High Percentage of Fats in Bread

Is it because of the amount of fat in the recipe and that will inhibit gluten development? so you start the gluten to develop before adding the fat?

Yes. 

I have a recipe I haven't done in years and can no longer remember the mixing method, it asks for 80 to 100g butter to 600g flour and I was wondering the same more or less.  How to put it together without all that butter messing up the gluten.  The ingredients are only listed, no instructions but the milk is listed with the flour and then the butter.  There is old fashioned mixing/kneading involved (pile up the flour on the kneading surface, make a dent & pour the ingredients into the middle except salt & butter chunks sprinkled on the outside edge) and that means when starting from the middle, liquids get mixed in first to form a soft dough and the salt and butter get added incorporating the butter later in the mixing and using some flour to help.  (One can easily see that adding a autolyse step might be tricky.)

So what I plan to do is just that.  Reserving a little flour, mix up the flour, yeast and scalded milk and let it sit to give the gluten a head start, even 20 minutes is enough but a little longer is also helpful.  My guess is that a little longer lets gas help gluten strands stretch and thin before adding salt to tighten the gluten bonds.   Next step working in the unsalted butter with the rest of the flour until smooth. 

In the past when I've asked why make a Sponge for a bread recipe I've been told is to add flavour to the bread...but wondered if it's also to do with the gluten development?

The answer lies in the amount of sponge and how long it sits.  If it is just a little one, it may be just to dissolve the yeast (purchased yeast didn't always dissolve so easily) to see the yeast activity.  If the sponge is a large one, gluten development would play a role.  If the sponge sat for a period of time to ferment, then time would act on the flavor of the bread.   If it sat too long, then there may be a detrimental effect on the gluten as it's proteins are broken down by enzymes and if then mixed into a dough, this would carry on to break down the gluten strands in the finished dough as well at a very rapid rate.   

Mini

Fats are called shortening because they literally shorten gluten strands. That's often a good thing, leading to soft crumb, which I presume from your recipe's name, Soft Baps, is desired. The milk also contributes to their soft crumb.

75g of shortening to 815g of flour is 9% (baker's percentage), not a particularly large amount. Reinhart would label this dough "enriched"; i.e. containing less than 20% fat, not "rich" wherein special techniques are needed to incorporate fats into the dough while minimizing their unwanted effects. Brioche is a good example: 40 to 70% fat.

I won't presume to know the author's motive, however, letting a sponge develop without any possible impeding ingredients--in this case fat and salt--makes good sense.

Adding the liquid shortening to the liqud sponge is done probably because its the easiest, and likely best, way to insure even distribution of the fat into the final dough. It's not a special procedure for adding fat.

Thanks for the post. I've been looking for a good, pre-baguette craze, bun recipe; I'm going to give these a try.

David G

to an AP wheat flour.  Now if the yeast is a teeny tiny amount and allowed to preferment longer say 8 to 16 hrs, then we might be talking flavor. (We might as well be talking poolish.)  I seemed to pull out more flavor with just mixing up the flour and water and letting it sit 12 hrs before adding the yeast.  Interesting...  I managed to get the wet time I wanted and the rise and crumb like the recipe.  

I would say at least 8 hours with or without an appropriate small amount of yeast. 

Two to three hours is probably the maximum amount that the average person (TFLers excluded) would invest in the recipe without loosing patience or interest in making the recipe.  Someone is out there selling recipes and books.  If a person reads 12 hours while searching for a recipe to try out, would they think of added flavor or jump over the recipe for another shorter "easier" one?  It is interesting how many would interpret 12 hours rest means 12 hours of work and more complicated when it is not.  Given a choice of 8 to 16 hrs. in directions and oh goodness!  A choice must be made! (more work!)  And the dough isn't even made yet!  Next recipe please...    Lol  

Azelia,

I made them.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21868/dan-lepard039s-soft-baps

In my earlier post, I'd not given consideration to the fact that 67% of the flour is in the sponge. I let the sponge work for two hours at 76°F. When I mixed in the remaing liquids and fat, it was evident that the sponge's gluten had developed quite well, The dough, at 70% hydration, was sticky and slack but wonderfully manageable with just a dusting of flour on the board.

We are having them for dinner--turkey burgers with pesto--I'll post a crumb shot, and a flavor report in my blog post later.

Mini and Pat are spot on with their comments re gluten development in a sponge left to rest, even for only a brief time, relative to a typical poolish or biga.

David G

The baps look just right.  Does anyone have a suggestion about what to use for cornflour?  I don't want to buy some just for this.

Thank you, David and baybakin.  Since the Guardian is an English paper, I'm going to go with the cornstarch.  We'll see.

Sharon