Now most of us are not surprised to learn that there is a lot of sugar in fizzy drinks, or sweets, but when you find that breakfast cereals, low-fat yoghurt, pasta sauces and soups all have added sugar in them you begin to wonder. Even our staple food - bread - has a lot of added sugar. One average slice of shop-bought processed bread can contain as much as 3g (0.1oz) of sugar. This means that a slice of toast for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch will mean a woman would have had a quarter of her recommended daily intake for added sugar from the bread alone!
So why not bake your own bread? that's supposed to be healthy - isn't it?
Well, yes, you can, but let's look at the ingredients of a typical recipe for a 2lb / 1kg basic white loaf:
Ingredient | Quantity |
---|---|
Water |
360ml
|
Skimmed milk powder |
4 tbsp / 55g
|
Sunflower Oil |
4 tbsp / 30ml
|
Sugar |
3 tbsp / 42g
|
Salt |
2 tsp / 9mg
|
Strong white bread flour |
570g
|
Fast Action Dried yeast |
1x 5g sachet
|
Let's assume you can get 12 slices from the loaf. Then, if you look at a nutrient breakdown of these ingredients the table looks like this:
Calories | Carbs | Fat | Protein | Sodium | Sugar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total:
|
2771
|
455
|
62
|
98
|
316
|
72
|
Per Serving:
|
231
|
38
|
5
|
8
|
26
|
6
|
So here we have a basic, home-made loaf with a whopping 231 calories and 6g of sugar in every slice! Ok, you could maybe cut thinner slices, but when it's fresh, the loaf can be hard to cut (and equally hard to resist!) so I've erred on the side of caution.
However, in our household, we've been using our own basic bread loaf recipe. We use ordinary bread-making ingredients and it works. Every time. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and you can add Omega seeds to it, or herbs to flavour it and I have to say it's been the standard loaf in our house with two or three loaves baked per week for almost three years.
First the ingredients:
Ingredient | Quantity |
---|---|
Water (tepid) |
360ml
|
Olive Oil |
1 tbsp / 30ml
|
Salt |
1 tsp / 5mg
|
Strong white bread flour |
570g
|
Fast Action Dried yeast |
1x 5g sachet
|
You see? No milk powder, less oil, less salt - and no added sugar! (you don't need extra sugar to activate fast-action dried yeast - there's enough in the bread flour to do the job)
Now the method. You may need to vary this for your Breadmaker. For mine I simply add the ingredients to the baking pan in the order listed. If I want to add Omega seeds or herbs, I add these on top of the flour. Finally I sprinkle the contents of the yeast sachet evenly on top of the flour and put the pan in the breadmaker. I then bake the bread using the 'Sandwich' setting on my breadmaker which I find gives a better constituency and texture.
Once again, let's assume 12 slices from the loaf. The nutrient breakdown now looks like this:
Calories | Carbs | Fat | Protein | Sodium | Sugar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total:
|
1827
|
342
|
22
|
69
|
5
|
7
|
Per Serving:
|
152
|
29
|
2
|
6
|
0
|
< 1
|
So you see, by cutting out the sugar and adjusting the other ingredients, I have a loaf that is
- healthier than shop-bought bread
- has better texture and taste than shop-bought bread
- is considerably better-tasting than the original breadmaker recipe
- Has considerably less sugar than the original bread recipe and a lower amount than shop-bought bread
And in the great tradition of cooks everywhere, here is one I made earlier
(this one has Omega seeds in the loaf)
(this one has Omega seeds in the loaf)
I hope you try this bread and like it. Let me know how you get on and share with me any ideas you have for other reduced-sugar breads.
Your article is very helpful for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks this is amazing!! Been looking for a recipe like this. Was so shocked how much sugar or butter bread machine recipes asked for! Many blessings to you.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to try this. Thank you!
ReplyDelete