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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.
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.
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Last modified on: April 30th 2022
Keywords for this post:BreadCrustCrumbColoringTasteQualityCreamThe 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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