The blog of cooking-ez.com

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.
6,796 4 3.8
Grade this page:

Last modified on: April 30th 2022

Keywords for this post:BreadCrustCrumbColoringTasteQualityCream
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.






Back to top of page

Lasts posts
Sugar syrups
Sugar syrups
In cooking, and especially in pastry, we often use sugar syrups, a simple mixture of water and sugar in varying proportions. Here is a presentation of their differences. .
2,2604.2 January 17th 2023
The right bread knife
The right bread knife
We almost all have a bread knife in our kitchen, that is to say the knife we use almost exclusively to cut bread. Is this knife efficient, is it really the one you need? Here is some information to guide you in your choice. .
4,791 September 15th 2022
Parmesan cheese crusts
Parmesan cheese crusts
If you use Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano) in your recipes, you may have already noticed: when you grate it, it becomes (very) difficult near the crust, especially if it is a slightly aged parmesan, as the cheese gets harder and harder. So we stop grating, leaving some crust on top, and a...
7,9284.6 September 14th 2022
The gelling agent in a cream
The gelling agent in a cream
If you start making a Bavarian cream for example, or any other that contains a gelling agent such as gelatin or agar-agar, you will sooner or later be confronted with the problem: How to properly incorporate this gelling agent into my cream? (and we will focus on gelatin).
7,0994.9 June 18th 2022
The preservation of bread
The preservation of bread
Eating fresh bread is always a delight, the crust crumbles deliciously, you take full advantage of the taste of your bread (80% of this taste is in the crust), it is a fleeting moment to enjoy. Who hasn't already eaten the crouton or croutons of his baguette, on the way back from the bakery? ...
8,1733 June 11th 2022
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? .
106K 13.9 February 7th 2017
A few tips for effective kneading at home
A few tips for effective kneading at home
When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.
250K 23.5 June 23th 2021
Salt and yeast
Salt and yeast
Let's take a look at an old baker's legend: You may have already read that somewhere in a recipe that uses baker's yeast(bread, pastries, leavened doughs in general) it is often specified "Don't put salt in contact with the yeast, you'll kill it (the yeast)"! Well, that's a belief, and there are...
61K4.1 March 15th 2019
The right weight of pastry for a pie
The right weight of pastry for a pie
Let's try to solve a thorny problem: How much dough will I need when I make my next pie? You're planning to make a pie, you're going to use your favourite mould or circle, but how much pastry will you need to fill it completely with a well spread pastry, without being too thin, or on the contrary...
47K3.9 March 20th 2020
The so-called
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...
12K4.2 April 16th 2021
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