Hint: Bread is a type of baked food that is prepared by baking mixture of flour, water, salt, yeast and other ingredients together. It is widely consumed all over the world.
Complete answer:
- The process of bread making involves steps like mixing of ingredients, rising or fermentation, kneading, second rising, baking and cooling.
- All the ingredients necessary for bread making are thoroughly mixed to form dough. Ingredients used include flour, water, salt, yeast and others. Thorough mixing is necessary for proper formation of bread. Overmixing can produce inelastic dough, while undermixing can produce dough with small unmixed patches. These patches can remain unrisen in bread.
- Once the dough is ready, it is kept aside for fermentation in a warm place. The carbohydrates (sugar, starch) that occur naturally in the flour are broken down by yeasts forming alcohol and carbon-dioxide. The released carbon-dioxide rises and forms gas bubbles on the surface of dough.
- The fermented dough is now kneaded to remove the large sized gas bubbles (carbon dioxide bubbles).
- The kneaded dough is allowed to rise again. The second rising results in formation of more gas bubbles.
- The dough is now transferred to the oven for baking. When the temperature of dough in the oven rises to 40ᵒC, the alcohol formed during fermentation evaporates, while the activity of yeast increases and so does the rate of fermentation, the remaining carbon-dioxide rises quickly and enters the gas bubbles. The rate of fermentation continues to increase with increasing temperature upto about 46ᵒC, after which fermentation stops as the yeasts die. The release of carbon dioxide during fermentation makes the bread soft and fluffy. The baking is continued till the loaf is baked completely.
- The baked loaf (bread) is now taken out of the oven and allowed to cool.
Hence, the correct answer is option (C).
Note: The chemical process which breaks down food substances like carbohydrates by bacteria, yeasts and other microorganisms is called fermentation. The process of bread making is based on fermentation of dough (carbohydrates) by yeast.
