The color of the bread crumb


The color of the bread crumb
When you go to buy bread, at your baker's, at the time of the choice, if you hesitate of course, you will undoubtedly be very sensitive to the color of the crust, and you will be right.

The color of the crust, from golden, to sometimes very dark, deep brown almost black, depending on the maturity of the baking and the flours used, is an excellent indicator of the future taste of the bread, because it concentrates alone 80% of what makes this taste.

The crumb comes a little later, but its color is also an excellent indicator of the work of the baker, here are some explanations on this color.
18 K 4.6/5 (19 reviews)
Grade this page:
Keywords for this post:BreadCrustCrumbColoringTasteQualityCream
Last modified on: April 30th 2022
For this post: Comment Follow Send to a friend
The color of the bread crumb
I have already told you several times (it is a subject that is very dear to me), bread is: flour, water, salt and a drop of baker's yeast or sourdough, and that's all!

To make bread, the baker uses a baker's flour, which seems white at first glance but which in fact contains a small part of the wheat bran. The T is then 55 or 65.
This is what differentiates bakery flours from pastry flours, which are purer, whiter, T45.

Once these ingredients are mixed, the baker starts the kneading, more or less long, more or less fast, to make the bread dough.
If he wants to obtain the whitest bread possible, he will knead for a long time and especially fast, we call it intensive kneading, so during this kneading, air will be incorporated into the dough, which will make it whiten.

mie blanche



The problem is that this way of doing things is to the detriment of the taste of the bread, the more it is "white" the less it tastes, the archetype of this kind of bread is the industrial sandwich bread, certainly very soft, but completely bland and moreover stuffed with all kinds of vile additives, which make that by reading the list of ingredients, one wonders if it is really still bread.

pain de mie industriel



On the other hand, if the baker kneads a little and at low speed, the crumb will not be white, it will be a little bit "creamy" or light grey, which is a very good thing because it will have much more taste.
And if he combines this short kneading with a long, or even very long rest (24 hours is not a problem) of the dough, he could offer you an excellent bread.

mie crème



All this to tell you that a bread with a white crumb, tragic heritage of the 70's and industrialization in France, where bakers switched to white bread that their customers asked them (often for bad memories of black bread during the war), a bread with a white crumb is not a guarantee of quality, on the contrary, the more the crumb is white the less your bread has taste, in general.

On the contrary, the more the crumb is white, the less taste your bread has, in general. On the other hand, breads with a "cream" or "beige" crumb, sometimes almost yellow, are a guarantee of quality and the assurance, almost for sure, to have a bread with a crumb full of taste, which will allow you, among other things, to "saucer" perfectly.

By the way, this word "saucer", so classic for us French, makes our English speaking friends laugh once they understand what it means: You French are capable of inventing words just for a small gesture of greed!
Yes, indeed...

To sum up: The color of the crumb is a good indicator of its future taste, the whiter it is the more neutral (or bland) it is, the more "creamy" or "kissy" it is, the result of a slow and short kneading, the more taste it has.





Lasts posts
Add a bay leaf
Add a bay leaf
Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...
July 31th 20255355
Parsley stems
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?
July 28th 2025787 13
A drizzle of olive oil
A drizzle of olive oil
Often in a recipe, you have to "baste" vegetables, for example, before sending them to the oven. What the author means by this is that you need to put oil on top of the vegetables to cook them in the oven. Typically, we just quickly drizzle oil over the vegetables, hoping not to miss any, but...
July 13th 20251,1635
Always secure your cutting board
Always secure your cutting board
When using a cutting board, it's very important that it's stable and doesn't move while you're cutting, for safety's sake. Boards have a natural tendency to slide on the work surface, but here are 2 ways to block them effectively.
July 1st 20251,1875
Cherry clafoutis, with or without pits?
Cherry clafoutis, with or without pits?
When it comes to cherry clafoutis recipes, there's often a camp of those who argue that you absolutely have to leave the stones in because it tastes better, and the other camp (myself included) who prefer cherries without stones, which makes a much more pleasant clafoutis to eat. But is it true...
June 29th 20251,0745

Other pages you may also like
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7th 2017129 K 14.1
Kitchen ovens
Kitchen ovens
You certainly have one in your kitchen, an oven, the essential tool for all kinds of cooking, whether in the kitchen of course, but also in pastry, bakery, pizza, and many others. Here is some information on its structure and operation.
May 16th 202030 K4.4
Parsley stems
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?
July 28th 2025787 13
The beautiful story of the croissants
The beautiful story of the croissants
As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...
October 10th 201816 K5
The so-called "nervous" meats
The so-called "nervous" meats
You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...
April 16th 202132 K4.5
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing

Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page