This section has been archived: it is no longer being actively maintained, though I've left it here in case removing it breaks anyone's links.

introduction: bread and soya

Bread is wonderful stuff, but one of the more disturbing developments in recent years has been the problem of genetically modified soya. If you care to check the ingredients on most shop-bought bread you'll find that most contain soya flour. This in itself is no bad thing, but unless the bread is certified to be free of genetically modified organisms (referred to as GMOs from now on), it may well be polluted in this manner due to the refusal of the US soya producers to separate GM soya out. Anything with US soya in it may have GMOs in it. Unfortunately the EC has failed to prevent GM soya from being imported due to some trade agreement. However the good news is that the US is beginning to catch on to the fact that no-one in their right minds wants polluted food, and in 1999 the producers had to start separating GM soya out in order to get a decent price for their crop. Score one for consumers! Anyway, the basic rule still applies: if it doesn't say it's GM-free it probably isn't.

Most bakeries (in the UK at least) don't list their ingredients, which means that the only reliably non-GM bread will be the organic bread some supermarkets have started to sell (as long as the organic certification is from a trustworthy body such as the Soil Association). So, you can either risk eating the non-organic bread or find a baker who explicitly doesn't use GM soya, which is difficult. The supermarkets have begun to respond to public pressure for pollution-free food and are beginning to expand their organic ranges. Iceland freezer centres announced early on they wouldn't stock anything with GMOs in it - they got a gold star from me for this, though I don't actually shop there much. Not sure if they sell bread or not. Sainsburys have cleared all GM content out of their own brand products and are stocking an increasing range of organic products including organic bread. Asda have an organic range coming on stream in our local store which has expanded a lot of late, and organic bread is available. Can't speak about other supermarkets, though I spotted an empty shelf slot for an organic loaf in Morrisons last time I was in.

If you work hard you can also find organic bread in wholefood shops and the like. Some of the best bread in the UK is available this way, baked by the Village Bakery in Cumbria. Their web site lists stockists.

baking your own bread the easy way

The other alternative is to bake your own bread. I used to do this in the early 80s and you get very nice bread but it's hard work doing it by hand. Even using a mixer with dough hooks is messy and time-consuming, and I decided that I really didn't want to spend at least one night a week up to my ears in flour and yeast in the kitchen. Then someone at work (thanks, Jan!) mentioned bread-making machines. I finally tracked one down in Comet when I was looking for one a few years ago. They have become much more common of late (wonder why?), and they are quite common in mail order catalogues such as the Scotts of Stow catalogue which comes occasionally with the Radio times. I ended up with the Prima 2.5lb machine, which later came top in a consumer test on the TV, so I'm not the only one who thinks it's great! It's so easy to use it's amazing: you basically just put the ingredients into it, set the program you want to use and press the START button. Some hours later you have a loaf. It even has a timer so you can set it up overnight to produce a nice fresh loaf just in time for breakfast. Mmmm...

The one problem I had at the start is that the manual has lots of recipes in it but they nearly all include dried milk and butter, which was a problem for me at the time as I was trying to avoid milk products for health reasons. I started out using a recipe I used to use when hand-baking, but this turned out to be much too solid and didn't rise properly. I've since experimented with a hybrid recipe based on the recipe for wholemeal bread in the manual but with substitutions and modifications to make it dairy-free. This is still on the heavy side, but similar to home-made bread done by hand in texture and it's had good reactions from other people who've tried it. By the way, I've also started to eat less wholemeal bread and more white, and the machine makes very successful white bread.

dairy-free wholemeal bread for the prima bread machine

Measurements are using the measuring cup and spoon as supplied with the machine. This makes a 2lb loaf. I've listed the precise brands I use in brackets.

12 fluid ounces organic soya milk (Provamel red carton)
4 cups wholemeal flour (Pimhill organic coarse wholemeal)
1 teaspoon sugar (Billingtons organic)
1 teaspoon salt (Maldon sea salt flakes)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (Kalamata or one of the organic varieties)
1 sachet Allinson's Easybake yeast

Place the ingredients in the machine in the order given above and use the wholemeal program. Four hours later you'll have a nice fresh loaf.

NB this is similar to handmade wholemeal bread - ie it's heavier and more substantial than shop-bought wholemeal.

If you find the loaf is too heavy, you can get a much lighter loaf by simply substituting organic strong white flour for one or two cups of the wholemeal flour. I've found that on the whole I prefer a 50% wholemeal loaf to a 100% one.

tips:

some bread links