Bread – What would happen if I add wine to yeast bread

breadyeast

Lately I've been making a lot of no-knead bread, not out of laziness, just love the crustiness and rich flavor.

I was thinking about trying to make a loaf but use wine for some of the liquid because I'm interested to see how it would flavor it. But I'm worried that the wine will do something to the yeast. Too acidic, maybe? I'm not really sure. Would it ruin everything? What do you suggest?

Best Answer

The wine will bring several things to the breadmaking party:

  • Acidity
  • Alcohol
  • Water
  • Flavoring
  • Color (especially if it is red wine)

The biggest of these is the alcohol which is a yeast byproduct--they don't like it in their environment, and it inhibits their growth. The acidity can do the same. Proofing will be retarded, and you may need a larger starting quantity of yeast than for a wineless loaf.

You would also have to adjust the amount of liquid in the formula to account for that from the wine. Your bread would probably take on a strange mauve color, after being baked, and may have some hint of winey flavor.

I think the lack of well known wine-loaves in the world's baking traditions indicates this does not generally work out very well, although there are some recipes for yeast raise breads containing wine such as Sourdough Cranberry Wine Bread from The Fresh Loaf.