Chapter 19 Quick Breads

Quick Breads

Quick breads are mixed and baked without the rising period required for yeast breads. Their leavening comes from air, steam, or carbon dioxide produced by baking soda or baking powder. The batter’s consistency and the oven temperature are especially important to the finished product.

Ingredients and Mixing

• Common basic ingredients include flour, liquid, salt, and a leavening agent. Depending on the recipe, quick breads may also contain fat, eggs, or sugar.
• All-purpose flour is commonly used; cake flour may be used for sweeter breads.
• The muffin method, used for many quick breads, has three steps:
  1. Sift the dry ingredients into one bowl.
  2. Mix the moist ingredients in a separate bowl.
  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients with only a few strokes—about 10, according to the presentation.
• Avoid overmixing or overkneading. Excess gluten development can make the finished bread dense and heavy. However, drop batters should not be so undermixed that they contain very large lumps or dry pockets of leavening.

Three Quick-Bread Consistencies

The flour-to-liquid ratio determines whether a quick bread is a pour batter, drop batter, or dough.

• Pour batters are thin enough to flow, with roughly ⅔ to 1 cup of liquid per cup of flour. They are used for pancakes, crepes, waffles, and popovers.
• Drop batters are thicker, with about ½ to ¾ cup of liquid per cup of flour. They are used for muffins, muffin breads, coffee cakes, and dumplings.
• Doughs are kneaded briefly and can be firm or soft, with roughly ⅛ to ⅓ cup of water per cup of flour. They are used for flatbreads, biscuits, scones, and crackers.

Preparing and Baking Quick Breads

• Grease the pans, fill them, and bake most quick breads at 350–450°F.
• Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean, the bread is done; if batter clings to it, bake longer.
• Additives may serve different purposes:
  • Preservatives, such as calcium propionate, sodium propionate, sodium diacetate, and sorbic acid, inhibit mold growth.
  • Corn syrup can act as both a preservative and a sweetener; sucrose is also used as a sweetener.
  • Tartaric acids help control acidity (pH).
  • Polysorbates act as emulsifiers, helping ingredients mix.

Types of Quick Breads

Pour-Batter Breads

• Pancakes: Mix using the muffin method, but avoid excessive stirring, which can release carbon dioxide and produce dense pancakes. Heat and lightly grease a pan or griddle, then pour about ¼ cup of batter per pancake. Flip when bubbles appear across most of the surface. Add fruit or chocolate chips before flipping, and do not press the pancake down or flip it more than once.
• Crepes: Thin pancakes used to wrap sweet or savory fillings. Letting the batter rest for several hours or overnight allows the flour to absorb liquid; add milk afterward if needed to thin it. Cook in a heated, lightly buttered pan. If bubbles form while cooking, the batter may be too thin and need more flour. If it is too thick to pour, add milk. Crepes are ready when golden brown underneath.
• Waffles: Similar to pancake batter but with more fat. Beaten egg white can be folded in for extra lightness and crispness. Pour batter into a heated, lightly greased waffle iron, filling it about two-thirds full. Cook for roughly five minutes, or until steam stops escaping and the waffle is golden brown, crisp, and tender.
• Popovers: Made with a very thin batter, with a liquid-to-flour ratio around 1:1. At least two eggs per cup of flour are used. Because the batter has so much liquid, its structure depends on egg-protein coagulation and starch gelatinization rather than gluten development. Too little protein can prevent expansion; excess fat or water can weaken the structure. Avoid opening the oven too early, as this may cause popovers to collapse.

Drop-Batter Breads

• Some small lumps are desirable. A smooth batter suggests overmixing, which can produce muffins with smooth, peaked tops and a tough, tunnelled interior.
• Too little mixing can leave oversized lumps, make muffins crumbly, and leave baking powder insufficiently moistened, resulting in low volume.
• For muffins, grease the bottom of the pan but leave the sides ungreased. The batter can grip the sides as it rises, helping the muffins rise higher.

Dough-Based Breads

• Unleavened or flatbreads: Among the oldest and simplest breads. Examples include tortillas, chapatis, crisp Scandinavian flatbreads, and matzo. True unleavened breads rise through steam rather than another leavening agent. Flatbreads can be cooked in various ways, including on a skillet, in an oven, by frying, grilling, or under hot sand.
• Biscuits: Typically contain flour, fat, milk, baking powder, and salt. Lard was traditionally used, while butter, margarine, and vegetable shortening are also options. Biscuit dough is less sticky than muffin batter, with a flour-to-milk ratio of about 3:1.
• Scones: Made with eggs and milk or cream, making them richer than ordinary biscuits. They may contain dried fruit and are baked at approximately the same temperature and for the same length of time as biscuits.
• Crackers: May be leavened or unleavened, though chemical leavening with baking soda or powder is common. The dough is pricked with holes to prevent air pockets from forming and bursting during baking. A strong gluten network is important to cracker texture.

Speakers and Sources

• Speaker: Jasmine Burrows (introduced as Jasmine Burroughs in the video metadata).
• Other sources: The presentation refers to a list of slideshow references, but the references are not named in the subtitles.