Breads Around The World
The making of bread
Baking bread is a lot easier than it seems. Bread baking is its own world, different from baking cookies and cakes. Its unique blend of ingredients, flour, yeast, water, salt, and, most importantly, time.
Kneading is the process of forming the dough into a smooth, elastic ball. Gluten strands are formed when flour is mixed with liquid.
Kneading develops the gluten by making it stronger and more elastic for better volume. Kneading can be done by hand or by a stand mixer, or bread machine.
Bread comes in many forms, they can contain leavening or not. Bread can be grilled, baked, boiled, and fried. They can be loaf-shaped, flat, square, round, long, and shaped like a wreath. They all have some sort of grain or flour in their ingredients.
Pieces of bread are consumed with every meal of the day, not to mention for snacks.
In breakfast, we may consider Bagels, Croissants, or Muffins. Lunches may contain sandwiches made with Ciabatta, Pita, or Challah. For our dinner, we commonly see baskets containing Rolls, Bread Sticks, Focaccia, or Naan.
Bread can be consumed in the form of snacks such as pretzels and it may be a slice of fruit bread.
White Bread
The white bread is a timeless favorite. It’s usually the go-to for all sorts of sandwiches and toasts.
- The best part about white bread is its taste, affordability, and accessibility.
- It typically tastes good and is often the bread featured at fast-food restaurants and bakeries.
- It is also very low in fiber. As a result, white bread is likely to cause weight increase without the added benefit of nutrition.
Whole Wheat Bread
Whole wheat bread or brown bread is one of the types of bread that is easy to identify.
- Wheat bread maintains most of its nutritional integrity during the processing so that the majority of vitamins and minerals stay by the end.
- It is also loaded with fiber, which is associated with weight loss and a healthy digestive system.
- Wheat bread also can help lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Multigrain Bread
Multigrain Bread is packed with good for you whole grains, seeds, and whole wheat with just a touch of sweetness.
Multigrain bread is any type of bread made with more than one type of grain. Wheat is one type of grain. Multigrain bread often also includes a topping of pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, or oats.
French Baguette
A traditional French baguette is made of flour, water, yeast, and salt. These four simple ingredients produce a beautiful, flavorful, crusty baguette. French bread can be served with any meal. Ideal for sandwiches, perfect for dips, and excellent with soups, French baguettes are an artisan bread masterpiece.
Bagel
A bagel is a soft chewy piece of bread with a hole in the middle just like a doughnut. Its taste is increased by adding some cream cheese or strawberry jam. The bagel is a perfect meal for breakfast.
Bagel comes in a number of delicious flavors. There are so many varieties of bagels that there is one to satisfy everyone’s taste. These can be savory or sweet, soft or crunchy. Even just a plain bagel can be scrumptious with fillings such as cream cheese, smoked salmon, and avocado spread.
Challah
Challah is a braided bread that is so delicious and easy to prepare.
Made with honey and eggs, this slightly sweet bread is braided and brushed with an egg wash before being baked until the perfect golden brown color.
Challah bread is delicious on its own, and it’s even more when paired with honey or cinnamon butter.
It can be served alongside scrambled or even poached eggs. It’s also a great bread to use to make homemade bread pudding or French toast.
Ciabatta
Ciabatta bread is originally from Italy. It is a flat, elongated bread with a light texture. It is a very simple bread, made up of a very high quantity of water. It produces a very large crumb. And is considered an old-traditional Italian bread. Each ciabatta presents a unique look just a bit different from the next.
This bread is soft, incredibly open, and light in hand. Ciabatta is meant to be used for sandwiches.
Focaccia
Focaccia is an oven-baked Italian bread that is usually related to Italian flatbread. It’s a dimpled dough packed with olive oil and various seasonings and a choice of toppings.
Focaccia is most commonly compared to pizza dough. They are both flat, oven-baked bread that often includes different toppings. One of the main differences between the two is the rise time.
A traditional focaccia bread bakes up crisp on the outside and is warm and soft on the inside. With endless topping options, you can easily make this focaccia recipe your own by simply changing the choice of topping or keeping it simple. Perfect for serving with soups and stews, or even for making into sandwiches.
Bread Sticks
Breadsticks are usually pencil-sized sticks of crisp, dry baked bread.
There are a variety of breadsticks which are enjoyed with soups, dips and as it is.
- Garlic Butter topping
- Cheesy Breadsticks
- Cinnamon Sugar Breadsticks
- Gluten-free breadsticks
- Vegan breadsticks
Sourdough Bread
A sourdough is a fermented mix of flour and water containing wild yeast and bacteria.
Sourdough is known for its characteristic tangy flavor, chewy texture and crisp, crackly crust.
Pita Bread
Pita bread is a flatbread popular in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines. It can be formed with or without a pocket. Pita bread is a leaner dough that is thinner and usually consists of basic ingredients such as flour, water, yeast, salt, and olive oil. To make a pita bread recipe, you also need a very hot oven in order to cook it with a pocket in the pita. Pita can be stuffed with falafel, sandwich with fried eggplant, served with hummus, shawarma sandwiches.
Naan
Naan is a flatbread usually cooked in a Tandoor, a hot clay oven, which gives it gentle puffiness and a hint of smoke. Naan is usually made with an egg and yogurt base that thickens and gives it a different texture when cooking.
There are also many varieties of naan, such as kulcha, which is stuffed with a filling of nuts and raisins, potatoes, or onions, garlic naan, topped with butter, and crushed garlic.
Traditionally, naan is served hot from the oven, slightly charred, brushed with clarified butter, and is usually eaten with a variety of meals.
