Dear Bakers,
On Monday, I ran another test of ascorbic acid in bread baking.
I baked two batches of Ruth's Daily Bread:
http://www.upword.com/bread/daily.html
The batches were as identical as I could make them, except one batch had
1/8 teaspoon of ascorbic acid crystals added. It also seemed to me that
the batch with the ascorbic acid was "stiffer" than the one without,
probably because I added slightly more flour in the mixing. Anyway, the
first rise proceeded, and the ascorbic acid bread seemed to have a
slight advantage, though it is hard to tell since the doughs were in
differently shaped bowls. During the second rise, in the pan, the
ascorbic acid dough seemed to be slightly ahead of the control dough,
but when I baked the breads, the difference was no longer apparent.
Conclusions: I gotta try again.
Anyone with any adivce, please let me know. Should I use more ascorbic
acid? King Arthur recommended the 1/8 tsp, but is that per loaf? I
make two-loaf batches (yes, that is four loaves at a time. No sense
wasting a hot oven on one or two!). I will try harder to have the
doughs at the same consistency next time.
Keep Baking Bread!
Ruth