The Ingredients We Use In Making Our Bread

People often ask about the ingredients that we use in making our sliced pans, what they are and why they’re all needed?

All bread is made from four main ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water. In the case of the sliced pan, there are also some other ingredients added to make sure your bread tastes the way you want it to, and keeps fresh for a few days. If you’re eating a wrapped sliced pan, you can read all about the ingredients on the wrapping. There are no secrets!

Flour

Flour is the main ingredient in most breads. When water is added to the flour and its mixed or kneaded, the proteins in the flour develop into gluten to give dough `stretch`. The gluten holds the carbon dioxide that is produced by the yeast during the fermentation step, and allows the bread to rise.

Flour contains starch, and the natural enzymes that are present in the flour, along with the yeast, convert the starch into glucose, which is a type of sugar (you’ll find it under “Sugars” on the Nutrition Information panel on the bread wrapper). This produces the flavour during baking, and also turns the bread crust golden.

One of the most commonly heard false claims that is made about bread is that the flour in it has been bleached. This is false. All flour is unbleached in Europe and has been for the past 20 years. The European Union publishes a list of the chemicals that are considered safe and that are allowed in food. Bleaches are not on the list, so flour, or any other food with bleach in it, can’t be sold by any country in the European Union, including Ireland.

White flour is often fortified, in other words it has vitamins added back in after milling. These vitamins are present in the part of the flour (the bran) that is removed to make both white and brown flour (they are still present in wholemeal flour). Sometimes Calcium is added too, as it is good for bone health. The fortification of flours (except wholemeal and some self-raising varieties) with calcium began in the early years of World War 2, in anticipation of a reduced supply of dairy products, and its addition continues today. You might see it listed as Wheatflour (Wheat, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Thiamin, Niacin).

Small amounts of soya flour are sometimes added (often referred to as a bread improver). This type of flour gives support and structure to the loaf during baking and prevents it from collapsing. It also gives some of the flavour that we expect from our sliced pan.

A word about Gluten

Gluten isn’t an ingredient as such but it develops during fermentation in all breads. Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat (which is what white & brown bread is made from), rye, barley and some other grains. Gluten helps foods maintain their shape, acting as a glue that holds food together.

Yeast

In fermentation, the yeast produces carbon dioxide, which enables the dough to rise. Kneading helps to make the bubbles more uniform, so the type of high-speed mixing or kneading that you find in big bakeries that make the sliced pan, means that the bubbles of carbon dioxide are very small and uniform. Yeast also helps to give bread its characteristic flavour and aroma.

Salt

Salt is another essential ingredient in bread and is used in very small amounts to give bread flavour. It also helps to strengthen the gluten and make the dough more elastic, and it helps to control the speed of fermentation to produce bread of good volume and texture.

Sometimes additional enzymes may be added to bread dough to supplement the enzymes naturally present in the flour. These natural biological proteins work by breaking down starch and help to speed the bread making process along. Enzymes are called “biological catalysts”. They kick-start the process but don’t get involved directly in it. They are destroyed by the heat during baking and aren’t present in the final loaf.

Other ingredients that may be used in the bread making process include small amounts of vegetable oil help keep the bread soft over its life. Vegetable oil extracts are also used as emulsifiers to give dough stability in addition to improving loaf volume and in maintaining softness. The vegetable oil extracts might be listed in the ingredients as Emulsifiers either by their name or using their E number. If you ever make Focaccia bread yourself, then you’ll probably add olive oil for the same reason.

Ascorbic Acid is another flour treatment agent, and it’s more commonly known as Vitamin C, which is used to strengthen the dough and helps with the volume, crumb structure and softness of the bread. Acetic acid (vinegar) is sometimes used as a preservative to ensure the freshness of the product and sometimes calcium propionate is used in the summer to prevent mould growth.

And finally, what IS NOT in your bread? Added sugar, that’s what! The good news is that there is no added sugar in your sliced white bread. That’s right, none, zero, zilch, nada!

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