Bread Process Essay

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The History and Process of Making Bread Bread has been a staple in our daily lives for thousands of years. It has sustained us in poverty and war, and has brought people together all across the globe. Bread is nutritional, as well as comforting, and when baking it at home, the rewards, gratification, and intoxicating aroma are unsurpassed. The history of bread is a long one. Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East. It is considered to be the last part of the Stone Age. The first bread was most likely cooked versions of grain-paste, made from roasted and ground cereal grains and water, and may have been discovered accidentally by mixing water and grain…show more content…
Yeast spores occur everywhere including the surface of grains, so any dough left to rest will become naturally leavened. Instead of waiting for it to become leavened naturally, it was found that you could save a piece of dough from one batch of bread and put into the next day’s dough, which is called a sponge. This is how sourdough was originated, and is still a process that is used today. In Egypt, probably around 1000 BC, a new strain of wheat was developed that allowed for a refined white bread. This was the first real modern bread. Because of this, up to 30 varieties of bread became popular in ancient Egypt at that time. The Greeks learned the art of making bread from the Egyptians. From this, the practice of making bread spread across the rest of Europe. Through much of history, a person’s social status could be judged by the color of bread they ate. The darker the bread, the lower class you were. This was because white flours were more expensive. It was much harder and more time consuming for the millers to produce. Today that isn’t the case. Darker breads are now more expensive because of their flavor, and nutritional…show more content…
Begin to roll the dough with a rolling pin into a 10-in. x 8-in. rectangle. Starting closest to you, roll the dough up with your fingers about an inch at a time, and pinch along seam to seal. Repeat process until you have a long loaf. Fold in each end, and again pinch to seal. Place the loaf on a greased cookie sheet diagonally. I like to sprinkle the cookie sheet with corn meal as well. It gives the bread a little added flavor. Repeat process with your other piece of dough. Next take a light piece of cloth and cover. Allow to rise once again until doubled in size. After dough has doubled, take a very sharp knife and cut about five or six slits diagonally into the dough. Brush the loaves with olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt, or sea salt. Place in your 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning your cookie sheet after first 15 minutes, so bread browns evenly. Take bread out and allow it to cool on wire rack. Enjoy! Even though bread baking seems like a lengthy process, it’s well worth your effort. It’s not as though you have to continually watch it, so you can still do other things around the house in the meantime. Your family will thank you for it, and your home will smell wonderful. Works Cited Google: URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bread Google: URL http://breadinfo.com/history.shtml Jones, Judith & Evan “The Book of Bread” Harper & Row, Publishers New

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