Linda
620 posts
May 29, 2006
7:40 AM
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Bryanna,
I was watching a cooking show, and Daisy Martinez of "Daisy Cooks," made a Spanish pizza-like thing. It looks a lot like your grape foccacia recipe -- square -- but topped with sausage , onions, and something else; can't remember.
Anyway, she put white wine vinegar in the yeast dough! I thought that was weird. Most I've seen with vinegar, have vinegar added to non-yeast doughs to help rising, using, usually baking powder. I thought it would cause it to NOT rise if added to yeast doughs!
Anyway, what was the purpose of this, do you know? It did not contain any milk; so I'm assuming it wasn't to get a buttermilky taste...I don't know, seems weird. I think it was only a tablespoon...
Is this some sort of traditional Spanish taste? Her crust came out thin-ish and crunchy on the bottom, and the thicker rim came out crunchy too -- could that be it? Does the vinegar make it crisp on the outside and soft inside?
Curious!
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
1643 posts
May 29, 2006
8:21 AM
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The only thing I can think of is to use it as a dough conditioner-- acid relaxes the gluten. But I seems rather unnecessary for this type of dough. maybe it's a regional thing, or something that started with the type of flour they used to get in Spain, or something like that.
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"To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
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Brenda W.
93 posts
May 31, 2006
8:25 AM
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Ages ago I read where adding vinegar to yeast dough does something .... can't remember what. Something like a lower pH makes the yeast work better. Anyway, whatever it was that I read suggested adding 1 Tbsp vinegar per standard size loaf of bread, and I've been doing that ever since with all my yeast baking.
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JulieH
327 posts
May 31, 2006
9:25 AM
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Do you find that it makes a difference Brenda?
Julie
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
1646 posts
May 31, 2006
9:27 AM
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Yes, that's what I mean by a "dough conditioner". Vitamin C or lemon juice also works-- I sometimes add it to wholewheat breads. It is considered an "oxidizing agent", which increases the strength of the gluten
A little bit of soy flour or soymilk also acts as a dough conditioner. Soy supposedly "whitens the crumb" and the lecethin in it is a natural softener.
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"To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
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Brenda W.
94 posts
May 31, 2006
10:37 AM
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When I started using it, I did notice that I more consistently got better texture-type results with whole wheat breads (ie ... no more bricks). Of course, texture depends on other things too, like amount of gluten, length of kneading time, amount of liquid compared with amount of flour.
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Tess
1 post
Jul 07, 2006
6:03 PM
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Another possibility is for flavor. Shirley Corriher in Cookwise talks about using vinegar to mimic a little of the flavor bread dough gets from a long rise. She recommends very little though, like 1/2 tsp. for a whole recipe. So if it's for this purpose, a tablespoon seems like a lot. Unless it was a big recipe.
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