wholemeal vs whole wheat vs whole grain

eh???

fair enough - they sound similar

Wholemeal
Wholemeal is roller mill white flour that has had everything sieved from it and then some bran added back to it.

Roller mills are high speed milling machines that cause heat and friction (and starch damage as a result, which can degrade the quality of the flour). Stone ground mills (the traditional milling process) mill by a slower process that does not introduce the same heat and friction or resulting starch damage.

Whole Wheat
Whole wheat is when all of the wheat grain is retained in the flour. You therefore have the full benefits of the wheat’s nutrition (minerals, enzymes, etc) as found in the endosperm, wheatgerm, and bran.

Whole Grain
Whole grain simply means that the whole grain is retained in the flour; this could be whole grain wheat (as above) or whole grain rye or whole grain spelt etc.

This is Obi

…Obelix, the levain, the soul of our bakery…

A day in the life of Obi is not a 24 hour thing. It’s more like 36 hours. This guy works hard. On two square meals a day, he sleeps like a polar bear and works like a coal miner. His job is simple, though:

Just burp and fart. Eat and sleep.

Enough smack talk. Obi is the levain (or mother starter). He’s over twenty years old but no-one knows his actual birthday. Don’t talk to him about it. He gets a bit sensitive.

Dusty uses Obi to make his sours. A little bit of Obi goes into each ferment. Obi’s mood on the day affects the bread so Dusty has to take what he gets and work with it, cos really; Obi’s the boss.

A basic sourdough starts with Obi:

2.pm: feed Obi lunch
2.am: feed Obi breakfast
7.am: mix a bit of Obi into dough
7.am-8.am: Obi works on the dough (autolyse)
8.am-11.am: Obi keeps doing his job (the first rise)
11.am: each loaf is shaped with a little bit of love, then put to bed (to retard the dough in the fridge overnight)
2.am-4.am: the loaves are proved (also known as the final rise)
4.am: the loaves are baked on the hot stones of the oven
6.am: delivery (Obi says goodbye to his children)

The 7 Days of Bread

“The seven days of bread” is a concept Andrew Whitley talks about in his book Do Sourdough: Slow Bread for Busy Lives. I am fully in tune with this idea. Yup. That is the life. He explains :

“As soon as it is baked and cooled, the process of ‘staling’ begins. Slowly, the starches harden and the moist crumb dries out. In sourdough breads, the flavour becomes more pronounced and ‘mature’. With each change comes a new adaptation to what the bread can offer.” (p.129 Do Sourdough: Slow Bread )

“Without time, sourdough fermentation has no meaning. And I would argue that our pleasure in baked bread is one-dimensional (if not illusory) if it excludes any part of a loaf’s passage from newly baked to stale.” (p.128 Do Sourdough: Slow Bread )

His seven days of bread are explained like this:

Day 1 : Fresh
Just out of the oven. No butter (but some self-control) needed. Perfect

Day 2 : Sandwich
Still soft, but firm enough to hold a filling.

Day 3 : Toast
Drying out. Toasting both crisps the outside of the bread and softens the starches of the inner layer of the slice (unless you go on too long). Best eaten just warm, not hot.

Day 4 : Bruschetta
Getting quite dry but not ‘stale’. Toast lightly, top with peppers, onions, olives, goat’s cheese, etc. and finish under the grill.

Day 5 : Crisp breads
Drier still. Slice very thickly with a good bread knife, lay out on a baking tray and dry out in a very low oven until completely crisp.

Day 6 : Croutons
Hard tack. Slice into 1.5cm cubes, fry in a little olive oil (they’ll try to soak up a lot) until they are taking a little colour. Cool, bag up and use later or simply toss into a green salad.

Day 7 : Breadcrumbs
Probably beginning to crack a little as the interior dries and shrinks. Grate or use a food processor. Bag and freeze. Or stir a little olive oil through the crumbs with your fingers and use to top a vegetable casserole.
[Ref: pp. 130-133 Do Sourdough: Slow Bread ]

…So there you have it. Man may not be able to live off bread alone (for long), but this is how you make your bread live for you. I reckon, if you’re not making your own sourdough like Andrew Whitley teaches (worth a try!!!), then:

Day 8 : Buy More Bread

Do Sourdough: Slow Bread for Busy Lives by Andrew Whitley

Visit https://www.breadmatters.com/ for more from Andrew Whitley

My bread has holes in it!

Your bread is supposed to have holes in it.

"A nice open crumb" (the holy grail of bakers) is basically big holes for your jam to fall through. So why do the professionals chase this elusive pocket of air?

Before you frown at the holes in your bread, let’s talk “open crumb”. (It is all bakers talk about sometimes.)

An open crumb is basically the footprint left by the wild yeast in naturally leavened bread. There’s not one strain of yeast causing this bread to rise (as with supermarket breads), but millions; each one doing it’s work to ferment the food, make it tasty (and, yes, leave its mark on the crumb).

Take-home message? Sorry about your jam, but be happy your bread has holes in it. It means it’s really good bread!

Top tip: I find the crust quite useful for mopping up the jam when you finish. It has more strength to it than a fast rise bread.

Alternatively: cut it lengthwise, rather than the usual downward cut.

Bakeries and Gluten Intolerance

Bread has been a staple food in many cultures for a really long time, but gluten intolerance has become a significant issue in recent decades. This goes hand-in-hand with fast-rise bread (think the stuff you buy in the supermarket and in many bakeries).

In the early 20th century, new rising agents made it possible for bakeries to make bread in a matter of hours. Fewer workers and fewer hours were needed to create such breads and the change from traditionally fermented breads to ‘fast-rise’ breads happened quickly.

Why? Much cheaper.

Unfortunately, the fast-rise breads do not rely on fermentation at all. Flour basically became a filler and the big players (supermarket breads especially) only needed flour that had an extended shelf-life and the right colour; just flour and lots of it. The flavour and the nutritional profile of the grain became irrelevant and grain-growers were forced to respond by growing grain for its yield and little else. The life inside of the wheat became a hindrance to shelf-life and the flour was treated accordingly. The gluten in fast-rise breads is not broken down, or ‘pre-digested’ by the enzymes naturally occurring in wheat. Wild yeasts are not able to bring out the flavour, lower the GI, or do any of the work that makes sourdough such a healthy food. The ‘gluten’ proteins in such breads are different and more likely to provoke a reaction in the human gut.

supermarket wholemeal bread

Proper sourdough or naturally leavened bread does not rely on the addition of yeast or proving agents, nor other chemical support crew; the basic ingredients are flour, water, salt and time. It takes 36-48 hours for the fermentation process to create such a dough. That’s why, allergenically speaking, most people can eat it.

Coeliacs know to be mindful that wheat flours and other sources of gluten will be loose in the air of any bakery (except gluten-free ones which have strict conditions to guarantee their product), but if you or your children have egg, dairy, soy or gluten intolerances (to name some of the most common), sourdough could work for you.

Unfortunately, there are no sourdough labeling requirements in place in New Zealand. Many bakeries and supermarkets sell breads labelled ‘sourdough’ which are actually just fast-rise breads made from premixes and shaped to look like traditional breads. Once you know real sourdough, you’ll be able to see the difference. Properly fermented food can’t be imitated. Meanwhile, the ingredients list and the fermentation time are dead giveaways, so ask first.

If you want to read more:

https://www.sourdough.co.uk/

https://www.alternet.org/2013/06/gluten-intolerance/

Bread and the Principles of Bread Making, Helen W Atwater (1900) - available online - makes for interesting reading, too.

There are also loads of really interesting podcasts out there about the grain movement, the development of seed banks, and sourdough more generally.

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Supermarket white bread

Supermarket brioche