Why do you add milk to bread dough?
In the dough stage, milk increases water absorption. Consequently, dough made with milk should come softer from the mixer than dough made with water. Other aspects of milk in yeast doughs include: Dough may be mixed more intensively.
Adding butter (unsalted) or oil (olive or vegetable) in small quantities to bread results in a higher rise, a crisper crust, and a longer shelf life. When fat is added in large quantities, such as for brioche, it results in a softer texture and less volume.
Milk yields dough with a higher pH compared to water dough, and the fermentation will be slower. Fermentation tolerance (the ability of the dough to work properly in a range of temperatures) will be slightly improved. Bench time will be extended as the dough ferments more slowly at this stage.
The butter in the dough helps to create the light, flaky texture desired in these pastries. As the dough is baked, the butter melts and creates steam, trapping it in the dough and creating air pockets. Once the dough has cooled, these air pockets become delicate layers of flaky dough.
The fat and lactose in milk help with tenderizing the crumb of the bread making it softer and sweeter. The crust of the bread also gets more caramelization.
Use a Dough Enhancer
Boost the fluffiness of your bread by using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten. All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result.
Softened butter is mixed in only after the dough has been formed and kneaded to develop the gluten. Once the gluten has been formed, it remains intact, and the butter has less effect on its strength. Other brioche recipes add softened butter directly to the flour before the dough is formed.
Additionally, when dough is fermented slower, the complex starches and sugars can ferment fully. These fermented sugars create an alcohol-based ingredient known as maltose, which works to make the bread taste sweeter while also deepening the aroma.
In its liquid state, butter mixes readily with both the sugar and flour, making for a softer dough that actually develops more gluten (thanks to the butter's moisture hydrating the flour).
Milk changes bread recipes by producing a softer loaf, due to the milk fat content, which also gives bread a richer flavor. Bread made with milk browns more easily than bread made with water, as lactose or milk sugar will caramelize as it bakes.
Does milk make bread better?
The fats contained in the milk prolong the shelf life of your bread. These same fats help to soften the crust and crumb and they will stay softer for longer. These fats help to delay the staling process of the bread. Bread made with water only (no added fats) will begin to stale almost as soon as it's cooled down.
Substituting milk for water in bread will usually add both fat (from milkfat) and sugar (lactose). Several changes can happen, including: The crust will typically be softer. The crust will brown more quickly (due to sugar) and can darken more evenly before burning.
To Create Steam & Rise, aka Leavening
But butter can actually play an important roll in leavening many baked goods. Puff pastry is a perfect example of this.
Milk encourages the browning reactions characteristic of baked goods like pastry crusts, cookies and biscuits. Milk contributes to the keeping quality of bread and gives it a soft crust. Additional protein and sugar (lactose) in milk adds more sweetness and a browner color to baked goods than water.
Eggs help the dough rise and create a large crumb that's great for soaking up liquids, like a bowl of chocolat chaud (hot chocolate). The egg yolks give the bread a golden interior, and butter adds an extra boost of moisture. The result is a rich, buttery flavor, and deep golden-brown crust.
Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough mix properly –out of many reasons out there. Some of the other potential reasons could be mixing the yeast & salt together or losing your patience while baking or even not creating enough tension in the finished loaf before baking the bread.
The first way to soften breads is to add fat somehow. Liquid fats are your best bet from sandwich breads or soft rolls. It could be as easy as replacing some if not all of the water in the recipe with whole milk.
Helping bread dough to rise
Scalding the milk denatures the protein, letting the gluten do its thang and also resulting in a softer, fluffier dough. This works for sponge cakes, too.
Yeast releases gases when it consumes the sugars in the flour. These gases get trapped inside the dough buy the mesh the gluten makes. This is what causes your bread to be airy and fluffy.
Kneading is undeniably one of the biggest factors of bread quality, so getting it just right is key. To make sure your bread is light and fluffy (thanks to gluten development and yeast fermentation from kneading), you need to knead for at least 10 to 20 minutes by hand.
Does letting bread rise longer make it fluffier?
For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough. Now, you may be wondering “how long does it take for bread to rise?” The short answer is that it depends on the temperature of your kitchen. For bread to rise, yeast must be activated, and yeast is very sensitive to temperature.
To reach moist bread you need to make sure your bread is not over-proofed, be sure to hydrate it enough during the bake until it developed a thick crust, ingredients wise it's recommended to use whole grain flour, add special fruity ingredients to give your loaf more moisture and last let it cool down completely before ...
Calcium propionate is used as a preservative in bread and other baked goods, and it may be combined with propionic acid and sodium propionate. 1 Calcium propionate helps keep baked goods fresh by preventing mold and bacterial growth that would otherwise cause them to go bad.
Does olive oil make dough softer? Yes - adding olive oil to sourdough bread will result in a softer crust and crumb. The oil as a lipid coats the flour and inhibits the gluten network resulting in a softer, tighter crumb and softer crust.
If the dough has been kneaded too intensely, the flour oxidizes and loses flavor; a very firm dough and a massive dose of yeast also makes breads taste bland.
As a by-product of the microbes' metabolic processes, the yeast cells produce chemicals that break down during baking into delicious-smelling aromatics. The longer the fermentation, the more pronounced the yeast flavors become since the microbes have more time to produce these compounds.
The more gluten, the more elastic, stretchy and strong the dough will be. Mixing gluten and water results in a dough that almost feels like rubber. Wheat flour contains 6 to 12 percent gluten, enough to provide a gluten network that holds the carbohydrates together.
Before you knead bread dough, it can look a little sticky and rough. Kneading helps smooth the dough out.
The milk you use in your bread is really up to you and the outcome you're looking fro from your loaf. Skimmed milk will produce a lighter less creamy looking loaf, where as a full fat or high fat content milk will produce a heavier, yet softer bread which is more filling and will be higher in calories.
Activating yeast in milk follows the same steps as activating it in water. The only change is that you don't need to add sugar. But you'll still stick to the 100–110℉ temperature and the 10- to 15-minute “leave it to do its thing” window.
What makes homemade bread dry?
Leaving the bread in the oven too long will dry out bread. If the bread has finished baking before the minimum time stated in the recipe, the oven temperature may not be correct. To insure the correct temperature each time you bake, always use an oven thermometer.
Baking with oil produces moist and tender baked goods.
Because oil is liquid at room temperature, it produces exceptionally moist baked goods. Butter, on the other hand, is solid at room temp, and therefore baked goods made with it are (arguably) a tad more dry.
The protein content, fat, sugar and overall creaminess of whole milk is ideal for creating delicious baked goods and treats. Whole milk is generally 3.25% milkfat (or fat in milk). On the other side of the spectrum is skim milk.
Rich dough is short for a dough that has been enriched. Enrichment is typically done by adding fats and sweeteners. Most often enriched dough or rich dough has whole eggs or egg yolks, butter, milk, and sugar added into the dough to make it soft and sweet.
RICH DOUGHS:
There is no exact dividing line between rich and lean dough, but generally rich doughs are those that contain higher levels of fat, sugar and eggs. Non-sweet bread including rich dinner rolls and brioche. These have a higher fat content, but the sugar is low.
When added to bread dough, salt works to tighten the gluten strands that are formed, which makes them stronger. By strengthening these gluten strands, salt enables the dough to hold carbon dioxide more efficiently.
'Any nuts, seeds, small or chopped dried fruits, olives, fresh thyme or rosemary can be added without changing the dough. For the best distribution, scatter the ingredients into the dough at the 'knocking back' stage.
Sugar is hygroscopic; that means it attracts and holds moisture. Without sugar, moisture evaporates from bread during baking, creating a drier loaf. The more sugar you cut from a sweet yeast bread recipe, the more you'll notice this effect.
Steam is vital during the oven-spring period so that the surface of the loaf remains moist and expands easily. However, once the yeast has died and the loaf is set, moisture is no longer a friend to your bread. Too much moisture throughout the bake can lead to a thick, rubbery crust.
The main function of salt in cake recipes is to enhance the flavor of the other ingredients. Its presence perks up the depth and complexity of other flavors as the ingredients meld. Salt also provides a balance to the sweetness of cake batters—but a salty flavor should not be discernible.
How can I make my bread softer?
The first way to soften breads is to add fat somehow. Liquid fats are your best bet from sandwich breads or soft rolls. It could be as easy as replacing some if not all of the water in the recipe with whole milk.
Eggs help the dough rise and create a large crumb that's great for soaking up liquids, like a bowl of chocolat chaud (hot chocolate). The egg yolks give the bread a golden interior, and butter adds an extra boost of moisture. The result is a rich, buttery flavor, and deep golden-brown crust.
Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough mix properly –out of many reasons out there. Some of the other potential reasons could be mixing the yeast & salt together or losing your patience while baking or even not creating enough tension in the finished loaf before baking the bread.
Adding 2 tablespoons instant dry milk powder per loaf of bread will help your bread rise higher, stay soft, and hold the moisture longer. That means it won't get stale as quickly. Dry milk powder creates a more golden brown crust and improves nutrition, too.