Hello, all. The past few weeks I have been baking bread machine bread and I think I have gotten infected with the baking bug pretty good now. While reading through some different recipes I notice there are differences in the amount of salt that is used and was wondering if it could be detrimental to the yeast for rising. I am using bread machine yeast (rapid rise) and in accordance to the instructions of the particular machine I have I always add the yeast last. I usually build a 2 lb loaf of some nice white bread but I am wanting to produce some garlic basil or onion bread.
I am thinking that if I stay with the manual from the machine mfg as to the sequence in adding the ingredients I should be able to thwart any disasters. However, the recipe booklet does not include those two breads that I wish to bake so that causes me to have some trepidation in experimenting. Any suggestions?
Even though we say salt, kills yeast, that is really not correct.
Salt is hygroscopic, meaning it will draw water from its environment.
Yeast is a living organism. It requires water to live. Yeast has a semi-permeable cell wall.
If too much salt is present, yeast cells will release some water through the cell walls (osmosis force). If too much water is released, cellular activity slows down.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It is very common in the pizza industry to control the yeast development (thus fermentation) by adjusting salt levels.
Recipes are normally developed with the correct ratio of salt and yeast to ensure any potential osmosis force from salt does not slow down yeast development.
Bread machine yeast is also different from active dry yeast or regular instant yeast. Bread machine yeast is a different strain of yeast. It is dried to a lower moisture level, so the granules are much smaller than active dry yeast. This allows for fast rehydration, so Bread machine yeast will actually develop 50% faster than active dry yeast.
Since yeast does very well in a slightly acidic environment Bread machine yeast is mixed with ascorbic acid.
Yeast cells actually biosynthesize a form of ascorbic acid (erythro-ascorbic acid). While scientists aren’t completely clear on how ascorbic acid aides yeast cells, they do know that it is an antioxidant that helps yeast when there are environmental stressors around it. Baking sources like King Arthur Flour sells ascorbic acid for use in yeast doughs.
If you are concerned about the salt, just whisk the salt into the flour thoroughly before placing it to the bread machine. This will ensure a even distribution of the salt.
As long as you’re not using low gluten flours such as rye flour or whole wheat flour, or brands like Gold Medal all purpose flour and Pillsbury all purpose flour, most recipes should work in a bread machine.
