The cheapest loaf of bread

ampersand

Thankyou k - I'm handing some to you virtually because it is lovely!
And that's boastful of me, I know.
Your comments put me in mind of the E-no's book which came out in the 80's.
My choices are budget-driven, which happen to equate with goodness where bread is concerned - elsewhere, too, but that's down to Mr T reductions etc.
Freezer still contains salmon, fillet, duck, lamb(being a good NZer, must have!)etc.etc. and plenty of exotic luxe-y bits.
It can be done on very little.

seth

kevinheb wrote: »

Thats fantastic ampersand, I wouldn't use lard myself being a veggie, but any hard fat does the job. I'm sure you can enjoy it safe in the knowledge that you know that you only use quality ingredients.

You've got one up on most commercial bakers who I can promise you haven't got a clue what they are putting in their bread, they just chuck in a scoop of something called "improver" and don't give it a second thought.

Check out http://www.puratos.co.uk/products_solutions/bakery/bread_improvers/default.aspx as an example of the crap that goes into most bread, unfortunately the worst offenders are just listed as "enzymes"

Enzymes are protein catalysts, found in all living things. This improver is just an extract from yeast. Remember all enzymes denature during baking. Commercial emulsifiers are soya lecithin. You will find lecithins in all plant and animal cells.

Bread is a balance of shrinking protein filaments in a matrix of complex starches and the heat expansion of small carbon dioxide bubbles made by fungi killed during baking. The crust is the partial oxidation of sugars and starches, the crust hardness is determined by the relative humidity during the first 15 minutes of baking. 80% or more relative humidly = crusty. Less = soft. It is the relative forces experienced by the dough that determine the crumb structure of the bread. Additives and small changes to the flour / water / handling / rolling / proving of the dough is what produces the huge range of breads from powered grass seed = flour and dihydrogen oxide = water and asexually reproducing colonies of eukaryotic microorganism mainly Saccharomyces cerevisiae= yeast.

Newly milled flour without further treatment does not make good bread. Flour treatment agents are used to mature the flour and 'smooth out' compositional variations. This gives the flour a more uniform appearance and increases the tolerance and handling qualities of the dough under a wide range of fermentation conditions.

Lidl's bread making flour is exceptionally good. This contains improvers but on inspection the add vitamin C as an antioxidant. I'm yet to find a flour additive that is dangerous or suspect.

Remember that the various enzymes and processing aids are also permitted for use in breadmaking. They are destroyed by the baking process. Interestingly as none of these surive baking they do not need to be listed on the label of commercial product.

The use of improvers does speed up the process of bread making. However the complex flavours from artisan breads come from the mixture of yeasts (and bacteria for sour dough). In practice I find flours with improvers much better than any flour without improvers. That said a slow rise and the use of a biga or poolish starter and even wild yeast or sour dough can enhance the complex tones and span of flavours.

A biga or poolish starter does not take to long to make and both can be frozen so these are good options for improving taste.

If you retain about a large fistful of dough from each batch and or keep in the fridge for 7 days in a sealed container or freeze it, wrapped in cling film or in a container for up to 3 months. You can thaw it and use it in your next loaf mix once defrosted.

If you want to extract these from flour and yeast yourself use the no knead method for bread. This produces a great crumb structure and a full bodied taste.

You can also improve the B12 content (important especially for those of us who are veggie) using the no knead method.)

If you search for "no knead dough" there are lots of simple recipes that need MUCH less yeast and additives an can me made with no specialist tools.

If you want a good quality wholemeal flour that is cheap and hard (hard= high gluten = bread flour) try buying chapati flour. This is 100% wholemeal wheat flour. It comes in 5, 10 and 20kh bags even Tesco stock them 20kg is around £5 to £7 depending on the brand/

Gluten and Lactose intolerance is the "normal" human state. The genes for metabolising lactose in adults and gluten are recent additions to the gene pool, required only recently in evolutionary time-scales. These are clinically not the same as auto immune responses to nuts etc. in most cases they can be traced to genetic factors that produce the "normal" cessation of lactose metabolism after weaning, etc..

This are the common additives for bread.

Flour Treatment Agents
These are used to ensure good loaf volume and improve the crumb structure, softness and colour. Vitamin C = ascorbic acid =E300 is the most common flour treatment agent used in bread making.

You may see the words 'flour treatment agent' on the list of ingredients in your flour. This improver is generally vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which makes the dough more manageable and ensures a well risen loaf with what's known as 'good volume'. Flour was once bleached using various bleaching agents, but these are not used today. Sodium hydrogen carbonate and calcium phosphate are the baking powders (raising agents) used in self-raising flour.

Emulsifying Agents
These are used to provide dough stability and tolerance in addition to improving loaf volume and crumb structure and maintaining softness.

E471 Mono- and diglycerides. These are products of catalysis not of animal or vegiable fats. I’m vegetarian so I always check the labelling if it has E471 Mono- and diglycerides and does not say “suitable for vegetarians” then I do not buy it. The body metabolises the products as any other fat. The individual components are also produced normally in the body when digesting normal fat.


E472(E) Diacetyltartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides Esters of fats, produced from glycerol, natural fatty acids and another organic acid (acetic, lactic, tartaric, citric). The fatty acids are mainly from plant origin, but also fats of animal origin may be used. The product generally is a mixture of different components, with a composition similar to partially digested natural fat esterified with other natural acids. The products are first digested to the individual acids and the fats. The body metabolises all components identically to the normal acids and natural fat. The individual components of the mono- and diglycerides are also produced normally in the body when digesting normal fat.
Although mainly vegetable oils are used, the use of animal fat (incl. pork) can not be excluded. . I’m vegetarian so I always check the labelling if it has E472 (ALL CLASSES) Mono- and diglycerides and does not say “suitable for vegetarians” then I do not buy it.
Preservatives

The most common form of preservative used is vinegar. This adjusts the acidity level (pH) of the loaf to prevent the development of mould spores and other spoilage organisms. Vinegar is a natural ingredient and is not regarded as a food additive.
Wine can have Bulls blood or fish products used as a clearing agent not usually a problem in vinegar!

Calcium Propionate (E282) inhibits the growth of mould spores and bacteria directly

seth

I simplified the bit about gas bubbles a key factor in crumb structure.

At the beginning of fermentation, about 3 × 108/m2 gas cells with diameters between 3 × 10−6 and 8 × 10−4 m are typically entrained in the dough. The distribution curve of cell size is approximately normal on a logarithmic scale. During fermentation and proofing, a great portion of carbon dioxide is released into cells larger than about 10−4 m in diameter that was equivalent to a few percentages of total number of gas cells. After baking, gas cells smaller than 10−4 m in diameter are not observed and the total number of cells in baked bread reduced to about 106/m2 with diameters between 10−4 and about 5 × 10−3 m. The critical cell size to expand generally agreed with the calculated value using an equation, rc'= 3s/E (re': critical radius to expand, s: surface tension, E: elasticity), and cited value of s and E.

This is good high level summary of bread making including enyzmes made by yeast

http://www.relderton.co.uk/bread-dough.htm

hungrynurse_2

good breadmaker will set you back in the region of £70, but I reacon on each loaf costing around 20p, far nicer than any brand, far fresher, and actually really easy. While the initial outlay is high, but you'd probably make your money back in the first year alone

McKneff

Bought a large thick sliced loaf yesterday at Morrisons yesterday at normal price of 49p

kevinheb

Thanks Seth, I'm not quite sure where you've cut and pasted all that stuff from and why??

onetomany

ive managed a lovely granary loaf and some lovely soft rolls still working on the white one tho would def recommend a bread maker mine cost 48, take care

seth

kevinheb wrote: »

Thanks Seth, I'm not quite sure where you've cut and pasted all that stuff from and why??

Well I thought you might be interested the potential use of animal fats in some di-glyceride and esterified compounds, secondly it seemed to me you where suggesting that enzyme should not be added to bread when 1) they are part of the yeast organism 2) they are destroyed in baking. There are a considerable number of enzymes in Saccharomyces cerevisia, which is the conventional yeast used in baking and brewing. The "enzyme" most commonly referred to in this yeast is Zymase. This has an optimum working temperature of around 38 degrees C. The particular strain involved can make a slight difference. Progressive denaturing of Zymase will occur above this temperature and all enzyme activity will cease around 60 to 70 degrees C.

Worth pointing out that all commercial yeast and rapid rise yeast and dried yeast have enzymes mixed in with the yeast. Indeed it is very hard to produce yeast without a cocktail of yeast enzymes as the way yeast digest sugars in grain include release of enzymes.

Kneading not only provides shearing forces to align molecules, the mechanical action rupture yeast membranes and this releases enzymes. The use of salt to "regulate" yeast has the same effect: membrane rupture of some yeast. Spreading the enzyme in this way evens the rise producing a more even crumb.

Remember the sucrase enzymes increase the break down of sugars like maltose etc by over a factor of a billion.

seth

I found the no knead approach was excellent it takes 1 minute to mix. Best bread ever much better than bread machine or store bought.

Recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
Recipe (grams!): http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes/noknead.html
Narrative: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html

Video links were not working for me these are the direct links

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2006/11/07/dining/1194817104184/no-knead-bread.html?scp=2&sq=no%20knead&st=cse

seth

To keep yeast / dry or quick start varieties "fresh"= high active enzyme levels pop them in an air tight container and freeze them. The enzymes in the substrate and the the yeast to not last long if exposed to air (oxygen). Freezing slows the degradation. Use straight from the freezer.

In my experience the most common causes of bread making not working:

1) Not using "fresh" yeast = Old / dead / low active enzyme yeast
2) Poor measurement of ingredients. This is really critical when using a bread maker. Use good digital scales. Spring scales are not accurate for small amounts
3) Adding the ingredients in the wrong order. Most machines ask you to add liquids first. Remember to keep the salt separate from the yeast and to cover the yeast with flour so it is dry and away from air if you are using a delayed time start.
4) Not using bread flour. Lidl Bread flour is only 49p works very well. Beats the £2.99 Canadian flour from Waitrose in my experience!
5) Not knowing how to handle dough. I know this sounds daft my in my early years of bread making I found it would stick to everything and even washing up the spoons and bowls took be ages! Now I use one or two spoons and only one bowl and a lid. With time you will develop a light touch. Remember if you add flour to a dough you must wait at least 20 minutes for the flour to incorporate otherwise the dough will be rock hard! For shaping French sticks and baguettes I use a tea towel draped over a drawer or the boiler in Winter but use the French linen ones without fibres!!! English tea towels are made of a linen that has lint and cannot be used for dough.
6) After removing bread from the oven leave it for at least 20 minutes to allow the stream to escape. Leave it on a rack.