Starch

Starch, a carbohydrate that makes up about 70% of flour by weight, also gets in on the act.

When starch granules are attacked by enzymes present in flour, they release the sugars that yeast feeds on.

Starch also reinforces gluten and absorbs water during baking, helping the gluten to contain the pockets of gas produced by the yeast.

Sometimes, a baker will let the dough rise several times, allowing the gluten to develop more completely and the yeast to add more of its flavors.

When the dough is finally cooked—either in an oven, over a fire, or in a steamer, depending on what kind of bread you’re baking—the yeast inside it continues feeding, and the pockets of gas in the dough continue to expand.

As the temperature of the cooking dough rises, the yeast eventually dies, the gluten hardens, and the dough solidifies. Et voilà! Bread!

Leavening agents

Leavening agents would just be bubbling brews without something to contain them.

Here’s where flour comes in.
There are lots of different types of flour used in bread, but the most commonly used in raised bread is wheat flour.

This is because wheat flour contains two proteins, glutenin and gliadin, which, when combined with water, form gluten.

As you knead the dough, the gluten becomes more and more stretchy.

This gum-like substance fills with thousands of gas bubbles as the yeast goes to work during rising.

Yeast

Yeast, on the other hand, is a live, single-celled fungus.

There are about 160 species of yeast, and many of them live all around us.

However, most people are familiar with yeast in its mass-produced form:
the beige granules that come in little paper packets.

This organism lies dormant until it comes into contact with warm water.

Once reactivated, yeast begins feeding on the sugars in flour, and releases the carbon dioxide that makes bread rise (although at a much slower rate than baking powder or soda).

Yeast also adds many of the distinctive flavors and aromas we associate with bread.

Baking powder

Baking powder or baking soda work quickly, relying on chemical reactions between acidic and alkaline compounds to produce the carbon dioxide necessary to inflate dough or batter (more on this later).

Baking powder and baking soda are used to leaven baked goods that have a delicate structure, ones that rise quickly as carbon dioxide is produced, such as quick breads like cornbread and biscuits.

Bread

Bread is the most basic of foods, but it’s also one of the most complex.

Each time you bake bread, you choreograph a complex dance between flour, water, and a leavener.

How do these elements interact to give us the loaves, rolls, and flatbreads we love?

From Chinese baozi to Armenian lavash, bread comes in thousands of forms.

What do they have in common?

On the most basic level, they all involve cooking a mixture of milled grains and water.

Leaveners come in two main forms: baking powder or soda and yeast.

Soy

Go for soy milk (preferably fortified), tofu and meat alternates made from soy to obtain a host of benefits including anticancer action and blood cholesterol lowering.


As kidney function may decline with increasing age, soy is easier on kidneys than protein derived from animal products.

Opt for at least one serving of soy a day.

A cautionary note for women with certain types of breast cancer: it’s best to speak with your physician about whether soy is right for you.

Tomatoes

Tomato products, chock full of lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their red colour, have been shown to decrease the risk of prostate cancer. But tomatoes are not for men alone.


Lycopene acts as an antioxidant, a substance which may slow or prevent oxidation (a process that’s the culprit in the development of a range of diseases).

Lycopene may also be a player in slowing macular degeneration and preventing cancers of the breast, lung, bladder, cervix and skin.

And while raw tomatoes are packed with nutrition, canned or cooked tomatoes contain lycopene that’s more easily absorbed.