Vitamin C - an organic compound, related to glucose, is one of the main nutrients in the human diet, which is necessary for the normal functioning of connective and bone tissue. It performs the biological functions of a reductant and a coenzyme of some metabolic processes, it is considered an antioxidant. Only one of the isomers is biologically active, L-ascorbic acid, which is called vitamin C.
According to its physical properties, ascorbic acid is a white crystalline powder of sour taste. Let's easily dissolve in water, we will dissolve in alcohol.
It has been investigated that the use of ascorbic acid in the composition of correctors increases the gas-holding capacity of the dough, as a result of which the volume of bread increases, the elasticity and structure of the crumb improves, and it becomes lighter. The introduction of ascorbic acid reduces the spreading of hearth products, which allows, when processing low-quality flour, to increase the moisture content of the bread within the limits established by the standard, and thereby ensure the appropriate yield of bread. Separately, ascorbic acid is recommended to be used only for flour with very weak gluten.
Ascorbic acid (AA) oxidizes flour carotenoids, forms a spatially reticular structure of gluten. With the participation of ascorbine oxidase, it is converted into dehydroascorbic acid, which actively oxidizes the thiol groups of the protein chains of gluten with the formation of disulfide bonds both inside the protein chain and between adjacent chains. The effect of ascorbic acid is enhanced in the presence of enzymatically active soy flour.
Ascorbic acid is necessary when using flour with weak gluten, with increased autolytic activity, flour from grain damaged by a bug-turtle, as well as frost grain. Ascorbic acid helps to bleach the crumb, increase the dimensional stability of dough pieces during proofing and baking, and improves the structural and mechanical properties of the dough.
It should be borne in mind that when ascorbic acid is used as an improver, the fortification of bread does not occur, since vitamins are almost completely destroyed during baking.
Below are the dosages of ascorbic acid for use in baked goods:
Cookies, mg / kg .............................. 100-300
Improvement of flour, increase of gas-holding capacity of the dough (strengthening of gluten): wheat flour ................... 10-30 mg / kg flour.
In the production of bakery and pasta: consumption rate - 30-50g per 100 kg of raw materials.
Additionally, during kneading, ascorbic acid is also added to the dough at a dosage of 0.015-0.020% to the weight of wheat flour.
Ascorbic acid is supplied to production in dissolved form (usually 10 ... 12% solution). It can be added when kneading dough or dough. To achieve an even distribution of ascorbic acid, it is better to combine it with other liquid components - a yeast suspension or saline solution. It is added in an amount of 0.005 ... 0.01% to the mass of flour, which depends on its quality.
It looks like Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid is added to flour (1 g of ascorbic acid per 1 kg of flour) at the mill (or by the baker in the dough during kneading) in order to improve the physical quality of the dough (fermentation and proofing tolerance).
The dough with the addition of vitamin C turns out to be "strong", "strong": in it you can maximally develop gluten, and in a ripe or completely separated (grown to the maximum) state before baking, it does not fall off from the breath of the breeze or when you touch it with your hands and with blows during planting in the oven.
Ascorbic acid also noticeably accelerates the maturation of the dough (reduces the required fermentation time). Therefore, in a dough made from good baking flour prepared by the method of a very long fermented dough, you can not add ascorbic acid.
Dough products with ascorbic acid produce larger open pores. Therefore, when in products of normal or low acidity they strive to get the largest open pores, as in Italian ciabats and French baguettes, then ascorbic acid is deliberately added to the dough.
Mixing ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder) into flour has been used by millers and bakers in Europe and the USSR (see GOSTs "Technological instructions for the use of improvers in the production of bread and bakery products from wheat flour", Appendix 5) somewhere in the middle of the 20th century.
Ascorbic acid as a chemical substance and its properties, molecular structure, etc. were first studied in the 20-30s of the 20th century. For the first time, ascorbic acid in the form of pure vitamin C powder was obtained by chemists in 1932, although in 1933 academicians were still not sure that ascorbic acid and vitamin C are one and the same substance!
By the 1960s, the use of axorbinka in the baking industry had become widespread and, one might say, inevitable, almost everywhere in the world, from artisanal bakeries to huge highly productive bakeries, where without ascorbic acid in the dough it would be impossible to produce bread (it kneads dough to a baked loaf) for three and a half hours. In America, it was much more popular to use potassium bromate for the same purposes, which was later brought out to clean water as a carcinogen, and in America, too, all millers and bakers switched to ascorbic acid.
A source:
🔗From the book by S. Coven, L. Young
"Practical recommendations for bakers and confectioners"
QUESTION:
Is it possible to add ascorbic acid in order to improve the quality of bread and bakery products made using the technology with prolonged dough fermentation?ANSWER:
Ascorbic acid (EZOO) usually functions as a reducing agent or antioxidant in food systems, but in baking it is an oxidizing agent. This is due to the fact that in bread dough, ascorbic acid reacts with air oxygen that enters the dough during kneading, and turns into dehydroascorbic acid, which acts as an oxidant and promotes the formation of disulfide bridges during the development of the gluten framework [1].
When using ascorbic acid, an essential condition for the oxidation process is the presence of oxygen in the dough. But oxygen is involved in other important reactions in dough related to yeast activity. During kneading and in the early stages of cutting the dough, the yeast uses the oxygen present, as a result of which the environment in the dough changes from aerobic (i.e. with the presence of oxygen) to anaerobic (i.e. without oxygen).
Yeast can continue to act and produce carbon dioxide under the created anaerobic conditions, but the conversion of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid becomes impossible. When such a situation arises, ascorbic acid begins to re-exhibit its normal reducing chemical properties and may reduce the strength of the dough. The result is a deterioration in the gas-retaining properties of the dough and, consequently, a loss of bread volume.
Thus, during fermentation, the medium in the dough becomes anaerobic, and ascorbic acid becomes a reducing agent.
The possibility of using ascorbic acid as an oxidative enhancer (enhancing the gas-retaining properties of the dough) depends on the duration of the fermentation of the dough.With a short fermentation period (up to 2 hours), there will most likely be some improvement in gas retention properties, but with a longer fermentation period, the opposite result will occur. It is necessary to avoid the use of ascorbic acid in the dough when using the dough method, unless for some reason there is a need for a regenerating effect.
How much ascorbic acid to add to improve flour quality?
In practice, the dosage of ascorbic acid when used in dough fermentation should be low and not exceed 0.0015-0.002% of the flour mass (1.5-2.0 g per 100 kg of flour). Some flour mills supply flour treated with a small amount of ascorbic acid. It is best to check this out because adding extra ascorbic acid in the bakery can create the same bread quality problems described above.
Dear fellow bakers!
I ask you to share your experience of using Ascorbic acid (Ascorbic acid) in bakery products.
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