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Nutritionists are unanimous in their opinion – gray bread is very useful for health and weight loss. Simple gray bread is made from a mixture of rye and wheat flour, so this product contains all the benefits of both grains. In addition, the bakery product has a pleasant taste, incredible aroma and numerous vitamins and minerals necessary for health.
Product emergence
For a long time in Rus’, flour for baking bread was not mixed. Rolls made from wheat flour were only available to wealthy people, since wheat was an expensive cereal. This plant requires special conditions for productivity, which could not always be provided in a harsh climate. That is why the price of wheat flour buns was unaffordable.
The culture of sowing rye came to the Slavic peoples from the Caucasus. For some time, rye was even considered a weed and was destroyed to make way for more worthy grains. However, this crop turned out to be more resistant to temperature extremes and weather conditions, and therefore became a replacement for wheat in the hungry periods of history. The taste of rye pastry with notes of acid turned out to be pleasant, so over time, rye began to be sown regularly and large areas of fields were given for this crop.
In the 19th century, the southern lands were planted with new varieties of weather-resistant wheat, which was bred by domestic breeders. But by that time, people had already tasted the taste of rye pastries, so they did not refuse bread from this cereal. Thus, the idea arose of combining two types of flour – rye and wheat, in order to end up with a light gray bread with a softer texture than pure rye, and more useful qualities than white wheat.
Main differences
The resulting product – gray bread – has become special in dietetics and cooking. Its main differences from pure wheat and rye bread are visible to the consumer with the naked eye. So, gray bread differs from its “pure” counterparts in color. The shade of the roll depends on what kind of flour was added to it in a particular case. The predominance of wheat flour gives gray bread a lighter shade, and rye – naturally, more saturated and dark. But such a product cannot be attributed to either white or black bread, the composition of gray bread made it a unique product with special qualities.
Delicious gray bread has a neutral aftertaste. It is often used as the basis for sandwiches with meat products, cheeses and vegetables, as well as for preparing more dessert types of snacks – toasts with jam, jam, fruit fillings. This is possible due to the unusual and original taste of baking. By itself, wheat bread has a sweetish aftertaste, and rye bread has a sour taste. In gray bread, both of these flavor nuances have combined and it has become more neutral in taste, ready for experiments with fillings and additions.
The texture of gray bread also balances between the dry and porous structure of white bread and the moist, greasy texture of black. On average, the moisture content of a gray roll is about 50%. It may vary depending on which flour is currently added to the recipe more.
The nutritional value of brown bread is its advantage over wheat bread. This is due to the rich composition of rye flour, which includes numerous vitamins and trace elements. However, the human body absorbs wheat flour better, so the black brick is not always able to have the proper effect on health. But gray bread does an excellent job with both tasks – it absorbs all the necessary substances from rye flour, but gains the ability to give them to a person, just like wheat products.
Types of gray bread
In modern bakery production, there are a lot of recipes for making gray bread. Store trays are filled with various new products, in which, in addition to the main bread ingredients, you can find all kinds of additives – nuts, bran, herbs, spices, vegetables. However, most of this diversity is a classic brown bread recipe, supplemented with the above ingredients.
Among the classic recipes for baking gray bread, the following types stand out:
- rye-wheat ordinary, consisting of 55% rye and 45% wheat flour;
- the usual wheat-rye recipe, which includes about 70% wheat and up to 30% rye flour;
- Ukrainian recipe, where the share of the rye part of the flour can be equal to 80%, and only the remaining 20% will be wheat;
- a new Ukrainian version, where bakers change wheat flour of the 1st grade for a similar flour, but already of the 2nd grade, increasing the share of white flour in the baking composition to 40%;
- capital recipe, in which both rye and wheat flour are used for baking in equal parts, necessarily supplementing with sugar.
The most useful gray bread is the new Ukrainian one, since wholemeal flour or 2 grades brings to the product the maximum possible fiber and microfibers necessary for digestion. If you choose bread in the store without seeing its name, then nutritionists recommend always choosing darker shades of gray bread, which has fewer calories, but more rye flour, containing vitamins and minerals. On their own, modern manufacturers can add to the finished product, in addition to rye and wheat flour, various additives that make gray bread more healthy and tasty. Breads with seeds, nuts, bran, dried fruits or vegetables are very popular. Sometimes exotic types of rolls are found on the shelves of shops and bakeries – for example, loaves with cuttlefish ink or loaves with seaweed extract.
The above additional ingredients help gray bread to become even more useful for a person, supplying him with an increased proportion of the vitamin-mineral complex. However, there are also such recipes, the composition of which makes one think about the rationality of purchasing a bun – often manufacturers today use ingredients with the “E” index, which are preservatives and dyes, to bake bread. Not all of them are harmful to health, but if a person is not particularly versed in this matter, it is better to bypass such a product.
Energy value of the product
How many calories are in brown bread? There are quite a lot of them in the product, however, eating gray bread, a person very quickly begins to experience a feeling of fullness, which does not leave him for a long time. The calorie content of gray bread per 100 grams is 259 kilocalories. This indicator consists of:
- protein – 8,5 grams;
- fat – 3,3 grams;
- carbohydrates – 48,3 grams.
Also, 100 grams of this product will bring to the human body vitamin B1 in the amount of 0,19 grams, vitamin B2 in the amount of 0,09 grams and vitamin PP – 1,69 grams.
Nutritionists recommend eating gray bread due to the presence of a huge number of minerals in it. In 100 grams of such a loaf you can find:
- 394 milligrams sodium
- 201 milligrams of potassium;
- 27 milligrams of calcium;
- 46 milligrams of magnesium;
- 123 milligrams of phosphorus;
- 3,5 milligrams of iron.
How to choose
Traditional gray bread is baked in the form of a “brick”, its loaf has a golden appetizing crust. If there is a product on the counter, in the external signs of which there are some deviations from the usual form, this may mean a violation of the recipe and, as a result, the taste and useful qualities of this product:
- if whitish stripes become noticeable on the loaf, this indicates the use of low-quality flour in baking;
- if the brick is covered with black fried crusts, this means that the technology was violated during its baking and the resulting product may contain carcinogens;
- if the loaf has an uneven shape, this indicates the use of any additives in the dough that accelerate its aging, but give it many harmful properties;
- cracks on the surface and violation of the integrity of the crust indicate that the baker did not follow the baking technology.
Properties: harm and benefit
Nutritionists recommend that everyone, without exception, eat gray bread. Even people who are on a diet should eat a couple of pieces of it a day to dull hunger, feel a surge of energy and get the necessary portion of vitamins and minerals. B vitamins, as well as magnesium, have an excellent effect on the human nervous system, and there are quite a lot of them in the product.
Also, the benefits of gray bread are manifested in the fact that it is an excellent product for diabetics without changing blood sugar levels. Scientists have found that if you completely replace white bread with its gray counterpart in your daily diet, then the likelihood of diabetes is reduced significantly.
The microelements included in this baking have an excellent effect on appearance, they nourish and rejuvenate the skin, protecting its turgor, strengthen and smooth the surface of the hair. Folk recipes for home hair care often contain gray bread crumb, rich in B vitamins.
However, in the presence of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract associated with an increase in the acidity of the stomach, gray bread is not recommended. Also, this pastry should not be abused, as this can contribute to obesity, chronic fatigue, sexual problems in men, and drowsiness.
A simple recipe
At home, you can also easily make gray bread in a bread machine. The recipes for this product differ only in the proportion of ingredients introduced and the presence of additives.
A simple brown bread recipe includes the following ingredients:
- a little more than 1 glass of water;
- 170 grams of rye flour;
- 160 grams of wheat flour;
- 2 tablespoons of refined vegetable oil;
- 7 grams of sugar;
- 5 grams of salt;
- 5 grams of dry yeast.
Homemade gray bread is best kneaded using a special mode in a bread machine, since it is almost impossible to knead it with your hands to the desired condition. Just add all the ingredients to a special container and start the dough kneading mode. Initially, the future loaf will not look very attractive, the dough will seem lumpy, but with the right mode at the end of the kneading, the dough will become smooth and elastic in appearance.
The resulting dough is spread on a surface sprinkled with flour, rolled up and transferred to a greased form with a seam down. Then the form is covered with a film and placed in a warm, windproof place for 1 hour.
When the dough swells, the loaf can be baked on the appropriate bread machine mode or in the oven at a temperature of 220 degrees. When baking a roll in the oven, it is important to remove the bread from the mold 30 minutes after the start of the process and place it on the wire rack until the crust is browned. The finished loaf must be cooled before serving.
Delicious gray bread is an energy-rich food that can protect against beriberi, skin aging and many other health problems. The main thing is to be able to choose it correctly and try not to abuse the product.