Overview
bread
Quick Reference
Baked dough made from cereal flour, usually wheat, although rye, barley, and other cereals are also used. Normally leavened by fermentation of the dough with yeast, or addition of sodium bicarbonate.
Wholemeal bread is baked with 100% extraction flour, i.e. containing the whole of the cereal grain. White bread is made from 72% extraction flour. Brown bread is made with flour of extraction rate intermediate between that of white bread and wholemeal. A loaf may not legally be described as brown unless it contains at least 0.6% fibre on a dry weight basis. Black bread is a coarse wholemeal wheat or rye bread leavened with sourdough.
The white loaf in the UK has added iron, vitamin B1, niacin and folic acid, but not to the level of wholemeal bread, and white but not wholemeal is enriched with calcium. In some countries riboflavin but not calcium is added.
There is a wide variety of different types of bread, with loaves baked in different shapes, or with various additions to the dough. See also Chorleywood bread process; flour, extraction rate; quickbreads.
Subjects: Society and culture — Cookery, Food, and Drink
