Bread

Brown bread from factories has got its colour from rye as well (and bruised grain)

Not here, sadly. I am talking the most basic Diner-style brown bread, made by Wonder, or some other generic company.

Haha! Bread balls! I used to make Wonder bread into little versions of "the host" and play church (by myself; just another excuse to eat bread)! I pretty much love any kind of bread, especially soft bread. I don't
really appreciate "chunks" or seeds in my bread though!
You poor thing! I could NEVER do Atkins! (I'll never be thin if it means giving up bread) Good luck!

Another bread fanatic here but in that I like it, and not that I have specific and exclusionary taste.

My favorite type of bread is... fresh bread. And Brazil is one of those rare places where fresh bread is a cultural staple, I do not remember many places in Brazil where I did not live within walking distance of fresh bread from the padarias (neighbourhood bakeries, that are as prevalent as American convenience stores and have a similar mini-market function).

In Brazil that meant a white roll called pãozinho (little bread/loaf) or pão de sal (salt bread).



It's made several times during the day and Brazilians do not accept anything but fresh (i.e. right out of the oven or at maximum an hour or two old). It's just a very light airy white bread, nothin' special except that it's always fresh. The outside is usually* hard and crunchy while the inside is as soft as white bread gets.

*In the picture you can see one of the ones made the right way, with a nice crust. Some padeiros make it all soft, and I'm pretty sure they will not be allowed in heaven because of this.

But my favorite bread of all, is Brazilian pão de queijo (cheese bread/ cheese rolls).



They aren't cheesy by any conceivable American standard of cheesy, and only have a faint cheese taste, really good stuff. I can't describe it but you can get a simple mix for it and try it yourself.

In America my favorite bread is the bagel, damn good stuff and it wasn't available in Brazil. I also like sour dough and French bread (in Brazil, the pãozinho is called "pão francês" (French bread) but the only similarity is the elongated shape, as the taste is wholly dissimilar.

Hell, before I make this about a comprehensive list of my favorite breads (oh oh oh, English muffins!) I had better answer the question:

For sliced "sandwich bread" I like either white, or an airy whole grain brown (Sarah Lee has some really nicely textured brown breads, and in the US I usually go for those or the honey one).

I can't stand the multi-grain "brick bread" (my term). I mean, health is nice and all but in food edible should take priority. I grew up eating brown bread (wasn't allowed the white) but some of the stuff here is the states is an affront to bread (or a throwback to the days when bread wasn't yet perfected, depending on how you look at it).

That kind of stuff gives brown bread a bad name by trying to imitate cardboard.

Anywho, the best bread I ever had was some I used to help make on a farm. It was brown bread, but very fluffy (with natural yeasts and brown sugar and honey) and we used to bake it in a wood oven. That fresh bread was some of the best food I ever had period, not just the best bread. I'd slap some butter on it and take off into the forest.

Good times...

I sense a new thread coming on...bread as science and experience....a mix of the known and the intutiative.

I can see why... after all I named two different breads my favorite and they are now jousting in my head for the lofty position.

It's almost time to wake up, I think I'll have a bagel.

If we had bakeries with fresh, self-made bread all over the place here, I wouldnt need to be "specific and exclusionary" in my preferences either ... <sighs>

There was one bakery I used to walk past when I returned home in the early morning ... if you asked, they would sell you one of those freshly-baked breads that they were packing into vans and driving off to be delivered to the shops around town. Nothing better than warm, fresh, bread at 5 in the morning after too late a night, tearing off the crunchy crust and then the soft, white bread while trodding off in the dawn-light ...

The city forced them to stop doing that, was imposing heft fines on 'em for violating, I dunno, shop-opening hours laws or something. <sighs again>

(thanks for the language correction btw)

Thing is, I'm a bread nut and would eat the stuff stale.

Heck, I used to do it all the time, I'd take a stale pãozinho, butter it and fry it to soften it up.

What I was getting at is that I'm pretty much a bread whore, I like nearly everything ('cept the US multi-grain cardboard bread).

Hey, does bananna bread count for this discussion? That is some heavenly stuff.



Man that really takes me back! I used to come home from partying at around 4-6 AM every night and the padeiro would toss out a paper bag of piping hot bread if I yelled at the window (he opened at 5:30).

Good stuff, and great for a waning buzz.

What about croissants, eh? I still remember when I was six or something (wait ... summer of 1977 ... five, I was! Must be one of my earliest memories ...) -- we went on holidays to Annecy, in France, a long all-night train ride .. arrived early in the goddamn morning, chilly and light outside, wiping sleep from my little eyes and feeling cranky ... and our mother took us to this place across from the station, a true French cafe, and there were big cups of hot cocoa, and in my memory a huge basket full of fresh croissants ... delicious!

Ah ... <smiles wistfully>

Meanwhile tho, what they sell here as "croissants" is a disgrace. Most of it tastes like cardboard, chumpy and flavourless and rubbery. Except for the ones at the train station, which are crusty and crunchy to the point of sometimes being more like, I dunno, puff pastry. The V&D ones, again, are a little less bad - but the only proper ones in town here are at Jacqmotte. And if I'm late at my work, they're already gone! But if I'm in time, they know my order ... :wink:

Do croissants count? Love 'em to pieces!

Banana -Walnut (or Pecan) bread
Yes, my own recipe.

2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
7 oz. flour
6 oz. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5 oz. soft butter
1 cup toasted walnut or pecan pieces

Puree bananas and sour cream until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla. Mix together dry ingredients. Mix in butter and half of wet mixture. Add remaining wet mixture in two batches and mix for a couple of minutes to develop structure. Fold in walnuts. Bake in an 8-cup loaf pan for about an hour at 350 until well browned and a tester comes out clean. Check after fifty minutes, and then keep cooking if not done. If it seems to be overbrowning, reduce heat to 300.

Try this out. Puff pastry and croissants will be my next lesson.

Ooh, thanks for the recipe, cav. Like I would -ever- make my own crossaints

Ahhh emm.

You've got your White bread, Italian Bread, French bread, Sourdough bread, Wheat bread, Potato bread, Multigrain bread, Rye bread, Cinnamon-Raisin bread, Focaccia bread, Enriched bread.

There's also nasty brand name month old on the shelf doesn't taste like bread bread.

(Is working in a bakery.)

(I should go do something useful... Or play Zelda)

I eat sliced multi-grain or crusty white. I love them both.

What Craven is calling pãozinho looks like what they called brotchen in Germany. It's the best, but you better bring your teeth.

Sourdough is great, maybe with butter. Keep in mind that most nationalities eat the bread. In the us, we eat sandwiches, and as pess said, the white bread takes nothing away from the contents. I would not eat the stuff by itself unless very hungry, though.