You’ll hear that lecithin helps improve the gluten structure in bread, and while that’s true it’s not the biggest or the best thing it does. Lecithin helps improve the shelf life of your bread, and also helps make a softer crumb.
Lecithin is an emulsifier, meaning it helps water and oil mix together and stay that way like egg yolk does when making mayonnaise. Powdered lecithin is best used in bread. Liquid lecithin is best used when working with more oily mixtures (like vegan mayo). Lecithin can be used at around 1% of the total flour weight.
Natural Source of Lecithin from your Kitchen
Egg yolks have approximately 1.5 grams of lecithin per yolk.This helps make the bread pliable, better able to bend in half without breaking vs loaves made without it.
When using enriched dough recipes, egg yolks are often used to help keep all the extra fat and liquids mixed so the dough can come together nicely – hence, supporting the gluten network.
When to use lecithin? In my opinion, this is a great replacement for folks who want to make vegan enriched bread dough and cannot use eggs. It’s also a good backup if there is an egg shortage.
Replacements for lecithin in bread:
If you guessed egg, more specifically egg-yolk, you win the prize (which is a pat on the back).
Give it a try! Add an egg or two and see how you like the bread? Did it keep a little longer on the counter than your bread made without it? Carry on my brave baking friends!
Recommendations for lecithin in bread:
Sunflower lecithin is often recommended by folks who are not fans of soy. I recommend aiming for organic if you can if you’re using bread additives like lecithin. Powdered soy or sunflower lecithin will do. Your kitchen, your rules.
I recommend Micro Ingredients Organic Sunflower Lecithin if you choose to go this route.
I have a little left of my experimental bag of lecithin, but no longer use it in any of my bread recipes. More on that in another post.
Another common question related to this one:
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