Bread

I know that to the "Paleo-caveman" fraternity, bread (along with any other processed food) is not to be tolerated. I completely agree with them when it comes to what many supermarkets and bakeries pass off as bread. It is no accident that my first post is about bread, as it is the food that I most often crave when away. It is the cornerstone for any dinner party I create, and baking is one of my weekend rituals. 

Bad bread is unhealthy, but good, slow fermented bread is a wonderfully nutritious food. I am hoping to give you a few tips that can help you to make your own bread at home, and provide a bonus to your family's nutritional plan.

First up - a little of the science. If you have made bread before, I am sure that most of your recipes will have called for the addition of sugar, warm liquid and maybe a little fat. I like to think that my bread is dead simple. The basic bread I make for my family has flour, chilled water, salt and yeast. And time.

There are a couple of things you do need to make good bread. The first is proper flour. Proper flour as far as bread is concerned has a high protein count, which also means it has a lot of gluten. Gluten is what creates the strands that will form a net to trap gas as the dough rises. When buying flour, look for a protein content of at least 11%.

As far as I am concerned, the second most important thing is time. It is no good trying to start working on a loaf of bread at four o'clock in the afternoon for dinner. The best breads are fermented very slowly. During this process, the yeast converts all the natural sugars in the flour, (with carbon dioxide as the by product) causing the bread to rise. This is why you don't need to add any extra sugars. Yeast will activate as long as it isn't frozen, and is cooler than about 56 degrees (Celsius). This means that you can use iced water, and keep your dough in the fridge overnight if you wish. Good commercial bakeries do this, and bring the dough to baking temperature during the proving stage. 

When all the natural sugars have been converted the bread becomes a low GI food. This only occurs during a slow ferment. This is typically done when making sourdough bread (a future subject!) and explains why people who are gluten intolerant can often tolerate proper sourdough breads.

Stay tuned for my next post when I will have a first recipe, and show you how you can adjust your bread recipe to take weather conditions into account!