Leaven Log September 4, 2014 It’s Not The Yeast Of It. I walked down to William James Book Store yesterday to buy a copy of English Bread and Yeast Cookery (Revised): Elizabeth David, which I’ve noticed in the baking section for years and always meant to buy but…. Of course it was gone, so I impulse bought a copy of Betty Crockers Picture Cookbook, Facsimile Edition out of sheer sentimentality. I hate that. But every picture in it was etched into my childhood memories of learning to cook, so ah well. I’m sure it will find its place in the grand scheme or I’ll boot it out, eventually. I wanted a copy of David’s book because it’s cited so often as a source of cake, muffin and crumpet histories. I’m reading whatever I can about the history of yeast use in baking and added some fascinating factoids to my brainpan in an entry on cakes from Alan Davidson’s Oxford Companion to Food --Before the 19th century and the advent of commercial yeast and chemical leaveners we had basically three options for leavening a cake or bread: Barm- the foaming yeasts drawn off the top of beers-(which was a particular strain of yeast at that point? I’m not clear about this yet. ); wild yeasts ( sourdough); and whipped egg whites as in a Genoise ( sponge cake). There just were no other ways to make things rise. I’ve been playing around with the combined use of sourdough and chemical leaveners ( baking soda and baking powder) which doesn’t hurt the benefits of the sourdough but helps to lift if needed. An active starter really doesn’t ever need the lift if the time is given...but. Transitional breads use both sourdough and commercial yeast but there is a problem with that approach… which I’ll tell you about next time...
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 15:00:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015