Baking & Snack - August 2016 - 66

SALT

dough to become active and start producing carbon dioxide, the gas bubbles that cause all the expansion needed
for dough to rise. Salt competes with yeast for that water.
"Salt slows down the yeast's ability to grow and produce carbon dioxide," said Julie Schuette, senior food
technologist, Cargill. "It slows down the proofing time."
That may not seem like a desirable outcome, but when
unchecked by salt, yeast can become overactive and produce carbon dioxide very quickly causing dough to expand faster and more than it should.
Without enough salt, gas bubbles form before the gluten structure of the bread has enough time to form and
strengthen properly, and the gas just bursts through the
fragile gluten strands. "You won't have the nice homogenous distribution of air cells throughout the slice," said
Janice Johnson, PhD, food applications leader, Cargill
Salt. "You'll have these big gaping holes in there, which
are not desirable for sandwich breads."
From a production standpoint, overactive yeast not
only results in inconsistent finished products but also unpredictable fermentation rates. Salt helps rein in that active yeast to a more controllable and predictable standard,
something commercial bakers need if they are going to
produce consistent loaves of bread or runs of crackers.
Even in bakeries that struggle with extreme temperature fluctuations or high humidity that could impact
proofing times, salt can help regulate this production
stage. "If a bakery gets really hot in the summer, bakers
really appreciate being able to control their fermentation
rates and times," Ms. Schuette said.
In bread, controlling the yeast fermentation prevents the dough from becoming too sticky and hard
to handle, said Siobhan Hudson, technical sales representative for Kudos Blends. This is important on a
commercial scale where bread is handled by automated equipment.
While the absence of salt or not enough salt creates
Salt hinders yeast activity
and strengthens the gluten
structure, preventing the
gas bubbles created by
yeast activity from bursting
through the gluten strands.
AB Mauri

66 Baking & Snack August 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

Changes in salt content
will have an impact
on finished products,
whether in structure,
texture and mouthfeel,
or flavor.
over-active yeast, tip the scale in the opposite direction and yeast can't get its job done. "Too much salt
can slow down the yeast activity, not allowing enough
expansion," said Adam Fisher, partner and COO,
Oceans Flavor Foods. "The challenge is to find the
right salt that does the right thing for the right application every time."
The partnership between salt and yeast is so intertwined, that to maintain proof times, Ms. Thomas
said, adjustments in salt and yeast levels must go
hand-in-hand.
While this function of salt is critical in all yeast-raised
products, it also plays a unique role in frozen doughs.
These goods need to be able to rise after being thawed
out. The yeast must lay dormant and survive the freezing process until the dough can be thawed. Only then
should the yeast be activated. "As soon as you activate
that yeast, it's vulnerable to the freezing process," Ms.
Schuette said. "If you can keep it from becoming active,
you ensure it will be active later when the baker thaws it
out." Cold water and a quickly dissolving salt keep the
yeast dormant for the freezing process. Once the dough
is thawed, that yeast will wake up, and the dough can be
proofed as normal.

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Baking & Snack - August 2016

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