1.

Raw materials

1.2. Water

An essential element of any recipe, is water , the importance of which is very often
overlooked. A bread dough is roughly 40 % water. In making dough, the consistency
depends clearly on the amount of water used in making it. The amount of water needed
depends on the quality of the flour and the kind of bread we want to make.

What is the purpose of water in bread making ? Water is needed to form the gluten and
give the dough consistency. It is also the solvent or medium for substances like sugar and
enzymes that are indispensable for the fermentation. The next essential role is its
function in homogenizing all this substances throughout the dough during kneading. The
water is also needed for swelling and gelatinisation of the starch. This in its turn
improves the easy digestion of the bread. The distribution of the heat through the bread
during baking is done by water in the dough. And finally water influences the organoleptic
properties of the bread.

Besides the amount of water we are using, its quality plays also an important role. Water
is an essential ingredient. In a bakery product all ingredients interact among one another
at the molecular and atomic levels to give the final texture, flavour, taste, aroma,
character, palatability and mouthfeel. Water is a polar substance and it strongly
interacts with other polar ingredients. Based on their interactions with water, water-
soluble polar ingredients are hydrophilic, whereas nonpolar ingredients are hydrophobic.
Substances whose molecules have both polar and nonpolar parts are amphiphilic. These
substances include proteins, aliphatic acids and some amino acids.

Water and ingredients of baked goods

Baking ingredients are mixtures of many compounds. Each compound has its unique
properties, but only the interactions of water with some of the major classes of
compounds in the various ingredients will be discussed. These interactions depend on
temperature. As the temperature rises. Maillard reactions take place producing various
compounds in the final bakery products.

Flour contains mainly starch and proteins. Starches are carbohydrates (i.e. polymers os
six-carbon sugars) which have three hydroxyl (-OH) groups that can strongly interact
with water molecules. Small starch molecules are soluble in water, whereas large ones are
not. Therefore starch is hydrophilic, but the water molecules need time to get into the
tightly packed starch granules. Wheat flour and especially rye flour also contain water
soluble pentosans, polymers of five carbon sugars which can bind water in a multiple of
their own weight. AT high temperatures starch gelatinises. These phenomena are all
related to interactions with water.

Flour contains proteins which are polymers of amino acids. All have hydrophilic groups but
some also contain hydrophobic groups. Thus proteins may contain hydrophobic segments.
When water is added chains of proteins mingle, forming sticky globules.

Sugars are added to the dough to aid the fermentation and to sweeten the product.
Brown sugar, white sugar, confectioner's sugar, syrups, honey, maple syrups, lactose etc.
contain 12-carbon and 6-carbon sugars, all of which are hydrophilic. The small sugar
molecules are much more soluble in water than starch.

Yeast is a single-cell micro-organism. Water helps them convert sugar into carbon dioxide
and alcohol in anaerobic conditions and to water an carbon dioxide when oxygen is
available. When dry, yeast becomes dormant and they revive when water and food such as
sugar and minerals are available at suitable temperatures. Fermentation involves many
enzymes which are large protein molecules for catalysing specific reactions. These
reactions will not take place if there is no water available.

Salt is a preservative as well as a flavour agent. Baking soda, baking powder and cream of
tartar are leavening gents. These and other inorganic ingredients are electrolytes,
because their solutions contain positive and negative ions to conduct electricity. These
ions attract strongly the polar water molecules. Baking powder contains sodium
bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate and a dry acid such as sodium acid phosphate or
sodium aluminium phosphate, which react to give carbon dioxide only in the presence of
water. Without water nothing will happen. Inorganic substances affect water in many
ways, and minerals dissolved in natural waters affect yeast activity as well as the quality
of the dough and the baked product.

We all know that fats are hydrophobic. Oil, butter, margarine, lard, shortening etc., do
not mix with water but they have special functions in bakery products. Emulsifiers are
long molecules which have parts are hydrophilic and their molecules bridge hydrophilic
and hydrophobic molecules in baked goods.

Milk can be regarded as a watery solution of sugars and proteins. About 87 % of whole
milk is water. Milk is an aqueous solution of minerals, lactose and proteins with additional
fat and protein globules suspended in it. Hydrophobic components dissolve in the milk fat
droplets, whereas hydrophilic components dissolve in water. As the pH changes, caseins
precipitate, leaving lactose, minerals, water soluble proteins and fat in the whey.

Eggs also contain a variety of components, including proteins, lipids, minerals and 73 %
water. A membrane separates the egg white from the yolk. The two have very different
chemical compositions, with practically all lipids in the yolk. Egg white is an aqueous
solution of proteins, whereas the yolk is an emulsion of lipids, proteins, water and
minerals.

Hardness of water

The most important criteria for water is its hardness. This is a measure for the content
of calcium and magnesium salts dissolved in the water. Water with a mild hardness is the
most useful, because the mineral salts reinforce the gluten network. If the hardness is
too high (more then 180 parts ppm or 180 mg per litre) the fermentation slows down
because of the too rigid gluten structure. Using more yeast or adding malt to the dough
are the best ways to correct this condition. In the opposite case, where water hardness
is less then 120 ppm the dough gets sticky. In this case one has to use less water and
although the consistency of the dough looks normal, one shouldn't‛t forget that such a
dough retains less CO2 during rise. Bread gets the right volume, but the crumb structure
will be shabby when one uses too soft (with low hardness) water. The softness and the
keeping qualities are negatively influenced.

Another important factor is the pH of the water used. Acids are responsible for the
flavour and the taste of the bread. The acids, necessary for a good organoleptic
experience will be neutralized if the alkalinity becomes larger then a pH of 8. The
activity of the yeast and lactic acid bacteria drops if their environment becomes alkaline.
The enzymatic activity also suffers from a too high pH. Their optimal pH must be in the
range 4.0 to 5.5, which is also excellent for the yeast and the lactic bacteria.

The use of too much water is not a suitable practice. The loaf will stay small and flat, the
cells of the crumb will be too large, the crust stays pale and the crumb will be wet and
not soft. The other error is too little water. The crust will get tough and the crumb dry.

Water levels key to keeping bread crispy

The key to maintaining a bread crust‛s crispiness is in the water content, say scientists
whose progress in understanding the process could help prolong the crunch. An article
published this month in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by researchers
from the Netherlands show that both water activity, which determines the direction of
water migration, and water content have an effect on the perceived crispiness of bread.

However, the study was able to investigate the water content and water activity
separately and found that water content is perhaps more significant than water activity.

“The water content of the crust was found to be decisive for the transition point,” wrote
the study‛s authors.

“The distribution of the water in samples with a history of high water content is more
inhomogeneous, which results in crispy and less crispy regions, thus making them overall
crispier than samples with the same water content but higher water activity.”

Discovering techniques to maintain a crust‛s crispiness could help extend the shelf life.
By modifying these factors, the researchers said, bakers can improve bread ingredients
to produce crisper, longer-lasting crusts for bread products, and this could also mean
less need for introducing artificial preservatives, which are increasingly unwanted my
consumers.

It is already known that a product‛s crispiness suffers when moisture is introduced. The
article explained: “Water causes hydration, which causes a glass to rubber transition of
the amorphous regions of the macromolecules present that were initially in the glassy
state.”

The aim of the study was to investigate how water content and water activity
contributed to the loss of sensorial crispiness in a bread crust model.

Bread crust samples were tested at different conditions, altering the relative humidity
(RH) trajectory (hysteresis effect) to identify the effect water has on the products.

Varying water activities with the same water content, and vice versa, were achieved by
either exposing a dry sample to different water vapour pressures or exposing it to 90
per cent air humidity before drying it to meet the desired pressure of water vapour.

The results found that sensorial crispiness could be determined by both the water
content and the activity.
Samples with a different water activity but equal water content showed the same amount
of crispiness, whereas high water content resulted in a mix of crispy and non-crispy
sections, and was therefore perceived as being crispier.

Moisture, moistness and humidity

With regards to moisture there are 3 concepts which are very different but all 3 of
them have to do something with the moisture of the product. And of course all 3 are
related but nevertheless there are important differences between the 3 of them.

Moistness is the sensation of “soft” or “wet” that you get in your mouth when eating the
product. It a sensory characteristic and cannot be measured with chemical or physical
methods. It has to be done by sensory evaluation. A product can be “moist” even if it
contains little water. Think about oil for instance. Oil gives you a “wet” sensation when
you have it in your mouth but it is not water of course. So one has to make a clear
difference between moistness and moisture.

The moisture content of a product is the amount of free water present in a product.
Water is present under different forms in a product. It can be bound to gums or to the
gluten for instance but it is also present as free water because it is not bound to any
other ingredient. Obviously the free water content of pure water is 100 %. But think
about pasta sauce, there will be a lot of free water. In cakes and breads there is not so
much free water because it is bound to the gluten, the pentosans etc. present in the
flour or it is bound to special ingredients which are added to the formula.

Bound water is not easily removed and when determining the moisture content of bread
one basically determines the free water content or the water which is not chemically
bound to the ingredients and that can be evaporated. So the moisture content of a
product is the amount of water which can be evaporated by drying the product.

Obviously a product that contains more moisture will be judged as having a “higher
degree of moistness”. But a product containing lots of oil can contain little water and still
be judged as “moist”.

The water activity expressed as aw-value, is a concept that originally came from the
microbiologists. Just think about a packed cake, hermetically sealed, so there is no
influence from their air around the pack. After packing the humidity of the product and
the humidity of the air around the product inside the packaging will come to equilibrium
i.e. there will be no further exchange of moisture between the product and the air
surrounding it. The product will stop loosing moisture to the air and the air will stop
sucking moisture out of the product. Once the equilibrium is reached, the relative
humidity of the air is measured and the result is divided by 100 to get the aw-value. So
imagine the relative humidity of the air in the pack is 86 %, then we say that the aw-value
of the product is 0,86.

Two factors play an important role in this

 the humidity of the product: a biscuit or a cracker will lose very little or no water
so the aw-value will be low.
the temperature at which the product is stored: the higher the temperature, the
drier the air, the more moisture it can suck from the product

Of course in the laboratory the aw-value is measured in standardised conditions.

So there is a relationship between moisture content and aw-value but that relationship is
not linear. Water activity is related to moisture content in a non-linear relationship known
as a moisture sorption isotherm curve. These isotherms are substance (and substances
present in the product) and temperature specific and have to be studied for each
product individually. You cannot calculate the aw-value from the moisture content.

Why is the aw-value important? It is important because it has been found that in
products with an aw-value lower then 0,9 no bacteria will grow and if the aw-value is lower
than 0,75 the product will not get mouldy. That is the reason why some products can have
a shelf life of 6 months without getting mouldy.

Noël Haegens

1.3. Yeast and sourdough

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