar the dough hydratation can get as high as 60%, with little sugar added (20%) -whether dissolved in water or added to the flour- I can barely reach a 50% hydratation.
Can anyone explain the underlying physics? Is there any countermeasure other than adding flour?
Not that adding flour or changing hydratation is a problem, but I'm really curious to understand why sugar has such a negative impact on the structure of the dough.
Thanks.