November 28, 2015 - 7:40am
Cinnamon and rising
Just saw this note to a King Arthur recipe for cinnamon bread*:
Thanks to reader feedback, this recipe has been amended as of May 1, 2015, as follows: the amount of cinnamon has been cut back, to reduce rising times; the salt has been increased, for flavor; and the recipe has been cut in half, to make one loaf.
Does cinnamon hurt yeast?
* http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cinnamon-raisin-bread-recipe
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... that tree-bark spices (e.g. cinnamon) can retard yeast. Not really noticed it much myself - usually putting it down to butter/fats/eggs and other stuff that slows things down in enriched doughs...
-Gordon
The common opinion is that cinnamon will slow down the yeast. However, it is based on an old paper which, as far as I understand, tested the yeast in water solution with sugar as the source of nutrition. I am not certain how these numbers translate to baking. I suspect - not that well.
I've seen a more modern research which suggested that in sweet dough 1% cinnamon will knock off about 10% of yeast activity, with the effect becoming much more pronounced after that. It was not from the most reliable source, unfortunately.
In their recipe King Arthur uses 360 g. of flour and 1 tsp of cinnamon, which by my count is to 2.8 g, or 0.78%. As written, based on available data, I'd expect cinnamon to have virually no effect. I do not know what the original recipe was like, and what was the basis for reader's suggestions.
The Thanksgiving bread I made for co-workers uses 1.59% instant yeast and has 29.27% cinnamon chips in it. There's also about 6% butter and 18% honey. Salt is at 1.83%. This bread does rise slower than other breads but I made two batches with time in between on Tuesday so it wasn't unduly long. The percentages are based on the weight of the item compared to the weight of the flour. I do not now what percentage of the chip is cinnamon. I use chips for a few reasons. One is to keep the cinnamon away from the yeast as much as I can. I don't know if it really works.
Mike
has 3 TBL of cinnamon per loaf, some mixed into the body of the loaf and the rest providing the "swirl". I've never had any issues with it rising well and quickly. It's a delicious loaf and highly recommended, especially if you can lay your hands on cinnamon from Sri Lanka.