When we buy bread, whether sliced, or loaf in supermarkets or bakeries, sugar appears in the ingredients. It is good that it does not appear within the first 3 ingredients and even better if there are no more than 5, but we have already dealt with this topic on another occasion. Today we are going to focus on why the bread we eat contains sugar and whether it is necessary or not. We are going to get rid of doubts in less than 2 minutes.
Eating bread is healthy, don’t abuse it, but it is a rich food for our body, as long as it is 100% whole grain or multigrain with whole grain flour. If it is also low in salt and we accompany it with healthy foods such as tortillas, vegetables, olive oil, tuna, etc., then better.
It is not recommended to eat bread for breakfast every day, that is why we give you breakfast ideas without bread, but eating this food from time to time is very beneficial.
But there is something that many people do not block, why bread has sugar. It seems like an incongruous ingredient, and it is not. Throughout this text we will understand the importance of sugar in bread and we will know that its function goes beyond sweetening your meals. Let’s remember that we are talking about a bread, not a cake.
Improves texture, flavor and helps yeast
Sugar makes an appearance in the preparation of bread because it has a series of functions that go beyond sweetening. For example, it enhances the function of the yeast and makes the dough rise and rise, since the yeast quickly consumes the sugar, releasing carbon dioxide and making the bread rise and have consistency.
If we want a bread with good texture and rich flavor, then sugar must be present. The sugar softens the gluten strands, and that same sugar binds to the water molecules, reducing the elasticity of the crumb, resulting in a softer, more consistent crumb.
One of the most important functions of sugar within bread dough is to promote shelf life. Cheap breads last a short time because they lack hydration, which is why they get hard very quickly, however, the sugar retains the water, preventing it from evaporating and that translates into fresh bread for longer.
And also, the sugar in the bread helps to enhance its flavor, which is the logic that we all arrive at when we see this ingredient among the ingredients of the loaf of bread that we just bought. In any case, it is not about many grams of sugar, it is usually about 5 grams for a whole bar .
A curious fact is that the quality of the bread can be affected if we add a small amount of sugar as if we add too much. Remember that the yeast feeds on sugar, so if there is little, the bread will not rise well and the crumb will not be good. On the contrary, if we add a lot of it, it can slow down the processes and even burden us with the final result by inhibiting the activity of the yeast.
