Grant goes back in time for the Beeb
BBC presenter Dr Alex Langlands tastes Professor Campbell's unique bread
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 09:44:00 GMT
Professor of Chemical Engineering Grant Campbell demonstrated the principles behind aerated bread on the BBC Two series Victorian Bakers. This style of bread mixed the dough by machine rather than hand-kneading, and used carbon dioxide from fizzy water to make the bread rise rather than the traditional yeast proving method. Yeast was viewed a bit suspiciously at the time, so this bread was claimed to be healthier, while machine mixing made it more hygienic too by avoiding mixing in the baker's sweat!
Grant was visited by presenter Dr Alex Langlands in the Food Lab at the University, where he had set up a demonstration using his unique research mixer to create a dough using flour and carbonated water under high pressure. While the Victorian style bread looked like any other loaf, the proof was in the eating, and Grant and Alex missed the yeasty taste that we expect from bread. If you are in the UK, you can watch Grant on episode 2 of Victorian Bakers on BBC iPlayer until Monday 15 February 2016.
Grant has been researching bread, and the cereal crops that are milled into the flour used to make it, for over twenty years. He has published over 70 refereed papers and spoken at dozens of conferences about his research.
You can hear more about his work by attending a public lecture he will be giving at the University of Huddersfield on Wednesday 16 March entitled "Bubbles, bread and biofuels".
