What DO they put in white bread

[Teenytoona]

To make it all fluffy and such?

I've been baking my own sourdoughs for a littl eover a month now. Due to our budget I've been using up the white flour inj the house. Now, none of my breads have ever turned out fluffy and airy the way they do in store boughts. Most people think I'v eused whole wheat flour. So what on earth is it that they do in factory made breads to give them that wierd airy texture? Do I want to know??

[serenbat]

I don't think of sourdough (even bought) as in any way fluffy, it's heavy.

If you made a challah/hallah that to me is light and fluffy, but that is not made with sourdough.

[cristeen]

Yeah - it's not so much that they put something in it, it's just the technique. And sourdough is not it.

[spughy]

Actually it IS what they put in it - some of it is dough conditioners, but the majority of the "fluff" comes from adding skim milk powder (along with proper bread flour.)

I have an excellent bread cookbook by Rose Berenbaum and she has a whole chapter on "sandwich" breads - they all contain skim milk powder, and they turn out JUST like soft squishy store-bought bread, except they taste better.

I don't know if you'd get the same results if you did a slow-rise sourdough version though, because typically the dough is wetter and the milk ingredients would start to sour and go off if the rise was more than about 10 hours. However, if you used raw milk as the liquid instead of skim milk powder and water, you might get away with it. Worth a shot.

[JMJ]

Did you make your own starter or did you get a pre-existing one? When I made my own starter, by breads were really dense for a long time before they started to get fluffy. We nicknamed our sourdough bread starter "fluffy" and a cactus we had "not-so fluffy" and we would joke that "not-so fluffy" was ironically much more fluffy than "fluffy" was. Over time, our sourdough bread got much more fluffy. Now, I'm making 100% whole wheat sourdough, and when I don't mess up rising it, it is nice and light, not like store-bought light, but light enough for sandwiches. The final thing that helped was to put plastic wrap over the top as it's rising to keep the crust soft.

[Jaesun's Dad]

Climate and elevation have more of an effect on bread than just about any other food I know of. The water has a huge role too (Amoroso rolls of the famous "Philly Cheesesteak" for example just wouldn't be the same without the wholesome Schuylkill river water). It's been a long time since I actually bought commercial processed white bread (wonder, sunbeam, et al) but

that wierd airy texture

Judging by the density I'd speculate ... air. Yeast produce CO2 and it would be easy enough to trap it, I'd reckon. It's how we carbonate beer (the right way).

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by spughy

Actually it IS what they put in it - some of it is dough conditioners, but the majority of the "fluff" comes from adding skim milk powder (along with proper bread flour.)

You can make an uber soft dough with just flour and milk - my favorite holiday fritters are made that way. Brioche is just flour, milk, eggs and butter, and that's the softest bread I've ever had.

My point above was that it wasn't anything super special - and it wasn't chemical (manmade) in nature, since white bread has been around longer than most of the crap that's in modern day breads.

Regardless, even the softest sourdough I've ever had has far more bite to it than something as soft as white bread. But something you might want to look into is a potato bread. They're far softer, and may be compatible with sourdough.

[Cupressa]

Originally Posted by Teenytoona

To make it all fluffy and such?

I've been baking my own sourdoughs for a littl eover a month now. Due to our budget I've been using up the white flour inj the house. Now, none of my breads have ever turned out fluffy and airy the way they do in store boughts. Most people think I'v eused whole wheat flour. So what on earth is it that they do in factory made breads to give them that wierd airy texture? Do I want to know??

Many breads have added 'vital wheat gluten', which would help trap more air in the bread and add softness.