What Home Bakers Need To Know About Dough Conditioners

In its most basic form, bread requires just three ingredients. Mixing together flour, water, and yeast is enough to yield a loaf, but anyone who has actually tried to bake it at home knows that the simplicity of bread is rarely all that simple. Behind the straightforward ingredients is a series of complex chemical reactions. When mixed with water, the glutenin and gliadin proteins in the flour bind to create gluten, which gives structure to the dough. Enzymes break starch down into sugars, which the yeast feeds on to produce carbon dioxide and give the dough a bubbly lift. However, these processes are very easily disrupted. The wrong humidity in your kitchen can impact the final product, as can incorrect ingredient proportions, too long a proofing period, too short a proofing period, overworked dough, and underworked dough. In short: There are a lot of mistakes to avoid when baking bread. The food's finicky nature has prompted home bakers and commercial bakers alike to turn to dough conditioners.

Technically speaking, dough conditioner is anything that's added to enhance bread dough consistency beyond those three basic ingredients. It can take the form of ingredients like diastatic malt to increase the dough's rise or dry acid whey to make the loaf last longer. However, when bakers talk about dough conditioner, they're often referring to products like Scratch Premium Dough Conditioner or Shirley J Professional Dough Conditioner. These are mixes of several ingredients to improve all-around texture and rise.

If you find that your bread has one frequent problem, a single active additive like malt or whey could be all you need. But if your dough faces a few issues or you're looking for general consistency, a packaged dough conditioner is probably a better choice. These conditioners can improve the strength and elasticity of your dough's gluten structure and give more flexibility with how much the dough can be kneaded before it gets overworked. 

The nutrients in dough conditioners adjust a dough's pH and provide additional food for the yeast. This increases carbon dioxide production and results in a better rise and crumb. You'll need less time to rise, and you can proof your bread faster. You'll get a deeper crust color. You'll keep the bread for longer before it goes stale, and you'll get the best results every time.

It's this uniformity and speed that made dough conditioners popular in commercial baking circles, but many home bakers are also taking advantage of the ingredient's benefits. Some bakers are divided on its use, insisting that conditioners threaten the philosophical integrity of the bake or indicate a lack of skill — but regardless of your side of the debate, there's no denying the results. With most dough conditioners, you'll only have to add less than a teaspoon for every cup of flour and mix it in with the rest of your dry ingredients. There are no complicated extra steps, strange side effects, or unwanted flavors, just consistently delicious bread.

Packaged dough conditioners will often contain several active ingredients, but if you're looking to meet a specific dough need or you prefer to rely on a single ingredient additive, there are a few types of conditioners to look for. If you want to shorten the time your rye dough needs to proof and rise, you'll want a reducing agent that affects the gluten's structure. Look for sodium bisulfite or L-Cysteine. If you need to strengthen your focaccia dough and help it keep more carbon dioxide, check a dough conditioner's ingredients list for oxidants like ascorbic acid. If you're finding that your pizza dough is always tough, emulsifiers like lecithin powder and sodium alginate will give your dough a softer texture and a more even consistency while also increasing its shelf life.

When yeast is fed, it produces more carbon dioxide, which increases the dough's rise and gives it flavor. Yeast nutrients or enzyme additives like amylase and diastatic malt will give the yeast more to munch on, thus improving the taste and texture of the loaf. You can even find calcium salts that will alter the pH of the dough and create a better environment for the yeast. If a bread problem exists, there's probably a conditioner to correct it.