Leavened bread

Bread a food prepared from the meal or flour of the cerealia, by kneading it together with water into dough, and exposing it to the action of heat or baking it.

There are two principal kinds of bread fermented or leavened and unfermented or unleavened. Wheat flour is ideal for leavened bread because wheat contains gluten, a protein that becomes sticky when mixed with water.

For the fermented or leavened bread the dough is first made to undergo a kind of fermentation by the addition of leaven or dough, which is already in a fermenting state or of yeasts.

Legend has it that leavening was discovered by an Egyptian baker who set some wheaten dough aside in a warm place. The dough, having been contaminated with wild yeast and/or bacteria, rose significantly as the microorganism grew and multiplied.

It is common in dirt and floats unseen in air. There are many varieties of yeast, some better suited to baking some to brewing.

No doubt, the person who sampled the accidentally leavened dough after baking was favorably impressed with its light airy texture.

The ancient Hebrews learned how to make leavened bread from the Egyptian in 1300 BC.

As a staple of the standard American diet, leavened bread is prepared with yeasts or baking soda to make the dough rise before baking.
Leavened bread