Improvers and mixes

For soft baked goods, specially designed improvers and mixes are used. As diverse as the requirements of the baked goods quality, the qualities of the raw materials and the processing are, as diverse are also the improvers used. When selecting improvers, among other things, the fact that, in the case of small scaling weights and flat baked goods, a rapid rise of the core temperature and a rapid gelatinization of starch occur during the baking process is taken into consideration. For this reason, other improvers are often used for soft morning goods than for soft bread.

Due to the high fat and sugar quantities in doughs for soft baked goods, the starch has less water at its disposal. As a result, the gelatinization of the starch takes place with a delay. By means of the recipe composition and the choice of improver, this can be influenced and the softkeeping and crumb stability adjusted as desired. In improvers for soft baked goods, especially the choice, dosage and combination of emulsifiers and enzymes influence the texture, softness, elasticity and freshkeeping of the baked goods.

The following ingredients have a particular effect on the dough and baked goods:

The emulsifiers contained influence the crumb texture and the freshkeeping due to the interaction with the gluten, the fats and the starch. Due to the emulsifiers, especially many fine gas bubbles are formed which are spread finely in the dough. A fine and soft crumb develops. Over and above, the emulsifiers delay the recrystallization of the starch and, in this way, enable an extended softkeeping and freshkeeping. The following emulsifiers are used:

• mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E 471)
• mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E 472e)
• sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (E 481)
• calcium stearoyl-2-lactylate (E 482)

In particular, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL) and calcium stearoyl-2-lactylate (CSL) show an especially good effect in soft baked goods. Combinations of emulsifiers have also proven themselves in improvers for soft baked goods.

Various hydrocolloids are used to bind the free water in the dough and to generally stabilize the dough. The most common are guar gum (E 412) and carboxy methyl cellulose (E 466). The stabilization of the dough is of especial importance in brioche baked goods with high gross dough yields in particular. If not enough water is made available to the hydrocolloids, however, they tend to cause dry baked goods properties.

Should particularly light-coloured baked goods crumbs be desired for sandwich bread or soft rolls, then enzyme active soya flour is used. The carotenoids inherent to the flour are oxidized by the lipoxygenases contained in the soya flour and, in this way, lighten the colour of the crumb of the baked goods.

To obtain easily extensible doughs with an optimum flowing behaviour, L-cysteine (E 920), is sometimes used. Over and above, ascorbic acid (E 300) is also used. The ascorbic acid helps to stabilize the gluten network and, as a result, provides a better gas retention property, higher fermentation stability and a higher volume of baked goods.

Enzyme combinations are used for soft baked goods which enhance the freshkeeping. The freshkeeping effects are primarily based on the dextrinization of the starch, i.e. the splitting of the starch chains into shorter segments (dextrins). Is a larger percentage of the starch split into dextrins, then these starch molecules cannot be recrystallized.