Green Plate Special's Family Bread & Butter Day on March 28th was cancelled to keep flattening that COVID-19 curve, but we still want you to enjoy your own Family Bread & Butter Day at home! This article walks you through a brief history of grains, the different parts of a whole grain, the basic ingredients of bread, the history and science of making butter, and bread and butter recipes that you can enjoy in your own kitchen.
Grains are small, dry seeds that have played an important role in diets across many different cultures for thousands of years. Careful research of ancient human teeth and tools shows that we might have been chowing down on wild grains as early as over 100,000 years ago [1]! Part of their deep connection to us is how durable and shelf stable they are, making them easier to harvest and store over long periods of time.
They come in a truly amazing variety of colors, shapes, and sizes and can be grown all around the world. For example: Did you know that there are over 40,000 varieties of rice, and that it is grown on every continent except Antarctica? Pretty neat, right?
There are so many different grains that were originally cultivated in so many different places. A few examples are: maize/corn (Southern Mexico), oats (Middle East/Europe), quinoa (Andean region of South America), barley (Eurasia), and sorghum (Australia, Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and many islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans). The Whole Grains Council has an excellent list of different grains, their history, their flavor profile, and so much more HERE.
Speaking of the Whole Grains Council... What is a whole grain?
Each grain before is made up of three parts that serve different purposes and contain different nutrients...
Foods made with whole grains (whole wheat flour and brown rice, for example) contain each of these important anatomical components. Many foods are made with processed grains (like white rice and refined/white flour), which have had the bran and germ removed leaving only the endosperm. While processing the grain can be very handy for extending its shelf life (the oils from the germ make the grain spoil much faster), you miss out on all the fiber, vitamins, minerals, and oil the removed parts contain.
Now that you know so much more about grains themselves... What do we make with all these grains? How about a little bread?
Bread can come in many different forms and flavors, but many share these basic ingredients: flour, water, yeast, sugar, and salt.
Flour is the core ingredient that provides bread structure and density.
When wheat flour is mixed with water, the proteins in the flour interact to form an elastic gluten framework. Kneading your dough ensures the flour and water is mixed thoroughly (making more gluten), and weaves your strands of gluten together to create a strong web that holds your bread together as it expands and rises (more on that in a bit). If you stretch your dough reeeaaaally thin and hold it up to a light, you can actually see the complicated web of gluten you've made!
Aside from wheat, you can use many different types of flour to bake breads that have different structures. For example: rice or corn flour is often used in baking, and since these grains do not contain gluten they create bread with a very different texture from wheat.
Water helps you mix and hold ingredients together. Some bread recipes, like those including wheat, require water to create gluten. For bread that rises to create a fluffy texture water is the perfect warm, moist environment for yeast to thrive.
Yeast is the teeny tiny fungus sometimes added to bread to make it rise and fluff up. Fluffy, risen bread is called "leavened bread", and the ingredients that create this effect are called "leavening agents" (like yeast, baking powder, buttermilk, beer, etc.) Yeast consumes the sugar and starch present in flour and excretes alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, creating expanding pockets of gas that stretch the elastic framework of gluten in the dough (think about blowing a bubble with bubblegum).
While there is enough sugar present in flour alone to feed yeast, it can be added to dough to give the yeast a little "boost" that speeds up the rising of the bread.
Salt will change the flavor of the bread as well as strengthen your dough's gluten. It also helps control yeast by dehydrating it a little, slowing down its multiplication process and the excretion of gas.
With all this talk of bread... What about bread's close friend, butter?
Did you know that butter is actually an ancient food?! Records show that butter was being produced at least 4000 years ago. Originally, butter was most commonly made from sheep or goat’s milk. The earliest recipes are believed to have come from nomads in the Middle East, who used a container made from the skin of a goat to churn butter. The skin was sewed together tightly, leaving a small opening in which to pour milk. It was filled half full with milk or cream, then suspended from wooden poles so it could swing around until butter formed. In the earliest centuries butter was made and shipped from India. Starting in the 12 century C.E. butter became popular in Scandinavia, where people would make it and send it to the rest of Europe. The cooler climates in northern Europe (like Scandinavia) helped to preserve the butter for longer. For the last century, most butter has been manufactured in factories.
When whole milk sits out tiny fat molecules float to the top, forming a layer of cream which can be skimmed and collected. This cream is what we use to make butter (and whipped cream). The cream is agitated (stirred up) so that the fat molecules get shaken up and clump together. Eventually, after enough agitation, the fat molecules clump so much that a solid is formed - butter! This entire butter-making process is called churning.
21 pounds of fresh milk will make 1 pound of butter. At first, as you agitate the cream you will hear the liquid slosh around. The initial clumping allows tiny air bubbles to be trapped in the cream, forming a light and airy product… whipped cream! Gradually, over the course of 5-20 minutes the sloshing will slow and the cream will thicken until it abruptly becomes butter. At this point, the fat has clearly separated from the liquid in the cream, leaving us with two products: solid butter and liquid buttermilk!
Tip: Try using cream that has sat out of the fridge for a few hours - this will speed up the churning process. When particles are heated, they move faster because they have more energy. So, fat molecules in room-temperature cream (as opposed to fat molecules in chilled cream) move faster, which allows them to clump together faster, thereby forming butter faster.
You’ll notice that the buttermilk is white and the butter is yellow. Why is this? The difference in color is due mostly to the higher fat content of butter.
Fun fact: If cows are raised on pasture, their butter is more yellow when the milk is collected in the spring or summer (when they have more plants high in beta carotene to chew on).
Make sure to save some of your butter to put on the homemade bagel recipe below. We've also included a couple of our other favorite wheat-based recipes. have fun!
Ingredients:
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 ½ Tbsp. honey
1 ¼ cups warm water, plus ¼ cup if needed
3 ½ cups bread flour, plus more for kneading
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. olive oil
1 each egg, whisked
Optional: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, coarse salt, minced fresh garlic, minced fresh onion
Make it:
Ingredients:
¾ cup semolina flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 cup water, to form a soft dough (add a little more if dough is too dry)
Make it:
Preheat your oven to 550 degrees. The oven rack should be at the bottom of the oven.
Ingredients:
½ tsp. dry active yeast
1 tsp. sugar
3 tsp. salt
2 cups water, cool but not cold
6 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
Make it:
Stretch it, Top it:
Notes: To Freeze: the dough must first rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
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