From retarded yeast fermentation to...the future!
The shock of retarded yeast fermentation has worn off. Like the afterglow of an especially buttery bread, it had washed over me and left me satisfied and looking to the future. I was filled with excitement and an ever ravenous attitude filled me as I looked for a way to implement what I had learned. From that point a passion for bread making filled me.
This is the secret: lower the metabolism of yeast by lowering the temperature of their environment, the dough. As the yeast sleep, enzymes from the four (amylases) are allowed to work, breaking complex starches into sipler sugars. With the waking of the yeast comes an explosion of enzymatic action. Sugars are consumed, carbon dioxide is released, and the dough rises. With this preliminary step of retarding yeast metabolism the reservoir of sugars is larger, and the amount of sugars by the end of fermentation is also larger; the bread is more delicious.
I could not have imagined this scheme. It was so amazing! And it made sense. This was life, and science, and human ingenuity. Two years passed, and I learned much about bread making. I'd heard of autolyse, and soakers, but I paid them no attention as I hadn't yet expanded to whole wheat flour and non-wheat grains. But there was a forum post about scalding flour. It led me to information about the utter opposite of retarding yeast. To scald flour is to mix flour with boiling water. In so doing you increase the temperature of the flour paste and super-charge the amylase in the dough. Amylase activity when high digests amylose and other long chain styarches, producing sugars.
The exact same result as retarded yeast fermentation (I think)! I am in shock. People are thinking about this. P:eople like me have a desire to know about ways to improve bread making. There are methods and styles I have never heard of, it is so inspirational to know they are there.
And of course its true that autolyse and soakers and other types of ways to do this aren't particularly new, I am amazed nonetheless. What other hidden bread making secrets exist? And ultimately, what are they and how can I incorporate them into my technique list?
