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Effect Of Amylase On Bread

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THE EFFECT OF AMYLASE ON BREAD
What is bread? Bread is a food made of flour, water, and yeast mixed together and baked. In bread making, our main focus will be on the enzyme amylase. In wheat, there is naturally appearing amylase. Amylase in the shape of malted barley can be mixed with flour in minor amounts to achieve a proper balance of enzymes. The key purpose of amylase in wheat flour is to break down complex starches into simple sugars. Without this key process happening in the dough, fermentation would not occur because yeast needs simple sugars in order to make carbon dioxide. A proper balance of natural amylase in wheat flour is needed in order to make bread that is accurately fermented with a good colored crust and well-developed flavor. …show more content…

Numerous enzymes are needed in dough to break down starch into simple sugars that yeast can digest. The process is a very complex one, and includes the enzymes alpha amylase and beta amylase. Starch occurs in two different forms, a branched form called amylopectin and an unbranched chain called amylose.
The dough must contain some alpha amylase to be able to digest the portion of starch that is amylopectin. If the alpha amylase is too much in the dough the starch will completely liquify. Alpha amylase attacks starch virtually wherever along its chains, producing smaller chains of different lengths. These chains can hold smaller units called dextrin’s that contain numerous units of glucose. Beta amylase can then digest these dextrin’s into maltose.
Flour always has a suitable supply of beta amylase that can digest amylose totally into sugars. Beta amylase attacks amylose the chains and breaks them into molecules of maltose. Maltose is a disaccharide (A disaccharide is the sugar formed when two simple sugars are joined by glyosidic linkage) containing two glucose

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