What is real bread?
Bread, at its best, is a superb food and immensely diverse, reflecting the local culture and being integral to a healthy diet. So what's gone wrong - why is 95% of the bread on offer such insipid stodge?
The answer lies in the industrialisation of the production system.
"Good bread has one ingredient which nothing can replace - time, lots of it! Industrialisation is all about doing it quickly - perhaps an hour and a half from mixing to packing. Bread is a fermented food; it needs time for the enzymes and good bacteria to work on the dough, transforming it from the inside. Industrial bakers try to fool the dough by high speed mixing, using large amounts of powerful yeasts, and adding a cocktail of chemical agents which do not appear in the list of ingredients. The result is appalling, and really not a good food," suggests Simon of Wild Yeast Bakery.To make good bread, here's all you need: flour, water and salt... and time. Artisan bakers like Simon don't even add new yeast - they use saved dough or wild yeast cultures and bacteria in the flour (and on our hands) to gently leaven the dough, over a minimum of 36 hours. These naturally leavened breads have superb taste, with no need for sun dried tomatoes and the like to make then tasty. They also have greatly superior nutritional qualities, making them more digestible and higher in nutrients, and lower in their glycaemic index (good for kids and diabetics).
Increasingly, top restaurants and discerning consumers are seeking out these artisans at farmers' markets or specialist bakeries. And bread making courses are more popular than ever:
"My courses get booked up months in advance. It's great to be able to pass on my passion to others. Kids are the most fun to teach; it's just so magical when the bread comes out the oven," says Simon.It really is not that difficult to make great bread with the right knowledge, flour and wild yeast. If you want real bread avoid the supermarket and go and talk to your local baker or Farm Shop on the BigBarn map. Or depending on your preference use the BigBarn MarketPlace, and search for bread, Wild Yeast, bread making courses, or flour.
Comments
- Posted by Marion Fordy on 5th 2009f August, 2009 @ 6:16pm:
- I make bread using wild yeast and find that the leavening process must break down some of the carbohydrate or gluten as eating my own bread is much easier to digest and does not make me tired like cheap bought bread.
- Posted by Real Bread Campaign on 6th 2009f August, 2009 @ 11:40am:
- Some people are put off making more slowly fermented Real Bread because of the time factor. One thing to remember is that the time it takes is its own - not yours. Ten or fifteen minutes of working the dough at the start, a few minutes of shaping in the middle and then baking it at the end is all it asks of you. The rest of the process it can happily do unsupervised. Personally, I usually make bread on Saturdays, leaving it to prove while I go shopping, shaping it when I get back and baking it alongside my dinner.
- Posted by Ant Davison on 6th 2009f August, 2009 @ 12:16pm:
- Thanks Real Bread Campaign, what we need is a video, it would be good to see the amount of wild yeast or saved dough you start with, best flour, how much to knead, how high it should rise, whether to knock back, any ideas?
- Posted by Guy Snape on 6th 2009f August, 2009 @ 2:21pm:
- @Ant Complete instructions for wild yeast (sourdough) bread at www.breadsecrets.com/recipes.html
- Posted by Matt MacLeod on 6th 2009f August, 2009 @ 5:54pm:
- More good bread making info, including videos here: http://www.breadtopia.com/
- Posted by Jonathan Cook on 6th 2009f August, 2009 @ 11:25pm:
- I use around 1/3rd starter to 2/3rd flour for my wild yeast bread baking. The starter is kept cool throughout the week and fed two or three times over the course of the week before being brought up to room temperature the evening before I make my poulish in advance of mixing the dough. The alcohol produced which appears as a clear liquid on top of the bubbling mass is stirred back in adding to the taste of the eventual bread. In terms of flour, stoneground flour is preferable to roller milled flours for reasons of taste and nutrition. There is a well established literature demonstrating the health benefits of bread made with stoneground flours. Firstly, the process retains the endosperm, bran and wheat germ in their original natural proportions. Secondly, because the stones grind slowly, the wheat germ is not exposed to excessive temperature. Lastly, flours milled using horizontal mill stones has a very different - "nutty" taste. Customers will find members of the Traditional Cornmillers Guild (www.tcmg.org.uk) on this site or larger millers such as Shipton Mills or Doves Farm. Some do mail order.
- Posted by Nicette Ammar on 25th 2009f August, 2009 @ 9:59pm:
- I tried many years ago to make sourdough bread using wild yeasts. It worked in terms of rising, but it tasted way to sour for my taste, so didn't try again. Maybe I need to go on a course!
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