Baking & Snack - June 2005 - 71

a more dense product while monocalcium phosphate-anhydrous (MCP)
will have a more open grain. All of the
leavening acids give different textures,
or softness levels, to products."

COLOR, CALCIUM, CONDITION
And then, there's color. Mr. Brodie
pointed out that the color of both crumb
and crust can be controlled by the final
pH of the product.
Bicarbonates can supply more than
the leavening gas CO2. "Bicarbonates
contribute to the resulting golden brown

excess leavening acid makes it more
acidic, which gives a whiter crumb,"
Mr. Brodie explained. "For chocolate
cakes, excess bicarbonate is needed to
achieve the proper color and taste."
Ms. Heidolph described similar effects
in par-baked and refrigerated items. "By
controlling the pH of the dough, you
can get more or less color development
during the initial and final bakes," she
said. "Higher pH in a biscuit will give
it a golden, buttery appearance, but for
traditional biscuits, you want a bright
white, so you should seek lower pH.
Many leavening acids
are sold to other parts
of the food industry as
color adjusters."
Fortification benefits
from chemical leaveners center on calcium
content. "Typically, calcium levels are not sufficient alone to support
a calcium claim," Ms.
Heidolph explained,
"but you can consider
the leavening materials' contribution along
with other formula
components."
Earlier this year,
the National Academy
of Sciences advised
Americans to reduce
the amount of sodium

ᮤ Leavening functions
affecting color and texture can be employed to
create appealing baked
foods.
Innophos

color of the baked food," explained
Mary Thomas, food technology specialist, Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Specialty
Products Division, Princeton, NJ. "They
also impart a sweet, 'brown' flavor."
According to Ms. Livvix, formulators
sometimes want additional interaction
between the leavening and formula
ingredients for reasons other than leavening action. This would include shifting
the pH balance to acid or alkaline status.
Formulators can deliberately put
the leavening system out of balance to
achieve desired effects. "In a biscuit,

76 / BAKING & SNACK / June 2005

they consume by more than 50%. One
way for food processors to help this effort is to consider replacing sources of
incidental sodium with calcium-bearing ingredients. Innophos is about to
introduce a new product, CAL-RISE,
that addresses this situation.
"This is slower-reacting, calciumbased leavening," Mr. Brodie explained.
"You can use it to reduce sodium levels
and, at the same time, increase calcium
levels." He described it as ideal for
most cake products because of its neutral flavor and ability to yield a moist,

soft finished product.
Increasing the level of potassium will
help formulas attain "hearth healthy"
status. "Flow K potassium bicarbonate
can provide the required potassium
fortification as well as reducing the
sodium content of the baked food,"
said Ms. Thomas. "Flow K is a great alternative to sodium bicarbonate when
leavening or adjusting the pH. Its low
sodium value makes it an ideal ingredient for products where the sodium
levels need to be reduced."
Dough conditioning functions matter
more to products made from hard wheat
than soft wheat. "The calcium helps the
protein molecules align themselves for
cross-binding, and this helps with retention of CO2," Ms. Heidolph said, citing
tortillas and frozen biscuits as examples.
Taking advantage of such dough
condition properties, Astaris recently
introduced EZ Dough as a leavening
system that reduces processing times
for breads, rolls and buns.

MELLOW AND ELASTIC
When bread was made from only flour,
yeast, salt and water, long bulk fermentation compensated for varying flour
quality. No dough conditioners were
needed, and the yeast acted as an oxidizing agent to strengthen the gluten
network, according to Mr. Denaiud.
"Paradoxically, yeast can also be a
natural source of reducing agents," he
continued, explaining that yeast is rich
in glutathione, a tri-peptide known to
be an efficient dough relaxer. The result is reduced mixing time, increased
stretchability and reduced shrinkage.
Reduced mixing time helps protect flavors developed during prior fermentation stages such as sponge, flour brew or
poolish. "Otherwise, extensive mixing
will oxidize those molecules," he said.
Glutathione is fully available in deactivated dry yeast, and bakers can choose
among a wide range of such products
with different reducing powers. "This
helps the baker control the relaxing effect
as well as retain the yeast flavor," Mr. Denaiud explained, noting that deactivated
yeast allows a cleaner label and is safer to
use than L-cystein or proteases.
Bacterial leaveners, typical of sourdough products, also contribute extra
functions to baked foods. "Bacterial leavening has a lot to offer baked foods," said

Baking & Snack - June 2005

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