Once upon a time bread was made only from flour, water and salt with a leaven (sourdough) starter or a piece of the previous day's dough. It took a long time because the baker had to wait for the leaven do its work raising and fermenting the dough, but time was plentiful in those days.
Since the Industrial Revolution time has become money, so inevitably bread-making processes have been shortened.
Commercial yeast was introduced in the 19th century, as was roller-milled flour; new varieties of higher-yielding, pest-resistant wheat were bred and 1961 the Chorleywood process was developed and is widely used to produced commercial bread using low-protein wheat in the minimum time with the help of flour improvers, emulsifiers, enzymes, preservatives and other additives, including more salt and a larger proportion of yeast. It produces a cheap, light bread that stays soft for days and doesn't go mouldy for ages.
Some people attribute the growing intolerance to gluten and wheat to these technical innovations.
A handful of artisan bakers around the country, such as those in farmers' markets and small bakeries, still produce good bread using traditional methods and long fermentations, but much of the bread you buy in commercial bakeries, such as those in supermarkets, is from premixes or made elsewhere, frozen and baked on site.
Some even use the same dough recipe to make the different styles of bread.
The smell of freshly baked bread of whatever sort is irresistible. It's the texture and flavour that distinguish good bread from ordinary.
With the price of bread expected to go up by Christmas, it might be time to get the bread-maker out from the back of the cupboard. Be sure to read the instructions - they vary between machines, but make sure they are for New Zealand conditions.
By making your own bread you know what goes into it. It won't stay soft as long as commercial bread, but it will be more delicious than most.
With a bit of experimenting you can translate most bread recipes to a machine, and even use a sourdough starter. If you want to use a sponge process (two long fermentations) start the first the night before on the dough cycle, and the following day add the rest of the ingredients and run the machine again - either on the dough cycle and shape the bread yourself, or on one of the baking cycles.
Know your loaf:
A light, rich, yeasted cake/bread made with a high proportion of egg and butter.
Brioche can be savoury (good with a sausage baked in the centre) or sweet with flavourings such as saffron, chocolate, fruit or custard.
There's a legend that when the ill-fated French queen Marie Antoinette was told the people of Paris were rioting because they had no bread, she said let them eat cake (brioche).
It's good toasted and makes the base of a rich bread-and-butter pudding.
A fashionable style of bread, a flattish long floury white loaf made from a wet dough with a little olive oil. It's said to be reminiscent of the sole of a sloppy slipper and widely thought to be Italian in origin, though some say it was invented in Britain in the 1980s.
Good ciabatta has large holes which soak up flavourings such as sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil or olive pastes or butter.
Ciabatta is good either very fresh or a couple of days old, toasted and made into bruschetta.
A light crescent-shaped pastry made with a yeasted dough rolled with fat like a puff pastry. Only worth the huge number of calories and cholesterol if they are made with butter, and are light, crisp and freshly cooked.
They are said to have been invented in the 17th century by a Viennese baker after the defeat of the besieging Turkish army, whose flags bore a crescent, but were probably actually developed in 19th century Paris.
Danish pastries are made from a similar enriched dough but baked in different shapes, often with fruit or custard fillings.
Any sort of bread rolled, patted or otherwise shaped into a flat disc or oval before being baked or cooked on a griddle.
Some, like Indian naan or Italian pizza are yeasted; others are unleavened, like Mexican tortilla, Sicilian sheet music bread, Indian chapatti, Greek or Turkish pitta, or Afghanistani lavash.
The Middle East is a treasure trove of flatbreads, often made with only flour, water and salt. Different techniques produce different styles.
Some can be used as wraps; those with pockets like pitta can be filled; crisp or thick ones can be used to scoop up food instead of cutlery or fingers. They are ideal for topping with a sprinkle of something - olive oil and flaky salt or oregano, zaatar (a Middle Eastern spice mix of thyme, sumac and sesame), or tomato paste, cheese and other toppings as with pizza.
Another fashionable bread in recent times, but with an ancient history. Also known as fougasse in the south of France, it is said to have originated in ancient Rome as a hearth bread.
These days it's a flattish loaf, often dimpled and drizzled with olive oil like a naked pizza, or it can be flavoured with things like onions, tomatoes, sage or honey.
If it's called fougasse, it may have slits.
The French traditionally make all manner of breads, but this catch-all term has come generally to mean a long stick of white bread, often without the gum-cutting crust and sweet airy crumb of a real French baguette.
Often supermarket French sticks are ordinary white bread made into a long shape.
Panettone
A rich Italian yeasted cake traditionally made at Christmas. Like a brioche, it's made with lots of eggs and butter, and often filled with fruit, chocolate or other goodies. After a few days, when they are dry, they are delicious sliced and toasted and served with fruit and creme anglaise, or dipped into a sweet dessert wine or port.
Comes in various styles depending on the proportion of rye flour. It varies from light, slightly nutty breads, to 100% rye which is dark, heavy and solid.
Soda bread
Associated with Ireland, soda breads are raised with baking soda instead of yeast and are similar to a large scone. They are quick to make but crumbly and difficult to slice.
Sourdough
Once, before the introduction of commercial yeast, all bread was sourdough.
A piece of uncooked dough was kept from each day's batch and used in the next.
These days part of a starter, either from wild yeast or started with commercial yeast, is used in each batch. The starter is refreshed and fed daily with fresh flour and water. A real sourdough takes a long time to rise and ferment, but this is what gives it its characteristic flavour and texture. Some are helped along with a little extra yeast.
Sourdough can be white, rye, wholemeal or multigrain.
The fashionable form of a toasted sandwich, "panini" means "little breads".
This plain, soft white bread is found in trendy cafes squashed around numerous fillings such as roasted vegetables, salads, meats and cheeses with the de rigeur diagonal stripes of the char-grill decorating its pasty white surface.
Pitta
A Middle Eastern flat bread that puffs when it is baked, forming a pouch, making it ideal for stuffing or a sandwich. It can also be crisped and broken, and used in fattoush, a salad made of tomatoes, olives, cucumber, onion and other vegetables, with a simple oil and vinegar dressing.
Pizza
Known everywhere now, but originally a flatbread from Naples (and elsewhere around the Mediterranean and Middle East) made with a little olive oil and topped with olives, anchovies, softened onions or minced meat. Tomatoes, now essential, were introduced from the Americas by way of Spain in the 16th or 17th century.
Pumpernickel
A German whole-grain rye bread, moist, dense and dark, sold thinly sliced in packets. It is good cut in squares for nibbles, topped with things like sausage, cheese, salmon or gherkin.
White flour has the bran and germ, which contain all sorts of vitamins and minerals, removed but wholemeal flour contains both, usually added back if it is roller-milled. However, stone-ground wholemeal flour is simply the whole grain ground and has a different texture from the usual roller-milled wholemeal flour.
Multigrain or granary bread has a mix of grains - wheat, rye, malted, and maybe barley or other grains, such as spelt and kamut, which are early forms of wheat, and often include cracked whole grains and sometimes seeds such as sunflower or sesame. They usually have good texture and flavour.
Use your loaf
With bread becoming more expensive it makes sense not to throw it away.
Many cuisines have numerous flavoursome ways of using up stale bread.
Toasting it is the simplest - there are homely dishes like cheese or eggs or mince on toast, toasty pies, and fashionable ones like crostini with all sorts of toppings. One of the best is that wonderful Italian snack, bruschetta - toast rubbed with a cut clove of garlic, sprinkled with flaky salt and drizzled with a fresh extra virgin olive oil. The Spanish version pa amb tomaquet is rubbed with garlic and oil and a cut ripe tomato so the juice and pulp remain on the bread.
It's delicious with good ham. Ciabatta with its holey texture that soaks up the flavours is the best bread to use for bruschetta.
Croutons are another version of toast that gives crunch to soups, stews and salads.
They are easy to make. Cut slices of bread into cubes (discard crusts if you like but it's not strictly necessary) and bake at 180degC for 10-12 minutes until crisp and lightly browned.
To make garlic croutons, rub the bread with a cut clove of garlic before cutting into cubes. You can also toss the cubes in oil before baking if you like.
Breadcrumbs are handy to keep in a jar in the fridge. Process stale bread and dry the resulting crumbs in the oven. They are useful for crumbing fish, meat or vegetables, mixing into meatballs, and for thickening soups, stews or sauces instead of flour.
Sprinkle them on top of gratins with grated cheese and brown under the grill for a crunchy topping.
Brown bread ice cream is an old, but very good recipe using breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle brown breadcrumbs and brown sugar on an oven tray and cook in a hot oven until the sugar has caramelised. When cool, crush it and use it in a home-made vanilla ice cream. It's also good on bread-and-butter pudding.
Italian bread and tomato soup
Break up bread into small pieces and soak in hot stock. Soften onion in oil with lots of garlic and a pinch of sugar.
Add either chopped fresh tomatoes which you have skinned, or a tin of peeled tomatoes in juice, a little tomato paste if you like, and the bread and stock. You may want to add water or more stock. Cook for 20-40 minutes, check salt and stir in a good grinding of black pepper. Add fresh basil, or if it's out of season, chopped parsley or marjoram.
Serve with freshly grated Parmesan if you like.
Bread salads
Around the Mediterranean you'll find bread salads - fattoush, made with crisped pitta bread in the Middle East, and panzanella in Italy are perhaps the best known. For an Italian version, tear the bread into pieces, sprinkle it with water so it is soft but not soggy, and put it at the bottom of the salad bowl. On top, add chopped ripe tomatoes, cucumber, chopped celery, crushed garlic, a small red onion sliced thinly, fresh basil or rocket leaves or whatever else you like. In a jar shake 1 /4 cup extra virgin olive oil with 1 1 /2 Tbsp of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.
Drizzle some of this over the salad and toss well so everything is coated. Leave to develop flavour for half an hour or so before serving.
Bread puddings
In the days when puddings were part of the family meal, bread-and-butter pudding was a favourite comfort food. It can be as simple or as special as you want, depending on what you use.
Bread-and-butter pudding
Butter slices of bread or brioche, place in a buttered oven-proof dish, and layer with raisins or candied peel or marmalade.
Whisk three or four eggs with some milk, cream if you like, sugar and vanilla extract and pour over the bread. Bake for 40 or 50 minutes. If you like, sprinkle the top with brown sugar and brown under the grill.
You can vary the flavours using nutmeg, soaking the bread or raisins in brandy, whisky or liqueur, or adding other fruit or nuts.
Summer pudding
One of the most delicious puddings, but only to be made when strawberries, raspberries and black and red currants are in season - it's not so good with frozen fruit and it needs a good firm bread, too. Put the fruit in a pan with sugar but without water and heat for three or four minutes until the juice begins to run. Some people like to add gelatine to the fruit as a precaution. Slice bread, remove the crusts and line a basin with it, making sure the pieces fit well. Tip in the fruit and as much juice as will fit, put on a neatly-fitting bread top, cover with plastic film and put in the fridge with a weight on top for several hours or overnight.
When ready to serve, turn it out carefully into a shallow dish, top with remaining fruit or juice, and serve with cream, mascarpone or creme fraiche.
