0

At what step in preparing my dough do I add my vitamin C power? Also, I would like to add garlic powder to my dough, but not sure at what step in the process I should, I add the powder.

Bob Mathews
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
    What are you trying to accomplish by adding Vitamin C? Stronger flour? Garlic powder can easily be mixed in to the bulk flour mix. – Captain Giraffe May 29 '23 at 23:03
  • @CaptainGiraffe VitC is often added as "bread improver" to unbleached flours, as these may not rise well due to lack of oxidation of the dough that occurs in bleached flours. – bob1 May 31 '23 at 05:07
  • @bob1 From a labeling standpoint (at least in the US), the correct vernacular terms are "ascorbic acid (added as a dough conditioner)", per [21CFR137 § 105(b)(2)](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=137.105). AFAIR, we would have it already mixed in at dry batching, but I'm not sure if this varies by product or not. – Arctiic Jun 01 '23 at 13:54
  • @Arctiic good to know re the USA, I'm not from there, though was living in the States for a while. Plenty of the world doesn't add it or other flour conditioners during manufacturing. I've only really found, outside the USA, that it's needed in bread machines batches. It improves hand-made too, but the difference is less than in a machine-made. – bob1 Jun 01 '23 at 22:16

1 Answers1

1

Add them both before you hydrate (add liquid) your flour, that way you will ensure that they get evenly mixed into the dough, which can be difficult to achieve if done later.

The vitamin C is used to add volume to the dough and is oxidized into dehydroascorbic acid by enzymes in the flour within a few minutes of addition of the water, which then allows reduction of the glutathione in gluten, enhancing texture and volume of the loaf.

bob1
  • 12,979
  • 21
  • 49