Yeast-free bread, the benefits and harms of which still cause debate among nutritionists, continues to occupy a leading position among products healthy eating. But why, in this case, does not it displace bakery products so familiar to us from yeast dough? Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages yeast-free baking.

Today baked goods from yeast-free dough very popular among fans of healthy eating. This is commendable and completely justified, since it is easily digestible and improves the digestion process. This bread can be safely included in the menu of various weight loss diets and in children's diets. Many nutritionists recommend it as a preventive measure for cholelithiasis and anemia.

First, let's talk about the benefits of eating this type of baking. By scientific research It has long been established that overuse Eating yeast-based products contributes to rapid fatigue human body and increases its susceptibility to colds and other infections. Yeast-free bread is completely devoid of these shortcomings and retains much more useful substances, since they are not used to feed the yeast.

The structure of bread without yeast is dense - thanks to this, the intestines and muscles of the digestive tract work more actively, which has a positive effect on the condition of the entire system as a whole. But yeast baked goods can provoke unnecessary fermentation processes in our body, the production of too many “extra bacteria”. As a result, this will lead to discomfort, pain in the abdominal area and dysbacteriosis.

Another advantage of this type of baking is its lower calorie content compared to its “brothers” made with yeast: 100 g without yeast bread contains 177 kcal.

Is bread without yeast dangerous?

In general, it is impossible to talk about any serious harm that this type of baking can cause to our body. But it has several serious disadvantages:

• dense, slightly rough crumb. Yeast-free baked goods are completely devoid of the volume and airiness of regular bread;
• different, unusual taste. The aroma and taste of fresh baked goods is familiar to everyone since childhood, but yeast-free bread does not have that pleasant aftertaste due to the lack of yeast in its composition;
• Considering that products without yeast on store shelves are a relatively rare occurrence, many housewives strive to prepare them themselves. This process is quite feasible, but very time-consuming and labor-intensive - unlike preparing the usual buns by leaps and bounds.

As you can see, the disadvantages of yeast-free bread are not directly related to the issue of human physical fitness. Therefore, they cannot be called a serious problem for those who prefer a truly healthy diet.

Quick yeast-free bread recipe

The finished bread turns out to be very dense, but tasty, especially if you spread the slices with natural butter.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. oatmeal finely ground (you can take regular ones and grind them in a blender or coffee grinder);
• 1 tbsp. flour (for greater benefit you can use whole grain);
• 2 tsp. baking powder;
• 0.5 tsp. salt;
• 1.5 tbsp. l. honey;
• 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
• 1 tbsp. warm milk.

Preparation:

Making sourdough bread from kefir

The bread prepared in this way turns out, although not as fluffy as yeast baked goods, but tasty, aromatic and, most importantly, very soft.

Sourdough ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. kefir;
• 1 tbsp. any flour.

Bread ingredients:

• 350 g of sourdough;
• 400 g flour;
• 200 ml water;
• 1 tsp. salt;
• 1 tsp. Sahara;
• 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil.

Preparation:

1. Pre-prepare the starter. To do this, leave a glass of kefir in a warm place for 2-3 days so that it completely turns sour and the whey peels off. Then add flour until the mixture becomes as thick as liquid sour cream. Cover the container with the starter with gauze and leave it warm for another day.
2. The mass should ferment and bubble; under no circumstances should it be disturbed.
3. After 24 hours, add flour to the starter again until the mass has the consistency of thick sour cream. This starter can already be used for bread dough. Leave the rest of the mixture. The older it is, the better its properties will be and the tastier the bread will be.
4. To prepare the dough, first mix the dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar.
5. Place the dry mixture in a small mound, make a depression in the middle and pour in the oil, leaven, and then water in small portions, carefully mixing in the flour from the edges.
6. Cover the finished dough with a towel and let it stand for about 4 hours.
7. Preheat the oven in advance, form ready dough form a neat hemisphere and place on a greased and floured baking sheet. If you are using special form For baking bread, fill it halfway. Please note that the dough rises well during baking.

What could be better than aromatic, tasty, hot homemade bread, which has just been taken out of the oven and placed on a large dinner table. When it comes to homemade bread, many people have memories from deep childhood, when we visited our grandparents in the villages, and they baked great bread in real wood-burning ovens.

IN modern world the need to bake bread has disappeared, because the shelves of shops and supermarkets are filled with all sorts of variations of this flour product. But, as practice shows, every year the quality and taste of bread gets worse and worse. Then the question arises about the benefits of homemade, yeast-free bread, which can be prepared even by someone who has not previously encountered baking.

In this article we will talk to you about yeast-free bread , let’s try to understand how it differs from the usual store-bought one, and whether it is as useful as many online resources and printed publications say.

Real yeast-free bread: let's dive a little into history

The concept of “yeast-free bread,” to be frank, came into use not so long ago. As a rule, when they talk about bread without yeast, they mean bread that is baked using all kinds of natural starters based on water, flour, hops, honey and a dozen more various ingredients. In fact, there is yeast there, but it is natural, not artificial, not grown on an industrial scale using unknown ingredients. Completely yeast-free bread is bread that does not contain any yeast or leaven. Such breads include natural dehydrated bread, pita bread, and all kinds of flatbreads made from water and flour.

But let's return to history. Recipes for making real yeast-free bread were known tens of thousands of years ago. Using only water, flour and spices, the flatbreads were prepared in hot stone ovens. The tradition of baking this kind of bread has been preserved in modern society- Arabic lavash, Jewish matzo and Italian focaccia, Mexican tortilla, Indian chapati and Russian flatbread.

The first bread using sourdough, as historians note, appeared among the ancient Egyptians 17 centuries BC. Wide use sourdough bread received in Rus', as well as in medieval Europe. Under development various variations preparing sourdoughs that change both the taste of bread and its structure. Even in industrial scale, if you can call it that, bread is baked exclusively with sourdough, because no other method was known. But the more the population of countries and cities grew, the more the demand for bread increased. Scientists are beginning to think about how to study the microorganism that makes dough rise and makes bread fluffy and soft.

In the 19th century, scientists began a detailed study of sourdough, which resulted in the discovery of the necessary microorganisms. Since then, yeast has been selected and cultivated to improve the reliability and speed of fermentation. This is how billions of these microorganisms ended up in a package labeled “Baker's yeast.”

In the USSR, the first plant for the production of feed yeast was built in 1935. The raw materials used were waste from the pulp and woodworking industries, cotton husks, sunflower baskets, and corn cobs, beet molasses, potato pulp, grape pomace, beer grains, as well as stillage from alcohol production. The very first yeast was grown on crushed wood subject to hydrolysis. Since 1947, this powder began to be used in the baking industry. Apparently, in order to get quick and cheap bread. Dough made with natural yeast (both malt and hop) matures much more slowly. The cost of sourdough made from hops and malt is higher.

As soon as the production of yeast reached an industrial level, the preparation of sourdough bread ceased to be profitable and relevant. It would seem that if the same microorganisms “work” in industrial yeast and sourdough, then why yeast-free bread Is it worth more than store bought? Perhaps industrial yeast is not as harmless as it might seem at first glance?

Thermophilic yeast: what is their danger?

As you already understand, making sourdough bread has become an unprofitable and time-consuming task, so thermophilic or synthetic yeast began to be used on an industrial scale. There are a lot of disputes and discussions on the Internet regarding this issue. Some say that thermophilic yeast is no more dangerous than those formed during the preparation of sourdough, while others stubbornly argue that yeast is a weapon of mass genocide. To be honest, I don’t like to throw around big words and statements until I study the issue in detail. Therefore, in the near future I plan to write an article about yeast, but now I will only limit myself to studying GOST standards, according to which yeast used in baking must be prepared.

If you open the official website standartgost.ru and read paragraph 1.2, which indicates the main and auxiliary components for preparing baker's yeast, a lot of questions may arise. So, for example, I don’t understand at all why yeast can and should be included in the composition (after all, it’s technical specifications) add hydrochloric acid, technical sulfuric acid and microfertilizers for agriculture in the southern regions of the USSR. There are also a dozen ingredients that don’t fit in my head with bread and food. At the same time, to prepare a normal starter you only need flour, water and 5 days of time. What is more useful and what is not is up to you to decide.

Beneficial properties of yeast-free bread and sourdough bread

As I said at the beginning of the article, when I say yeast-free bread, I mean bread made with sourdough. Undoubtedly, such homemade and aromatic bread has a number of useful properties that cannot be ignored.

• The very first plus is the absence of industrial yeast.
• Many people note that yeast-free bread is much better digestible, and there is no heaviness in the stomach or any unpleasant feelings after it.
• Sourdough bread improves the digestion process in general. This is largely due to its coarseness and density: a dense crumb in a food bolus contributes to more active intestinal function.
• Bread prepared using sourdough does not harm the intestinal microflora. Since ordinary bread from the store contains an abundance of yeast bacteria, which are not at all friendly to our microflora, this affects the health of the digestive system and the entire body as a whole. When consuming yeast-free baked goods, such consequences do not occur.
• The use of ordinary bakery products may cause flatulence. Bread with live sourdough does not lead to such consequences, since it does not contain yeast that causes swelling of the dough and the formation of a large number of cavities with carbon dioxide in the intestines.
• Another definite plus is that you prepare your own bread and can control the composition, quantity of ingredients and their quality. When buying bread in a store, you have to trust the manufacturer, which is difficult to do nowadays. When baking bread without yeast at home, you are free to add whatever you want to it - honey, nuts, seeds, spices and seasonings. You can experiment by creating unique taste and aroma.

Disadvantages of bread without yeast

Some might say that bread without yeast has a number of disadvantages. To be honest, I don’t consider these to be disadvantages, but only production costs, so to speak. But I could not help but mention these difficulties in my article.

• Yeast-free bread does not always turn out fluffy and large. We are used to buying fluffy ones in the store, soft bread, which looks very large. But this is all achieved by adding leavening agents and various chemical components. It is clear that in homebaked bread You won’t add all this “nasty”, which means it may not be as fluffy as store-bought. But, with a little skill and baking practice, your sourdough bread will also delight not only with taste, but also with appearance.
• If you have never eaten homemade bread without yeast before, the taste may seem a little strange. In fact, this is the taste of real bread. But you probably won't like it :)
• If you are a novice baker, you may make a few mistakes while baking and your bread will end up with a very hard crust. It will be difficult to cut, the bread will crumble a lot. But a little practice and dexterity, and everything will work out. I advise you to read mine where I tell you some cooking tricks. Among other things, there is also how to make bread soft and fluffy.
• Time costs. Buying regular bread takes half an hour, but preparing yeast-free bread takes much longer. First you need to prepare the sourdough, then knead the bread, let it rise, and bake. In general, with ready-made sourdough, the whole process takes 4-5 hours, and preparing the sourdough itself takes another 5 days.

It is clear that all these “disadvantages” are just minor difficulties that fade into the background after you enjoy the aroma and taste of magnificent homemade yeast-free sourdough bread.

How to make yeast-free bread

The question is how to prepare yeast-free bread using natural sourdough, became acute for me quite recently. As they say, everything is learned through experience and comparison. My first sourdough didn’t work out at all, and the bread looked like just a piece of thick dough. Then, through trial and error, I came up with a recipe for a good yeast-free dough, and a recipe for an excellent one. eternal leaven. It is impossible to describe the process of making bread and sourdough in a nutshell, so I have devoted separate articles to this issue, which I suggest you read.

Look pretty interesting video, which provides answers to many questions.

Both in Ancient Egypt and in Rus' they baked yeast-free bread. Let's consider what benefit or harm it can bring to modern man.

Since ancient times, yeast-free bread has been used in medicinal purposes- for the prevention and treatment of diseases gastrointestinal tract and normalization of metabolism. It is useful for dysbiosis, improves the activity of the pancreas and liver, has low acidity and that is why it is recommended for gastrointestinal diseases.

Bread is the source minerals: potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and others. Yeast-free bread also contains vitamins B and PP, and the lower the grade of flour, the more useful microelements it contains.

The calorie content of yeast-free bread, as can be seen from the table above, is two times lower than that of yeast bread, which is very important for people who monitor their diet and count calories.

The nutritional value

Why is yeast-free bread healthier than yeast bread?

Yeast, once in the gastrointestinal tract, begins to actively multiply and harm beneficial microflora, which leads to a decline in immunity. Yeast-free bread improves digestion and helps fight excess weight. In addition, it is stored longer without losing its beneficial properties, is better absorbed, does not harm the intestinal microflora and does not cause flatulence. Yeast-free bread is rich in cellulose, which activates intestinal motility, thereby strengthening the immune system.

Cooking technology

To prepare real yeast-free bread, use unleavened dough, which is kneaded without the use of any type of yeast. In production, the following ingredients are used to make bread:

• flour;
• table salt;
• sunflower oil;
• natural milk whey;
• dry wheat gluten;
• lemon acid;
• applesauce;
• water.

The dough is kneaded in special machines. It looks like a foamy mass that is intensively stirred so that the bread is saturated with air and becomes more fluffy. Then the dough is kneaded and unloaded into molds, in which the bread is baked at a temperature of 260 degrees for 40–50 minutes.

Often, under the guise of “yeast-free” bread, stores offer bread made using “wild” yeast. In this case, the dough is made on the basis of hop starter, which gives the bread fluffiness and pleasant aroma, and if there are air bubbles inside the crumb of the bread, it is cooked with yeast. That is why it is very important to choose a trusted manufacturer, and even better to prepare delicious and useful product on one's own.

How to cook at home

Prepare delicious bread without yeast you can do it at home

At home, yeast-free bread can be prepared using kefir.

To do this you need:

1. Sift 4 cups flour through a sieve;
2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of soda to it;
3. Mix well;
4. Gradually pour 2 cups of kefir into the mixture room temperature, kneading soft dough, which should stick slightly to your hands;
5. At the end of kneading, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. The dough should be dense.
6. Grease the baking dish vegetable oil and transfer the dough into it;
7. Bake in an oven preheated to 190 degrees for 30–40 minutes.

Many people often discuss the usefulness of our usual products. Similar disputes have not spared bread, so one of the most common points of view is the belief in harm white bread. Like, it overloads the stomach, and excess weight provokes, and generally does not bring any benefit to the body. Also, a lot of information has appeared on the Internet about the dangers of any yeast bread, in parallel with propaganda in favor of yeast-free products. But is there any truth to such statements? How valuable is yeast-free bread cooked in the oven? What are the benefits and harms of taking it?

What is good about yeast-free bread? Product benefits

Fashion trends for yeast-free bread are essentially the second wave of popularity of this product, because many years ago no one knew about yeast, so all baked goods were yeast-free. Now such products are considered more useful and do not have a number of disadvantages that are familiar to everyone lush baked goods. And such negative features of the familiar yeast bread are associated precisely with how nutritional yeast affects the functioning of the body.

So experts came to the conclusion that yeast-free bread is much easier to digest by our body, while facilitating the digestive processes. This feature of this product associated primarily with its roughness, as well as its density. So, the dense crumb inside the food bolus stimulates more active intestinal activity, which helps activate muscle function in digestive tract, ensure easier digestion of food. Thanks to all these qualities of yeast-free bread, we can confidently say that it makes our intestines much healthier.

Besides useful qualities similar product nutrition is that it does not harm the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract. So in regular test There is a significant amount of yeast, which significantly changes the number and ratio of bacteria in the intestines. That is, the consumption of ordinary bread in some cases can cause a variety of digestive disorders, and even quite serious dysbacteriosis. In principle, yeast-free baking cannot cause such violations.

Among other things, the consumption of classic yeast baked goods in many cases causes the development of flatulence. Thus, yeast, which causes the dough to swell and also causes the formation of a significant number of cavities filled with carbon dioxide in it, often provokes excessive gas formation in the digestive tract. In this case, a person experiences flatulence. Yeast-free bread does not cause such problems.

Among other things, yeast-free baked goods contain a little more useful elements, than in the usual one. This is because sugars and other nutrients are not used to feed the yeast itself.

Is yeast-free bread dangerous? Harm to the product

In general, it is impossible to find any harm that could arise from consuming unleavened bread. This product cannot harm the body, but it has a number of minor disadvantages. So, such baked goods are characterized by a much smaller volume than yeast baked goods, although the weight may be the same. In addition, it has completely different taste qualities, which are determined by the absence of yeast products in the composition of unleavened bread. In most cases, these types of bread differ even more high degree hardness and density. Such characteristics have a somewhat negative impact on the gastronomic characteristics of yeast-free bread, and can also be a serious problem for people with bad teeth.

Among other things, preparing yeast-free bread at home takes quite a lot of time, due to the complexity of preparing sourdough. In addition, with sourdough the dough rises many times longer, which should also be taken into account.

One of the recipes

Excellent taste qualities The difference is in yeast-free bread made on the basis of hop sourdough. To prepare it, take a glass of dried hop cones and combine with half a liter of clean, cool water. Place a container with herbal component over heat and bring to a boil, then simmer on low for one hour. Next, set the future starter aside for eight hours, and strain it through cheesecloth inside glass jar. Then mix half a glass of wheat into the prepared infusion whole grain flour, as well as a tablespoon of sugar or honey. Mix these ingredients thoroughly, cover the container with gauze or flax and set aside to infuse for a day.

Next, take two hundred and fifty milliliters of water or milk, combine with a tablespoon of honey or sugar and nine to ten tablespoons of prepared sourdough. Next, dilute the flour in this liquid to get a dough similar to pancakes. Leave it under a linen cloth for a couple of hours, or you can place it on a heated pan of water. You need to add a little salt to the prepared dough and knead the dough, gradually adding flour. Next, leave the dough to stand for a couple of hours. Bake this bread at a temperature of one hundred sixty to two hundred degrees, for about forty-five minutes.

In stores you can also find other baked goods that are prepared completely without fermentation. These are various breads, as well as pita bread and some other varieties of similar products.

IN Lately Many buyers carefully study the labels of bakery products in search of the treasured word: “Yeast-free.” This interest is caused by active propaganda in the media.

Newspapers and magazines are full of headlines about “the bread that is killing us”; Horror films about bread and thermophilic yeast are broadcast on the Internet and television channels with enviable frequency. In such films, commentators are often people who have neither a chemical nor a biotechnological education (actors, historians, publicists, housewives), and the information is presented illiterately, in the style of “scandals, intrigues, investigations.” Such reasoning is deeply misleading to the ordinary consumer.

Let's try to figure out whether yeast-free bread and thermophilic yeast exist in nature.

Myth No. 1: “We don’t use baker’s yeast!”

Let's start with the fact that the inscription: “Yeast-free bread” on product label- This is just a marketing ploy. Even if yeast is not used when kneading dough, this does not mean that there is no yeast in it. Various kinds Sourdough is nothing more than a biological leavening agent containing numerous microflora, including yeast.

The fact is that sterile flour does not exist in nature. Try to take regular flour and mix it with water. You will see that after some time the resulting mass will begin to “come to life”, increase in volume, and acquire a sour taste and aroma. This will happen because bacteria and fungi, which are contained in the flour itself, will begin to multiply in it. Since ancient times, all bread baking has been based on this principle of “spontaneous” fermentation.

Flour microorganisms are 5-9 types of yeast and 50-80 types of bacteria. It is difficult to predict which of them will prevail in numbers in the battle for “feed” resources, therefore, when using such spontaneous fermentation, it is very difficult for producers to monitor the quality of the resulting bread. Whereas when using commercial forms of yeast, the process becomes predictable and controllable.

But yeast lives not only in flour. These microorganisms are ubiquitous: they are present in the air, soil, on plants, in natural waters, on the skin of humans and animals, and even inside organisms. The favorite habitat of yeast is the surface of fruits and leaves, where they feed on various sugars that are part of plant juice and flower nectar. After all, it is on the vital activity of yeast living on grapes and hops that such industries are based Food Industry like winemaking and brewing. Therefore, the use of water from soaked raisins or hop starters is one of the thoughtful marketing moves when the yeast itself may not be indicated in the composition, but in fact it is present and participates in the process of fermentation of the dough.

Myth No. 2: “It’s all the fault of thermophilic yeast!”

Another terrible legend is dedicated to thermophilic yeast, which supposedly does not die during baking. This misconception is very firmly entrenched in the minds of fans of the yellow press. Allegedly, when baking bread, heat-resistant yeast is used, which does not die, but enters the body alive and begins to create “mayhem” in the intestines, causing digestive disorders, allergies and other terrible consequences.

Do thermophilic yeasts exist in nature? Yes, they exist, but they are quite rare. In addition, their temperature maximum does not exceed +53°C. But special selection and experimental production of thermophilic yeast strains in baking production, firstly, is irrelevant (there is no need to use them), and, secondly, it presents certain difficulties.

You can ask any baking technologist (even a student of the food technologies) and he will say that at temperatures from +55 to +59°C the yeast cells die, while the temperature in the center of the bread crumb at the time it is removed from the oven reaches +95°C. Naturally, all yeast cells in baked bread are inactivated, in other words, killed at high temperature.

Not so long ago, microflora studies were conducted at the St. Petersburg branch of the State Scientific Research Institute of the Baking Industry of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences different varieties flour and finished baked goods immediately after baking. The results showed that living yeast and mold cells were not found in ready-made samples of Darnitsky bread, as well as in wheat bread.

Thus, information about widespread use thermophilic yeast has no scientific basis. And they are not used in the baking industry.

Myth No. 3: “The production of yeast uses toxic substances that have a detrimental effect on human health!”

If you look at the list of ingredients in GOST 171-81 for the production of pressed yeast - an outdated GOST from the times of the USSR from 1981, to which online articles and videos refer, many people feel uneasy, especially if a person is far from chemistry or completely ignorant of cultivation technology yeast. Agree, it is unlikely that anyone will be inspired by such ingredients as “technical formalin”, “Progress liquid detergent”, “technical sulfuric acid”, “microfertilizer for agriculture” or “building lime”. Currently, a completely different GOST R 54731-2011 is used, which contains regulatory references to other GOST standards related to both yeast cultivation technology and auxiliary and packaging materials, chemicals and reagents that are used for laboratory analysis of yeast, and to the analysis methods themselves.

Among all the listed standards, references to which are given in GOST R 54731-2011, several groups of materials used in manufacturing processes can be distinguished baker's yeast:
some are used to make yeast substrate;
the other part is to provide an optimal environment for growing yeast;
the third part is used exclusively for sanitary treatment of equipment, premises, laboratory glassware and hands;
the fourth part is packaging materials.

Modern technologies make it possible to thoroughly wash the yeast mass before pressing from nutrient medium, in which they were grown, and samples of the final product are examined in laboratories to ensure that the yeast does not contain any chemical or microbiological hazards. So modern yeast production processes are strikingly different from their production processes during the USSR!

Myth No. 4: “Yeast-free bread is healthier than yeast bread!”

Opponents of yeast bread argue that eating it can lead to dysbacteriosis and other diseases.

Suppose that a person, for one reason or another, completely refuses to eat baked goods (although we have already found out that there are no living yeast cells in finished bread). His regular diet will definitely include vegetables and fruits. What does it mean? That microscopic fungi still enter his body. And there's nothing wrong with that!

Few people think about how useful yeast is. They contain a large number of B vitamins (B1, B2, B3 or PP, B5, B6, B8, B9, B12), minerals, extremely necessary for the body human (iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium), as well as fiber and proteins. Availability of such essential components makes yeast very interesting product from point of view nutritional value And positive influence for healthy skin, hair and nails. Beneficial features yeast has long found its use not only in home cosmetology, but also in poultry farming and gardening. Due to their rich vitamin and mineral composition, they are used to feed poultry populations and fertilize soils in the warm season.

In Europe, the introduction of additives based on yeast and yeast extracts into human food is currently very developed. In addition to a valuable set of vitamins, fiber and protein, very popular fractions are beta-glucans, which are a structural element of the yeast cell wall and are responsible for activating the body’s protective functions, as well as glutathione, which has antioxidant properties.

So, if you do not have food intolerance to gluten protein (gluten), egg or milk protein, consume yeast baked goods for health, as it is a source of carbohydrates, B vitamins and PP!

The article uses materials provided by the St. Petersburg branch of the State Scientific Research Institution of the Russian Agricultural Academy, as well as materials from an article in the information and analytical magazine “PARTNER Confectioner Khlebopek” 5 (47) 2013, section “Ingredients”, pp. 50-54.