What's Your Favourite Loaf Of Bread?

[Beef Oven!]

"Waiter, waiter, do you have frogs' legs?"
"Yes sir"
"Be a good chap - hop over the bar and get me a Scotch would you?"

Old but gold!

[Beresford]

...Has anyone heard of the Chorleywood Process? It's the way most commercial sliced bread is made. Not sure about the details, but I personally wouldn't touch any high-volume commercial bread with a barge-pole.

"The so-called Chorleywood Bread Process (CBP), invented in 1961 and now used to make most industrial bread, has turned out to be a culinary and digestive disaster. Traditionally, most bread was fermented (allowed to rise) for many hours, often overnight. The CBP used high-energy mixers and a slew of chemicals to make a very white loaf in double-quick time.

Only if you let dough ferment for long enough can naturally occurring beneficial bacteria work to make the bread more digestible, nutritious and tasty. Most British bread is made too quickly for these bacteria to have a chance. Fermenting dough for six hours as opposed to 30 minutes removes around 80% of a potentially carcinogenic substance called acrylamide found in bread crusts, and long yeast fermentations conserve the highest levels of B vitamins in dough.

In the 1990s a new breed of enzyme-based "improvers" displaced the suspect chemical additives. You won't know they are there because the law says that as "processing aids" they don't need to be declared on the label!"

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/16/recipes.foodanddrink

This method uses double the amount of yeast, and is baked under pressure to make the process faster.

[oddoneout]

Fat Flour bakery in Flookborough (was in Cark) - extremely unpretentious, everything sourdough, open 8-1 every day (sourdough needs feeding every day!).
I went there this morning to stock up on gorgeous Donkel (Dutch for dark), I guess 50% rye, but still very light.

Filberts Bakery in Lancaster is also all sourdough, but the ambience is more self-conscious, like some HIPP concerts. Cakes are better though.

You don't have to be nuts to work there - but it helps?

[Zucchini]

Ciabatta served hot or warm, ripped into chunks ready for butter & marm or beside soups or salad. Tesco large unwrapped is good value, part-baked M & S, Morrison's, Tesco Finest are yummy but Lidl is a catastrophe.

Also Duchy Ancient Grains or other stuff in their range for a bit of a treat (Waitrose).

[Beef Oven!]

Ciabatta served hot or warm, ripped into chunks ready for butter & marm or beside soups or salad. Tesco large unwrapped is good value, part-baked M & S, Morrison's, Tesco Finest are yummy but Lidl is a catastrophe.

Also Duchy Ancient Grains or other stuff in their range for a bit of a treat (Waitrose).

I asked my friend whose parents are both Italian if he ever had ciabatta panini when he visited Italy as a kid, because I never had it once over there in the 1970s and I wondered if it was a regional thing (my mum is from the north east and his parents are from the north west). He thought about it and said he has no recollection of ever having it during the visits to Italy in the school holidays.

I subsequently discovered the reason. Ciabatta was invented in 1980 as an answer to the French baguette!!!

[vinteuil]

... Ciabatta was invented in 1980 as an answer to the French baguette!!!

Yes indeed :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta

[Beef Oven!]

Yes indeed :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta

Ah, 1982. I was close!

[Mal]

Sainsbury's small wholemeal loaf, organic, "in store" baked.

Worthy runners up, that I eat almost as frequently, for variety, all "in store" baked:

Lidl "low GI" rolls
Tesco small wholemeal/wholemeal bap.
Morrison's small wholemeal

Haven't tried ASDA, and M&S need to get their act together. (Their hyper-expensive wholemeal bap might make the runners up list if it wasn't hyper-expensive, their reasonably priced small wholemeal just doesn't cut it IMHO. Though it's "different" and tastes may differ...)

P.S. My blood pressure was too high at my last test, so take Ferney's warning seriously!

[Bryn]

Sainsbury's small wholemeal loaf, organic, "in store" baked.

Worthy runners up, that I eat almost as frequently, for variety, all "in store" baked:

Lidl "low GI" rolls
Tesco small wholemeal/wholemeal bap.
Morrison's small wholemeal

Haven't tried ASDA, and M&S need to get their act together. (Their hyper-expensive wholemeal bap might make the runners up list if it wasn't hyper-expensive, their reasonably priced small wholemeal just doesn't cut it IMHO. Though it's "different" and tastes may differ...)

P.S. My blood pressure was too high at my last test, so take Ferney's warning seriously!

Any of those made without palm oil? Possibly the Sainsbury's but what about the others? Would that there was still a local Iceland store, but that went in the lead-up to the largely cosmetic 'redevelopment' of the town centre here. Still, we did get a Waitrose back again (which can work out cheaper than the other 'main' supermarkets if one shops with care). I'm currently enjoying Vogel Seeded Wholemeal (28% carb., 0.85% salt) which has no palm oil. On offer Waitrose (£1.24 for the 800g loaf, IIRC) earlier this week. Not sure if it still is.

[Beresford]

"Cranks" bread from the larger Waitrose stores makes superb toast.

[Mal]

Any of those made without palm oil? ...

You can Google the ingredients online.

A quick Google indicates Sainsbury's is not made with Palm Oil, they use Rapeseed. Lidl don't say what fat is used, but the low (relative) percentage of saturated fat indicates it may not use Palm, or not much. That said 8.5g of fat per 100g is a lot compared to Sainsbury's 1.5g. Do they use so much fat to reduce the GI? Or to make it it moreish?!

[Dave2002]

P.S. My blood pressure was too high at my last test, so take Ferney's warning seriously!

Exercise can get BP down a bit, and generally seems a good idea. If your BP is very high, then other methods may be needed as well.

Good luck with that.

[cloughie]

You can Google the ingredients online.

A quick Google indicates Sainsbury's is not made with Palm Oil, they use Rapeseed. Lidl don't say what fat is used, but the low (relative) percentage of saturated fat indicates it may not use Palm, or not much. That said 8.5g of fat per 100g is a lot compared to Sainsbury's 1.5g. Do they use so much fat to reduce the GI? Or to make it it moreish?!

I use sunflower oil in my bread making!

[Beef Oven!]

[Don't try this at home]

Corned beef, split tin, Lurpak butter & Branston's Pickle.

It's dangerous - I ate five sandwiches in the end

[Dave2002]

Exercise can get BP down a bit, and generally seems a good idea. If your BP is very high, then other methods may be needed as well.

Good luck with that.

Perhaps we should all be on this diet, anyway - A bit of meat, a lot of veg - the flexitarian diet to feed 10bn http://A bit of meat, a lot of veg -...ealth-46865204

I wonder if we can “save the planet” and if that diet is good for BP. Stop the cows from “burping” - or even existing.