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The main difference between bread and pastry lies in their composition. Bread, is made from simple ingredients like flour, water, and yeast. On the other hand, pastries are a bit more decadent, using ingredients like butter, sugar, and eggs that create their rich and flaky goodness.
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Can bread be considered a pastry? While both bread and pastries share some common elements, they are distinct in their own right. Bread is generally characterized by its simplicity, relying on basic ingredients like flour, water, yeast, and salt.
Pastry is typically defined as a dough made from flour, fat, and water that is rolled out and used as the base for various baked goods such as pies, tarts, and pastries. On the other hand, bread is made from a simple mixture of flour, water, and yeast that is then baked. While both pastries and bread are baked goods, there are some distinct ...
- Overview
- Types of bread
- Methods of bread making
bread, baked food product made of flour or meal that is moistened, kneaded, and sometimes fermented. A major food since prehistoric times, it has been made in various forms using a variety of ingredients and methods throughout the world. The first bread was made in Neolithic times, nearly 12,000 years ago, probably of coarsely crushed grain mixed w...
Flatbread, the earliest form of bread, is still eaten, especially in much of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The principal grains used in such breads are corn (maize), barley, millet, and buckwheat—all lacking sufficient gluten (elastic protein) to make raised breads—and wheat and rye. Millet cakes, naan, and roti (crisp whole-meal cakes) are popular types in India. Teff, wheat, or sorghum is used to make injera, a spongy flatbread common in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Chapati is a popular wheat flatbread in much of East Africa, and wheat pita bread is served throughout much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Corn is used to make the small flat cakes known as tortillas, important throughout much of Latin America, and in Brazil small cakes are made from cassava.
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Sourdough is made by combining flour and water and then setting it aside for a period of a few days. During this time, yeasts that are naturally present in the air combine with the mixture and begin to ferment, which creates the sour flavour noted in its name.
Although across much of Asia the preference traditionally has been for the consumption of rice, as a grain, Western breads became increasingly popular in the latter half of the 20th century. In Japan, for example, the bread-baking industry, using processes developed in the United States, expanded rapidly after World War II, and baguettes are popular in Vietnam. Today various types of bread are consumed in Asian and European countries. Raised black bread, for example, is common in Germany, Russia, and Scandinavia; it is made chiefly from rye. Lighter rye loaves, with wheat flour added, are popular in the United States.
Raised wheat breads include a white variety of forms. Simple white bread, made from finely sifted wheat flour, includes long, narrow, crusty loaves like baguettes. Whole wheat bread is made from unsifted flour containing much of the outer and inner portions of the wheat kernel normally removed for white flour. Italian focaccia can be made as a flatbread or with yeast.
Although raised bread originally relied upon spontaneous fermentation, bakers learned to produce fermentation with yeast. Specific strains have been developed with useful bread-making qualities, including stability, rapid fermentation capacity, and the ability to withstand high temperatures, all permitting production of a uniform product. Only wheat and rye flours produce the necessary gluten to make raised loaves, and wheat gluten is more satisfactory for this purpose. Other ingredients include liquids, such as milk or water, shortenings of animal or vegetable origin, salt, and sugar.
Improvements in the commercial production of bread include better temperature control, handling methods, fuels, and refrigeration. Modern commercial bread making is highly mechanized. Mixing is performed by the straight-dough or sponge-dough methods or by the continuous-mixing process. In the straight-dough method, frequently used in small bakeries, all ingredients are mixed at one time. In the sponge-dough method, only some of the ingredients are mixed, forming a sponge that is allowed to ferment and is then mixed with the remaining ingredients to form the dough. The mixed dough is divided into appropriately sized pieces, deposited in bakery pans, and allowed to rise. The pans then pass through a traveling tray oven, baking the bread. The continuous-mixing process eliminates many individual operations.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Defining Bread and Pastry. Explore the origins, ingredients, and methods behind bread and pastry. Highlighting their distinctive characteristics. Discover how the use of leavening agents, fat content, and techniques differentiate these two culinary delights.
Mar 24, 2024 · Key Differences. Pastry, known for its buttery and flaky texture, often includes ingredients like flour, water, butter, and sometimes sugar, which contribute to its tender and rich qualities. Bread, on the other hand, is primarily made from flour, water, and yeast, leading to a more elastic and chewy texture due to gluten development.
Pastry refers to a variety of doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury baked goods made from them. These goods are often called pastries as a synecdoche, and the dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery.
