How Beer Bubbles Can Make An Airy Bread Loaf
Anything that is homemade is better — especially bread, in all its delicious types. In making homemade bread, you want to be sure every ingredient adds to, rather than detracts, from the finished loaf. One ingredient that can take your bread-baking to the next level is beer. When yeast feeds on sugar when brewing beer, it creates a byproduct: gas. The bubbles that yeast creates in beer are highly desirable for baking, since they give bread its airy and oh-so-desirable texture. This gas increases the size and rise of your bread, making it a fluffy dream.
If you'd rather not use beer, or you don't have beer on hand, you can use other carbonated beverages to achieve similar bubbly results. Seltzer water and sodas can also infuse your bread with gas that provides a more palatable texture, especially when making easy quick bread recipes. However, if you are okay with adding beer to the mix, it is the superior ingredient.
How beer makes better bread
While carbonated beverages have the gas bubbles that give bread a more desirable texture, beer has something seltzer water does not. The yeast in beer not only creates carbon dioxide, it makes the whole bread-making process faster and easier. With regular bread, there is a lot of kneading and rising that you need to do to get the best results. Using beer in the recipe reduces much of that labor. Since beer contains yeast that feeds on sugars, as soon as you introduce beer to bread mix, you may notice the bubbling begins as it interacts with sugar, other carbohydrates, and leavening agents. This, in essence, causes your bread to rise with little effort on your part, without adding yeast separately to your dough.
If you are a beer connoisseur, however, there is another reason to add the bubbly beverage to your list of ingredients: flavor. The beer infuses your bread with the same tastes you enjoy drinking. Typically, the stronger the flavor of the beer, the more you can taste it in the bread. And because your bread is homemade, you are in full control of the ingredients, so you can make it precisely the way you want it.