is that bread or cake?

Given a piece of bakery, how can you tell if it was made with yeast or baking powder?

I want to be able to do this in order to make things that I don't have receipe for.

Let me make a first attempt: if there are large, uneven bubbles inside, then it is made with yeast. If the texture is even and spongy, it is made with baking powder/soda. Right?

Using this guide, that I would guess that corn bread is made with baking powder. But why? Afterall, shouldn't bread be made with yeast, by definition??

Reply to
peter
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Many/most "quick breads" like corn bread, beer bread, and fruit breads (banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, apricot breads, lemon bread, etc.) are made with baking powder and/or baking soda.

gloria p

Reply to
Puester

Oh pshaw, on Wed 15 Nov 2006 08:06:00p, peter meant to say...

Most quickbreads, by defintion, are traditionally made with baking powder and/or baking soda and various liquids that may or may not be acidic that react with one or the other leavening agents. Some quickbreads, like cornbread, are most often made with baking soda alone and buttermilk which react with each other to produce the leavening power. Risen breads, by definition, use commercial yeast or a sourdough starter to provide the the rise.

Many quickbreads are far sweeter and richer with fat than yeast-risen breads, although there are yeast-risen sweet doughs and doughs with more than the usual amount of fat. They are seldom as sweet or rich as quickbreads.

Quickbreads are more akin to "cake" than are yeast-risen breads.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

If I were given a piece of bakery, I can tell by taste alone. Perhaps not so much if it is baking powder only, but some bakery pieces are made with both baking powder and baking soda (for whatever scientific reason the recipe calls for); but if it has any baking soda in particular in it and baking powder , it tastes of amonia to me. For that reason I try not to make any bakery product that uses baking soda in it, but I will try a new recipe that does.

You might try to fine tune your taste senses in this regard when eating a bakery piece in a shoppe, then ask which it has -- perhaps you'll prefer one over another and that is another way of learning/or telling what you really like or want to bake.

Happy baking, Dee Dee

Reply to
Dee Randall

Yeast is a living organism that needs time to develop and multiply in a dough mixture. As it develops, it produces carbon dioxide gas. In order for yeast to make dough rise, the dough has to have a certain amount of gluten developed so that it can stretch and support the bubbles of CO2 produced by the yeast. If the dough mixture is too thin (more like batter), the gas bubbles will simply rise to the surface and dissipate, like champagne bubbles. If there's not enough gluten, the same thing happens. Typically breads that rely on baking powder rather than yeast don't have enough gluten (usually provided by wheat flour) to support the slow yeast-driven rising process.

Bak> Given a piece of bakery, how can you tell if it was made with yeast or > baking powder?

Reply to
yetanotherBob

Ah - interesting! *Some* baking powders use an ammonia compound for the dry (water and/or heat activated) acid. Perhaps it's really the baking powder you taste, but only when there is also baking soda present, possibly in excess relative to all the acids in the batter...

Dave

Reply to
Dave Bell

Thanks Dave, for your discussion. Interesting to me, too. I didn't realize that about "some" baking powders. Hmm. Dee

Reply to
Dee Randall

peter wrote on 15 Nov 2006 in rec.food.baking

  1. You can fold bread slices made with yeast...Quick breads don't fold worth a damn. The developed gluten allows for more twistability in yeast raised breads
  2. the crumb structure is different. Quick breads have smaller air spaces. Hence no folding.

There's probably more differences as well, like with similar sized slices the quick bread is heavier by far.

Hope this helps with your homework assignment.

Reply to
Mr Libido Incognito

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