Alcoholic taste when baking bread

[Emma S]

Hi, my mum is a diagnosed celiac and I tried to make her some bread- gluten free flour, xantham gum, baking powder, salted butter, yeast, milk, egg whites, sugar, and lemon juice. My mum adores the texture of it, she says it isn't slimy like store bought bread. But my bread has a very strong alcoholic scent that you can also taste... so do you have any tips to get rid of this? I proofed the bread once, baked it until a certain temp, and I used sugar to counteract the anaerobic respiration of the yeast to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation. Thanks for any help :)

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, @Emma S!

I'm not a biochemist or a baker so forgive my ignorant questions but could you clarify somethings from your post?

1. Is this alcohol taste in the bread you speak of actually caused by alcohol or something else? It sounds like alcohol is being produced in the breadmaking process as you speak of "proofing" the bread. I'm only familiar with the term "proofing" in the sense of rating the percentage of alcohol in beverages.

2. You say you used sugar to counteract the anerobic respiration of the yeast "to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation." So, "to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation" sounds intentional as "in order to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation." Did you leave a grammatical element out? Did you mean to say something more like "to counteract the problem of the yeast making excessive alcohol during the anerobic respiration cycle of the fermentation process" or something like that? As it is, to me at least, it communicates that you were creating the problem you are complaining about.

3. Is this a sourdough bread recipe? You don't say but with all that much fermentation going on it sounds like it must be.

[RMJ]

Whether yeast makes alcohol or not depends on oxygen availability, not sugar availability.  Yeast can certainly make alcohol out of sugar.  I would decrease or omit the sugar, be sure not to overproof before baking (no more than double in size, it will rise more when baked), and bake thoroughly to drive off any alcohol. To what internal temperature did you bake the bread?

[cristiana]

I've not baked bread for many years, but I had a look at a few websites and found this on Quora, as someone posted their bread had this problem.

I really don't know if it will help, but it might help.  

https://www.quora.com/If-my-whole-wheat-bread-smells-like-alcohol-does-it-mean-that-I-undercooked-the-bread#:~:text=What makes yeast bread taste,given sufficient time to work.

No. It means that you let rise too long.

As the yeast does its thing, it gives off CO2 and alcohol. Normally the alcohol content us so low that it is unnoticeable. However, too long of a rise will result in enough alcohol production that the bread smells and tastes of it.

Next time, don't let the bread rise so long. Let it double (usually 1 -2 hours) punch it down and let I rise again just until it's doubled again (about half the first rising time) and then form into loaves and give it another 30 minutes or so before baking.

Also, If your recipe doesn't have any sugar, honey or other sweet stuff in it, try adding a couple of tablespoons sugar or honey. That will give the yeast a boost so that it produces more CO2 faster and makes the bread rise faster which also cuts down on alcohol production.

[RMJ]

Ok, now I see why sugar might reduce the alcohol content - as long as you don’t overproof.

[trents]

8 minutes ago, RMJ said:

Ok, now I see why sugar might reduce the alcohol content - as long as you don’t overproof.

In this context, what does it mean to "proof"?

[Emma S]

3 hours ago, trents said:

Welcome to the forum, @Emma S!

I'm not a biochemist or a baker so forgive my ignorant questions but could you clarify somethings from your post?

1. Is this alcohol taste in the bread you speak of actually caused by alcohol or something else? It sounds like alcohol is being produced in the breadmaking process as you speak of "proofing" the bread. I'm only familiar with the term "proofing" in the sense of rating the percentage of alcohol in beverages.

2. You say you used sugar to counteract the anerobic respiration of the yeast "to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation." So, "to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation" sounds intentional as "in order to make excessive alcohol in the fermentation." Did you leave a grammatical element out? Did you mean to say something more like "to counteract the problem of the yeast making excessive alcohol during the anerobic respiration cycle of the fermentation process" or something like that? As it is, to me at least, it communicates that you were creating the problem you are complaining about.

3. Is this a sourdough bread recipe? You don't say but with all that much fermentation going on it sounds like it must be.

Thank you! I'm so sorry for the confusion, I'm a science student and this was my first time making bread 😅 proofing in baking is when the bread rises, and it makes alcohol, but it's not supposed to make a whole lot and it evaporates when baked. I meant the sugar is supposed to counteract excessive alcohol production. Also, this is a white bread recipe. Fermentation is the process in proofing when carbon dioxide and alcohol can be produced to rise bread. Hope that helped

23 minutes ago, cristiana said:

I've not baked bread for many years, but I had a look at a few websites and found this on Quora, as someone posted their bread had this problem.

I really don't know if it will help, but it might help.  

https://www.quora.com/If-my-whole-wheat-bread-smells-like-alcohol-does-it-mean-that-I-undercooked-the-bread#:~:text=What makes yeast bread taste,given sufficient time to work.

No. It means that you let rise too long.

As the yeast does its thing, it gives off CO2 and alcohol. Normally the alcohol content us so low that it is unnoticeable. However, too long of a rise will result in enough alcohol production that the bread smells and tastes of it.

Next time, don't let the bread rise so long. Let it double (usually 1 -2 hours) punch it down and let I rise again just until it's doubled again (about half the first rising time) and then form into loaves and give it another 30 minutes or so before baking.

Also, If your recipe doesn't have any sugar, honey or other sweet stuff in it, try adding a couple of tablespoons sugar or honey. That will give the yeast a boost so that it produces more CO2 faster and makes the bread rise faster which also cuts down on alcohol production.

Thank you and everyone on the post trying to help! I will have to try this. This was my first time baking bread, and my mum also considered if I overproofed it. I will definitely have to try and control this. Furthermore, I'll probably try proofing twice, the recipe said once but my mum said it was weird to do once? But thank you!

[RMJ]

57 minutes ago, Emma S said:

 Furthermore, I'll probably try proofing twice, the recipe said once but my mum said it was weird to do once? But thank you!

It is quite normal in gluten free bread recipes to only proof once. Basically, put in pan, let double in size, then bake. Good luck!