Hello bakers!

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mandarina on 15 Sep 2017 at 08:13

Hello bakers!

I am a PhD student in food engineering (don't worry, it's all about making things healthier! ;) ) and my work is actually on.....Bread! I found myself coming to this site many times when I had a problem with my research. Science is great, we know the whys and if we don't, we look for answers, but there's something research articles can't help with, and that's experience. Here I found great advice to implement in my experiments an things I should be careful with etc. so thank you so much!

I am originally from Spain and I came to USA to do my PhD but on a different project. I had started baking even before I started this new project, cooking and baking is what I do to disconnect.. In Spain we eat bread with pretty much every meal! There's a bakery in every corner and I never realized how much I like it (and need it!) until I didn't have it. So one day I said... why not? Let's try! And I started baking my own bread. A few months later my boss decided to change my project and I started working with bread in the lab. I have learned so much and I am so motivated! The science behind bread is amazing! Who knew that something so common could be so studied and so unknown at the same time???

Have a great weekend!

M.

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Lazy Loafer on 15 Sep 2017 at 10:05

Oh, we're going to SO enjoy hearing from you on results of your research and home baking! Always eager to learn new things, and there are a lot of people on here who like to know the science behind their bread (though some don't).

What kind of bread do you like best (or bake the most)?

Wendy

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mandarina on 15 Sep 2017 at 13:44

Thank you!

Right now I'm more focused on French-like bread. Crunchy outside and soft inside, great for dipping in all sauces hehe. I'm playing around with hydration levels, types of flours etc... :) 

Now what a treat - a scientist on the group. Welcome and further ado how about a question I'm a big fan of fresh yeast over dry (to be clear I am not referring to a sourdough starter but rather commercial fresh sometimes called 'cake' yeast) can you tell us what the medium is that holds the cells togethef - I domt believe its just water since hydrating dry granulated yeast smells very different. I would go as far as saying that dry yeast smells icky but fresh yeast smells intoxicating. I've read that theres some acids in the fresh yeast but not sure about that claim. It seems to me that fresh is a bit slower to react than dry. I feel as though dry yeast kicks into gear as soon as its introduced to water and carbohydrates whereas fresh seems to rev up in a more gentle fashion - I also feel like I can keep fresh yeast under control a bit more easily and maybe thats just from using it more often - Very excited to have you here and hope to hear some insight. Thanks !

Hello! Sorry for the late response. From my understanding, cake yeast has higher water content and there might be more dead cells than in the dry version. I believe water and probably some "yeast respiration" by-products is what holds it together. However, I think the main difference is that even though dry and fresh yeasts are the same yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae), the dry one is made of a "fast reacting strain" and that might be why the fresh one seems to react a bit slower if you compare both.

Hope this helps!