Why not add lecithin to home baked bread to retard staling?

[gfweb]

Why don't we add the same stuff commercial bakers use to prolong shelf life? It shouldn't be that hard to get mixed into dough,probably a little butter or cream would solubilize it.

I'd love my baguettes to last a few days.

[Lisa Shock]

I just never tried it.

I do use lecithin mixed with oil to grease pans.

[baroness]

I have used granular lecithin in bread recipes.

A quick search of the King Arthur Flour site yields 17 recipes with lecithin.

[lebowits]

I just never tried it.

I do use lecithin mixed with oil to grease pans.

Lisa - May I ask why you use this mixture to grease your pans? I'm curious to understand if the lecithin serves a specific purpose.

[Will]

As I understand it, lecithin is an emulsifier, not a dough conditioner or preservative. Using egg or egg white in certain types of bread (sandwich loaf, sweet breads), probably serves much the same function.

Probably the main reason not to add preservatives etc. is simply because one of the joys of baking bread is eating it while fresh (and with confidence that it's not full of chemicals). It's also possible to freeze fresh bread if you're worried about not using it quickly enough. Some flours do contain a little bit of ascorbic acid.

It seems there must be at least some market for this, becaues King Arthur sells a general purpose "enhancer" (emulsifier, dough conditioner / stabilizer):

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/cake-enhancer-10-oz

By the way, using natural leavening will extend the life of baked bread quite a bit.

If you're interested in the specific functions of common additives, you could take a look here:

http://microsour.com/dough_additives.html

Edited January 9, 2012 by Will (log)

[gfweb]

Lecithin isn't a "preservative" in the microbiological sense. It doesn't retard spoiling or oxidation. From what I read, it keeps starch behaving so that staling reactions are delayed.

[Sebastian]

lecithin is an ampiphillic emulsifier - which means it has two ends - one that is attracted to water (hydrophillic), and one that's attracted to fats (lipophillic). It works to reduce surface tension (ie make things slippery) by the reducing the old addage of 'oil and water don't mix' - so it effectively works to form a slippery bridge between the oil in a recipe and the water in a recipe so that they don't turn into a sticky syrup (reduces the surface tension of a phase transition).

Bread staling, i think (i'm not a baker), comes about from the absorption of atmospheric moisture - the hydrophillic component of lecithin would likely preferentially bind some of that water; however lecithin is used in such small quantities that I don't think it'd be an effective anti-stalent in bread. I've never seen a test looking at that; i'm sure someone's done the science to look at it.