August 8, 2014 - 10:16pm
Scalding milk is unnecessary? KA says so!
Scalding milk does neutralize protease, but protease has little to no effect on yeast growth according to http://community.kingarthurflour.com/content/scalding-milk-yeast-dough:
Hi,
Sorry to be late on this one. In very old recipes, scalding was done to "sanitize" and warm raw milk. Then somewhere along the line this whole protease neutralization got mixed into it. Yes, heating will neutralize protease. But we now know, thanks to years of scientific research,protease has little to no effect on yeast growth.
Scalding milk is an unnecessary step. Warm it, just like water, to about 100-110 degrees before using in a recipe. Frank @ KAF.
Thoughts?
Share
on the gluten matrix? With a longer fermenting time? Say with a sourdough as opposed to a faster instant yeast dough?
Would like to know... :)
Funny, one of my recipes I use for rolls was adapted from a KAF recipe that scalds the milk. My search on the subject did mention the protease development so I continued to use this technique. If I'm going to warm it up to 100 degrees I might as well just scald it for the extra minute it takes. I guess I will have to try the warm milk versus scalded milk and see if it really makes any difference.
Most believe autolyse it is simply to fully hydrate flour before mixing making for a stronger dough. The flour being fully hydrated allows for less mixing in order to develop gluten. One of the main functions of autolyse is to get certain enzymes going ahead of the mix. Amalyse breaks down damaged starch into malt. It aims for damaged starch so as long as autolyse doesn't go too long amalyse will improve conditions for fermentation turning damaged starch into sugars. If things go too long it will start in on undamaged starch and then things go can go downhill Protease attacks protein bonds making them weaker. They take the elasticity away making for a looser more extensible dough. The right amount of this enzymatic activity greatly improves dough characteristics and hence the use of autolyse.
I've successfully made bread formulas scalding and not scalding milk. I haven't ever done any tests to see if either was better than the other though. In my case these are enriched yeast raised breads with short fermentation cycles.
Pasteurization (HTST high temp short time) is 161.6F
Scalding milk is milk that has been brought to 180F and
Ultra Pasteurization brings milk all the way up to 275F.
There are many mixed reviews as to whether this step is necessary from surfing the web. Many though claim the same recipe/formula is improved in height and texture with scalding which does suggest it helps in the formation of a stronger gluten matrix. From what I've gathered I'd say scalding is the way to go unless by chance you use Ultra Pasteurized milk where I'd think you wouldn't need to. But then again I wouldn't suggest buying such milk. Being that we already have protease present in our dough from our flour to add an abundance of protein digesting enzymes could be a huge problem. I'd be on a hunch to say it would make a bigger difference in a dough with a longer fermentation cycle. The longer the fermentation the more the protease can cause problems. The shorter the less so. But in both cases it would seem scalding would improve the final product.
Josh