Bread: types of bread, composition, useful properties

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In our article we would like to talk about bread. What it is? First of all, it is a food product that is obtained by heat treatment. The main ingredients are always water and flour. In addition, there are a wide variety of additives and a large number of varieties of bread.

What is bread for us?

In general, bread in people's lives is of global importance. For many nations, the product is part of the culture, because it is not without reason that each nation has its own national recipes for its manufacture. This product saved people from hunger in harsh times. Therefore, bread is not just a culinary product, but a universal property.

This product has become popular due to its properties. Its basis is cereals. This means that a person receives vegetable proteins and valuable amino acids from it.

In addition, bread is a source of B vitamins, minerals, plant fiber, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron and phosphorus. The product is very high-calorie, rich in carbohydrates.

Currently, people do not have huge physicalloads. So, excessive consumption of bread will also not be useful. Therefore, products made from rye and other cereals have become popular. These types of bread improve digestion and have fewer carbohydrates.

Bread can complement dishes, or it can act as a separate product. After all, we often use sandwiches, casseroles, sandwiches. In the recipes of different cultures, you can find a decent amount of dishes based on it - bread pie, kissel, bread soup.

National bread

For every nation, bread is not only a wonderful pastry, but also a part of the culture. National recipes have been formed since ancient times and have their own characteristics in different parts of the world.

Toriginally Russian bread is a rye loaf. Today there are many types of such pastries made from rye flour, the most famous of them are "Merchant" and "Borodino".

Speaking about what bread is, types of bread, we must understand that each nation has its own recipes for cooking and its own views on its taste.

The famous ciabatta is prepared in Italy. This is a yeast bread based on white flour. The peculiarity of baking is that it has a crispy crust and a very large-pored structure inside. In addition, onion, garlic, spices are put in it.

France is famous for its baguettes, which are nothing more than small crispy loaves. This bread is made from premium flour so that it is very white.

The famous pizza came to us from the Mediterranean. This is not even quite bread, but a dish based on it. Whenas soon as pizza appeared, it did not have so many ingredients, it was an ordinary yeast cake, smeared with tomato sauce and sprinkled with cheese. Initially, poor peasants ate it. Later, she changed, acquired a lot of recipes.

The famous Israeli matzah, which is made from unfermented dough.

In the Caucasus, lavash has long been prepared. It looks like a thin cake, and it is baked in a stone oven. In Central Asia, bread similar to lavash is cooked in a special tandoor oven.

One can endlessly talk about what kind of bread is, types of bread among different peoples. The main thing is that before any person it was the basis of nutrition. Now, many limit themselves to its use, following diets, and replacing it with other products.

Bread: types of bread

Speaking of bread, it should be noted that it is often divided into varieties by color: black, gray, white.

For a more accurate species separation, it makes sense to take as a basis the type of flour from which bread is made. Based on this, the following types can be distinguished:

1. Wheat (white).
2. Wheat-rye (grey).
3. Rye.
4. Whole grain.

Separately, it is probably worth highlighting the loaf that is now quite popular among consumers. So, a loaf of bread is made from white wheat flour, but from a richer dough. This, in fact, is the difference. Of course, it turns out to be very tasty and fragrant, for which it is especially popular.

Let'sLet's take a closer look at each category of bread.

Wheat bread

This is a white bread made from wheat flour. Its quality depends primarily on the type of flour used to make it. White bread is made from the very best.

Different varieties may contain some additives: bran, cocoa, seeds. But usually wheat bread is baked from high quality flour. It is rich in magnesium, calcium, starch. For whom is such baking useful? It is good for those people who have digestive problems or stomach ulcers.

Varieties of rye bread

Rye is always lean bread. It is rarely made from only one type of flour; as a rule, a wheat-rye mixture is taken for cooking. Proportions may vary. We can say that the more rye flour, the he althier the baked goods. It contains many minerals, vitamins, fiber, which lowers blood glucose levels, regulates digestive activity.

Usually on sale there is a loaf, which is sixty percent rye, and forty percent wheat flour. The appearance also depends on the proportions.

Another lean bread - only based on rye flour. It is very he althy and contains a huge amount of fiber. As a rule, it is used by people who want to lose weight. And this is no accident. The fact is that such bread speeds up metabolic processes. However, this product is quite difficult to digest, and therefore not suitable for everyone. For some, it can cause stomach problems.

The best and he althiest rye bread is made from whole flour. Recipes with apples, cumin, molasses and honey are very popular. By the way, the type of baking with cumin is called Lithuanian. In the store you can find Turkish bread with nuts and raisins.

In general, rye bread will be useful for those people who have high cholesterol and dream of losing weight.

Corn and whole grain bread

Corn is a simple bread rich in fiber. It contains very little starch, but is rich in vitamins A, B, D.

Whole grain is made with the appropriate flour. Why is it called whole grain? Yes, because it is unrefined, that is, before grinding, the outer layer is not removed from the grains, which contains all the vitamins and minerals. From such flour, the bread is heavy and knocked down, it does not crumble and does not get stale for a long time. What is its advantage? After its use, you do not want to eat for a long time, there comes a long feeling of satiety. Such bread is useful for heart and vascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and is indispensable for people on a diet or for those who constantly control their weight.

Bread production technology

From the very beginning of the emergence of bread baking, this process required patience and diligence from a person. Even with modern technology, making bread is a laborious task.

The process consists of several stages:

1. Preparation of ingredients. This is sifting flour, and mixing its different varieties, working with gluten.
2. Kneading dough.
3. Improve the fermentation and leavening process.
4. Dividing the test into proportions.
5. Formation of blanks.
6. Baking.
7. Cooling.
8. Storage packaging.

The production of bread involves the use of basic products such as water, flour, yeast, s alt. Other ingredients can be added to give flavor: milk, butter, molasses, sugar, poppy seeds, m alt, spices.

Dough preparation is about seventy percent of the whole process. From this important stage depends on whether you get delicious bread or not.

Methods of making dough

Bread dough can be prepared in two ways: non-dough and sponge.

The sourdough method involves making sourdough. To do this, mix half the flour and 2/3 of the water from what is indicated in the recipe. Since our bread is made with yeast, they are also put into the mixture if wheat is baked. For rye baking, sourdough is used. The dough should stand in the fermentation process for two to four hours at a temperature of twenty-seven to thirty degrees. But after that, add all the remaining ingredients and knead the dough.

With the non-dough method, all the ingredients specified in the recipe are mixed at once. In this state, the dough is left to ferment for three to four hours, and then it is baked.

There is also a technology for brewing dough, in which a tenth of the flour is brewed with boiling water.

I must say that the double method is the most versatile. Almost everywhere in the production they use only it. SuchThe method speeds up the cooking process, but the quality may also suffer. But the custard method makes it possible to cook delicious, ruddy bread that does not go stale for a long time.

The end of the twentieth century saw the emergence of modern baking techniques.

Micronization is used only for some cereals. The method is based on the use of infrared rays, which make the grain boil only due to its structure. The rapid heating process preserves the maximum amount of nutrients in baking.

Extrusion - grain is processed under pressure. The device works on explosive technology. High temperature and pressure instantly boil the mass.

Historical digression

Today it is common for us that bread is prepared on the basis of cereals. However, historians argue that this was not always the case. And the first bread was made from acorns. In those days, there was no shortage of them, and their collection did not require much effort. So people have learned how to cook a nutritious product from them.

There is also a second version, according to which the first bread was prepared using nuts.

The invention of grain-based baking happened quite by accident. The prototype of modern bread first appeared in the Neolithic era. At first, they were ordinary cakes. They were prepared by the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians. And later in Egypt, people already consciously came to the cultivation of wheat, striving to achieve its best qualities. Then the Egyptians invented a way to make sourdough bread. It is known thatin the seventeenth century BC, they already knew how to brew beer, which may have led them to the idea of using fermentation to make dough.

Very quickly, the art of baking spread throughout the world. In those days, those cereal plants that were common in habitats were used as the basis for bread products. But the sourdough took a variety of types. It could be beer foam or environmental bacteria. The art of baking bread has been modified and perfected over the millennia, but to this day, the basis of any recipe is cereal flour, yeast and water.

The history of rye bread

Historical facts show that the Russian bread recipe is baked exclusively from rye flour. Black bread appeared in Russia around the eleventh century. Since then, this product has been loved by all classes: the rich, the poor and the middle peasants.

But abroad, rye bread was consumed only by the lower classes, that is, the poorest. In Russia, they treated this product in a completely different way. Black bread was considered absolutely traditional. Perhaps this happened because the climate is more favorable for rye than for other crops.

In the fourteenth-fifteenth century in Russia, there were already many varieties of just such bread: Borodinsky, custard, Krasnoselsky. These recipes have survived to this day, and they came to us from that distant era.

Rye bread is very satisfying and he althy. It lowers cholesterol and blood sugar levels. And the combination of sourdough andfiber creates the right microflora.

Instead of afterword

As you can see, bread has always been the basis of nutrition at all times. Types of bread are currently quite diverse, everyone can choose the right variety for themselves, based on the needs of the body.