Bread around the world

Bread is a product made of flour or meal (a more courser grind than flour) that is moistened, kneaded and sometimes fermented. It have been consumed since prehistoric times, since at least 12,000 years, and is eaten all over the world in various forms and using a variety of ingredients.
It is the Egyptians who discovered that fermenting the dough produced a expanded loaf. It was also the Egyptians who developed baking ovens.

The earliest form of bread is Flatbread, still eaten in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Examples of flatbread are Naan and Roti that are eaten in India, Chapati in East Africa and Pita is popular throughout the Middle East. Raised breads, very common in Europe and North America, includes years, for example baguette, rolls and buns.

Baker baking bread in the 13th century. Image: Bruges Public Library

In modern times there have been two mayor improvements in comercial production of bread. The first one is temperature control, considered by some the most important aspect of of the bread-making proces. The second is the Chorleywood bread process, that allows to make soft fluffy bread very quickly. It makes it possible to produce a loaf of bread from flour to packaged in only three and a half hours. And considering that 210 million tons of bakery goods are consumed globally, is seems there is a strong market for bread.

Pan Pepin breasd factory in Puerto Rico. Image: https://newsismybusiness.com/puerto-unveils-facilities/

You can find the source for this recipe by Melissa Griffiths on the Bless this Mess website: https://www.blessthismessplease.com/french-baguette-recipe

Equipment:
Medium mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Lame
Kitchen towel
Baguette pan
Beeswax wrap

Ingredients:

370g cool water.
25g honey.
3g instant yeast.
500g all-purpose flour (all-purpose Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour brand flour).
10g fine sea salt.

Instructions:

Before you start, make sure you wash your hands, the space of work and the equipment is clean.

1) In a medium mixing bowl, add the water and honey to the bowl and stir to combine.

2) Add the yeast, flour, and salt to the bowl and use a wooden spoon to mix well. The dough will be thick, just stir it as well as you can until the flour is incorporated. No need to mix a lot by hand at this point, just get it to come together.

3) Cover the bowl using use a lid, beeswax wrap, or some good cling wrap, and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

4) After 30 or so minutes, stretch and fold the dough. Put your hand between the dough and the bowl on one side and grab the dough, gently pull it up to give it a good stretch. (If the dough starts to break, stop pulling. Your are just stretching the dough as far as it wants to stretch without breaking it.) Then fold it back down into the middle of the bowl. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the process, working your way around the bowl.

I normally think of the bowl as a square and stretch and pull the dough 4 times, once on each side of my square. It’ll take about 15 seconds to do this.

5) Over the next 2-3 hours, every 30 to 45 minutes, do a stretch and fold with the dough. Be sure to cover the dough well after each session. Do around 4 stretch and fold sessions total, though doing more won’t hurt anything.

6) See the baker’s schedule in the post for more information on how and when I do this. I normally make my dough while I’m making dinner and stretch and fold throughout the evening.

7) After you have stretched and folded the dough, cover the dough well and place it in the fridge for the next 12-18 hours.

8) You have some flexibility about how long the dough is in the fridge, so feel free to make the baking schedule work with your schedule. I adjust the next day’s baking depending on when we want to eat the baguettes. If they are for lunch, I’ll get the dough out of the fridge 3 hours before we want to eat lunch. If I want them for dinner, I’ll get the dough out 3 hours before dinner. 

If you don’t have a set time for you want to eat them, you can just do these next steps when you have about a three-hour chunk of time to dedicate to it—it’s not all hands-on time but you’ll need to be able to do the steps as needed.

9) Remove the dough from the fridge after its 12 to 18 hour rest, and remove it from the bowl.

10) Divide the dough into three even pieces.

11) Gently press each piece of dough into a rectangular shape about 1-inch thick. If the dough is very sticky, feel free to lightly flour your surface. Cover the pressed out dough pieces with a clean dish towel and allow to rise for 1 hour.

12) After the dough has rested for an hour at room temperature, it’s time to shape your loaves. Working with one piece of dough, stretch the dough gently so that it makes a rectangle that is roughly 11 inches by 8 inches. Fold one-third of the dough to the middle of the rectangle, fold the other side of the rectangle into the middle of the dough (like you are folding a letter), and then pinch the dough together along the seem to make a log. (See the step-by-step photos in the blog post.)

13) Use both of your hands to gently roll out the dough into a 15-inch long log, tapering the ends just a bit with your hands.

14) Place the prepared dough log into your baguette pan.

15) Repeat with the remaining dough.

16) Cover the dough in the pan with a clean dish towel and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough is light and puffy—it won’t be quite doubled in size.

17) While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 500°F. When you turn the oven on to preheat, add a small dish of water to the oven. I like to use a bread pan that has about 2 inches of water in it.  I put it off to one side of the oven so that my baguette pan can fit next to it. I like to let the oven and water preheat for at least 30 minutes so that it has time to get good and hot.

18) When the bread has finished rising in the baguette pan, use a razor blade or lame to cut 3 diagonal slashes 1/2inch deep diagonally across each loaf OR cut one long 1/2-inch deep slash down the center of each loaf. (I like the center slit personally.)

19) Place the bread in the hot oven, being careful when you open the oven as it is hot and steamy!

20) Close the oven door and reduce the heat to 450°F immediately.

21) Let the baguettes cook until they are deep golden brown, 24-28 minutes. (I like to do 25 minutes on the dot.) They are going to be very golden!

22) Remove the baguettes from the oven and allow to cool 10-15 minutes before serving warm.

In Canada bread is often consumed as breakfast, for example toast with butter, jam or peanut butter. It is popular as a sandwich or as a side dish for soup, salad or pasta.

It can be found in supermarktes (Walmart, Costco, Metro), in bakeries and local markets or it can be made at home. Como variations eaten in Canada are: White bread, Pumpernickel bread, Bagels and Pita bread.

Bannock is a traditional Canadian bread. It was introduced in Canada by Scottish explorers and fur traders during the 18th and 19th century and adopted by First Nation, Native American, and Métis communities.