Simple Sweet Bread Recipe | Julie Blanner (2024)

FAQs

What ingredient makes bread soft and fluffy? ›

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Many bread recipe call for white sugar. It's cheap and easy and doesn't add much flavor except pure sweetness. Raw cane sugar and brown sugar add a little more flavor and color. They also contain trace minerals not found in refined white sugar.

"Quick bread" is a term used to describe any and all breads that are made without yeast as a leavening agent. They are leavened chemically, usually with baking powder or baking soda, and can be with sweet or savory. Technically, most sweet breads (section 8) are also quick breads.

Add an Enzyme. To extend the shelf life of products, many bakers use specially formulated enzymes for preservation. These naturally occurring protein compounds can keep baked goods soft while preventing crumbling and staling.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

The possibilities are endless, but the common factor is the basic ingredients of fat, sugar, eggs, flour, liquid, leavening agent, and a flavoring ingredient.

Muffin and Quick Bread Ratio of Ingredients

Sugar, in addition to its interaction with fats, adds flavor, color, and aids in the tenderization of the batter. Eggs provide structure and act as an emulsifier by surrounding fat particles and helping trap air contributing lightness and volume.

According to the Larousse Gastronomique, sweetbread is "the culinary term for the thymus gland (in the throat) and the pancreas (near the stomach) in calves, lambs and pigs." Larousse further states that thymus sweetbreads are "elongated and irregular in shape" while pancreas sweetbreads are "larger and rounded."

All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result. Using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten works to improve the texture and elasticity of the dough and elongate the strands of gluten. Doing so allows more room for the gas in the dough to develop and rise.

For example, fats like butter or oil can help keep moisture in, while sugars will help to caramelize on the outside and create a golden crust. These ingredients can also play an essential role in keeping your bread moist when added in smaller quantities.

What makes bread soft and Pillowy? ›

Kneading: This process develops gluten, making the bread soft and stretchy. Over-kneading, however, can lead to hard bread. It's a delicate balance! Proofing: Allowing the dough to rise in a warm, humid environment ensures a soft and airy crumb.

Glucose syrup, honey, or agave work great. Glucose syurp and these other liquid sugars are known as invert sugars. Invert sugars are less prone to crystallization. This will then keep the crust soft and flexible rather than hard and crispy because the sugars are not setting on the surface.

The softness of the bread is an effect from the gluten content and amount of fat and liquid in the composition. The lesser gluten and the more amount of fat and liquid in recipe, the softer it becomes.

Once reactivated, yeast begins feeding on the sugars in flour, and releases the carbon dioxide that makes bread rise (although at a much slower rate than baking powder or soda). Yeast also adds many of the distinctive flavors and aromas we associate with bread.

Higher protein flours tend to produce chewier breads than lower protein flours. Some additions, like fats or pre-gelatinized starches, tend to make breads softer. Lean breads, which have no fats or sugars added, tend to be chewier. Lean breads are usually baked at a higher temperature, producing chewier crusts.