Innograin

Bakery and Baked Goods Course 6

28 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 0 Comment

In italics, I leave the parts already covered, while I use bold for the topics introduced in each new course entry. Bread is a product made from flour (usually wheat), water, salt, and yeast. So, we’ll start by getting to know these ingredients and the functionality of their components. But most bread also incorporates other products such as enzymes, additives, fats, or other ingredients. Furthermore, these other ingredients are present in the production of other baked goods, such as cakes…

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Emulsifiers in baking

27 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 0 Comment

In this post, we are revisiting additives, specifically one of the most commonly used ones in baking. However, the function of these additives in baking is quite different from what is typically portrayed in most additive reference materials, so pay close attention. An emulsifier is a chemical substance with a hydrophilic (water-friendly) part and a lipophilic (fat-friendly) part. The primary purpose of these substances lies in their ability to facilitate the creation of emulsions, or mixtures of substances that are…

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Oxidants and reducers

26 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 1 Comment

Oxidation and Reduction in Doughs As we discussed in a previous post, wheat reserve proteins have the unique property of forming a protein network, known as the gluten network, when they hydrate and undergo mechanical work (kneading). This gluten network creates cohesive and less sticky doughs that can be stretched, rolled, folded, and more. Additionally, the gluten network allows the gases generated during fermentation to be trapped within the dough. Doughs made from gluten-free cereals lack the ability to stretch…

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Yeast

21 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 2 Comments

Yeast is the microorganism that, when incorporated into dough, generates carbon dioxide (CO2), allowing the dough to increase in volume. To achieve this, yeast requires sugars, which it transforms into CO2 and ethanol. While ethanol evaporates during baking, CO2 remains trapped in the dough, giving it a spongy texture, provided that the dough has the ability to retain this gas, which, in most cases, depends on the gluten network. The yeast used in baking belongs to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genus….

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Salt in baking

20 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 0 Comment

Salt, along with flour, water, and yeast, is one of the fundamental components in the process of baking, and therefore, it plays essential roles in this process. The salt used in baking is the same as the one we use at home, and chemically, it is sodium chloride. In recent years, there has been increased sensitivity on the part of various governments and international organizations to the need to reduce the amount of sodium in our diet, as it leads…

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Importance of water in baking

19 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 4 Comments

Water is, along with flour, the primary ingredient in breadmaking. However, this ingredient often receives little attention compared to others such as yeast, salt, or dough conditioners. This may be due to the ease of obtaining water and its consistency in the same location. Nevertheless, while it is true that under normal conditions, variations in the quality of public water supplies in one location usually do not affect the breadmaking process, differences in water quality in different places can have…

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Bakery and Baked Goods Course 5

14 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 0 Comment

In italics, I leave the parts already covered, while I use bold for the topics introduced in each new course entry. Innograin’s blog already contains a considerable amount of material that one might get lost in or not fully utilize. That’s why I’ve decided to organize some of the entries into the form of a course. My idea is to gradually incorporate some entries into this course each week so that it’s not too heavy or time-consuming. I’ll probably do…

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Breads around the World: Criollitos Cordobeses (Argentina)

14 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 0 Comment

I take advantage of my time spent in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, to tell you about one of the most consumed breads in this region, one that’s closely associated with it. The Criollito (I assume the diminutive is because they are small bread rolls) is a laminated bread. We’ve discussed laminated dough in a previous entry, but, in general, the most well-known laminated fermented doughs, such as croissants, are sweet and loaded with sugar and fat. In contrast, the…

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Quality of cake flours

13 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 1 Comment

Just as with cookies, there are different types of cakes, and they don’t all have the same requirements in terms of the quality of the flours used. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the names of different cakes are very clear, and we can distinguish pound cakes, layer cakes, chiffon cakes, sponge cakes, angel cakes, etc. But in the Spanish-speaking world, these designations are not as specific, and we rely more on formulations to understand what we’re talking about. Even within different…

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Quality of Flour for Cookies and Biscuits

12 de October de 2023 innograin Comments 1 Comment

When discussing the necessary quality of flour for making cookies or biscuits (we are going to use the term cookies for all of them), one must consider the various types of cookies, as the appropriate characteristics for one type may differ from those of another. Thus, we can distinguish between cookies where the gluten network develops, such as Maria cookies or some savoury varieties, and others where the gluten network does not develop. In the former, analysis equipment assessing the…

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