Would honey and molasses be liquids or sugars in a bread formula?
If 60-85% is the percentage range for the liquid amount in a bread formula, and 0-10% for the sugar amount, my question would be if you are using honey and molasses in the formula would they be counted towards the liquid portion or the sugar portion?
Best Answer
They are definitely counted towards the sugar.
The simple part of the answer is hydration. The primary purpose of the liquid in dough is to hydrate the starch in the flour. Honey and molasses are pure sugars and contain no water. Even though their phase is liquid, they shouldn't be counted as a liquid for making bread. You can't hydrate a starch with sugar.
In fact, the "liquid" part in the bread formula should mean water. There are breads made with liquids other than water (e.g. milk), but these liquids are mostly water with something dissolved in it. A liquid with no water in it doesn't count at all for hydration. This includes honey and oil.
The more complex answer should consider two other effects of liquid in the bread formula. First, there is the dough consistency. Bread is about texture. A liquid dry ingredient will not hydrate the flour, but it will still reduce the viscosity of your dough. Big amounts of it will make a very soft dough which doesn't keep its shape well, has a big oven spring, and in general doesn't behave like classic lean dough. So a recipe containing lots of such an ingredient will still need an adjustment of the amount of hydrating liquid (like water) even though the ingredient (like honey) is considered dry.
The second effect of adding a dry liquid ingredient is that it will make your bread softer. First, you are introducing new molecules into the dough, which keep the gluten strands from finding each other. So you get a less sturdy gluten formation, resulting in a more cakelike bread (yes, cake is cakelike because it has sugar and fat). Also, baked bread loses water over time and gets hard, but sugar binds some of the lost water, and fat prevents the evaporation of the water. A stale enriched (=containing fat and sugar) bread is still stale, but very different in texture from a stale lean bread. So again, you might still want to adjust the amount of hydrating liquid downwards a bit because of this effect your dry ingredient will have on your recipe (or maybe not, if you view the effect as desirable).
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Quick Answer about "Would honey and molasses be liquids or sugars in a bread formula?"
Honey and molasses are pure sugars and contain no water. Even though their phase is liquid, they shouldn't be counted as a liquid for making bread. You can't hydrate a starch with sugar. In fact, the "liquid" part in the bread formula should mean water.Can honey be used instead of sugar when making bread?
If your recipe calls for a quarter cup of sugar (four tablespoons) or more, a straight swap might affect the bread. You'll want to keep these things in mind: Honey is sweeter than sugar. So reduce the sweetener amount by 1/4.What 2 liquids are most commonly used in bread making?
Milk gives soft crust and creamy white crumb to bread; water makes bread crusty. Liquids that are too hot will kill the yeast, and liquids that are too cold will slow down or stop yeast activity. Sugar\u2014Sugar is food for yeast and thus aids in the development of carbon dioxide gas, which makes the bread rise.When baking is sugar considered a wet ingredient?
While sugar is technically considered a \u201cdry\u201d ingredient, it must be mixed with \u201cwet\u201d ingredients, like butter, eggs, vanilla, etc. Knowing how sugar interacts with other ingredients will not only strengthen your baking abilities, but it will also ensure that your baked goods come out perfect every time.Why is sugar or molasses added to bread recipes?
It will also speed up your rise time during proofing. Sugar is not an essential ingredient for the yeast to grow and multiply, the yeast can convert the starch in the flour to sugar as in a lean bread. Adding the sugar gives an added boost to the yeast as the yeast grows and multiplies.How Does Sugar Affect Bread Dough? The Effects of Sugar Explained
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Answer 2
I accidentally discovered a softer bread by adding honey. I forgot to reduce the water and had to add at least a cup (or so) of flour to stiffen it back up again. I never did get the former feel of the dough (making bread) but it turned out better (and softer) than expected. I still used sugar, but not as much as before. An accidental discovery.
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