Pumpernickel bread is easy to recognize. If you’re not a bread-head it can be hard to tell the difference between white and brioche for example but pumpernickel is famous for its deep brown color that you don’t see in other breads. How exactly does that happen?
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 Esculenta Science | 2023-03-03 15:36:53 |  7,379 Views |
What is Pumpernickel Bread? I Unusual Bread Types I Food Processing
There are a few different ways to brown pumpernickel bread: the traditional German way and the American way. The classic pumpernickel recipe involves slowly baking rye flour or rye grains at low temperatures for a long period of time which causes the bread to brown as it bakes (something called the Maillard reaction). Originally the long baking time of pumpernickel was the reason it got its deep color.
This is not the case with the American version which is not cooked for as long. Instead much of the pumpernickel bread you see today is artificially colored with molasses or cocoa powder. This laborious way of giving pumpernickel its signature brown color also has the side effect of making it sweeter. If you’re in the United States the pumpernickel you’re eating will look a lot like regular rye bread.
The Maillard reaction is a term that comes up a lot in food science and it’s the reason why so many foods turn brown: steak beer coffee soy sauce grilled vegetables and pumpernickel bread. In short it refers to chemical reactions between sugars and amino acids in food when exposed to sufficient heat which changes both the color and the flavor (scientifically this is where the toasty flavor of cooked foods comes from). It’s often just called browning food and you use it all the time when you cook.
