Brown bread


Brown bread is a designation often given to breads made with significant amounts of whole grain flour, usually wheat, and sometimes dark-colored ingredients such as molasses or coffee. In Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa it simply refers to wholemeal or whole wheat bread, except in the Maritimes, where it implies bread made with molasses. In some regions of the US, the bread is simply called wheat bread in contrast to white bread.
Whole wheat flours that contain raw wheat germ, instead of toasted germ, have higher levels of glutathione, and thus are said to result in lower loaf volumes.

History

In Ireland, during the Famine, prior to 1848, brown bread was handed out to the poor. In England, brown bread was made from brown meal. Around and prior to the year 1845, brown meal was considered a less desirable grain product, and was priced accordingly. However, by 1865, due to recently discovered health benefits of bran, brown meal's London price had increased to a point often greater than that of fine flour.

Flour milling

Historically, brown meal was what remained after about 90% of the coarse, outer bran and 74% of pure endosperm or fine flour was removed from the whole grain. Using slightly different extraction numbers, brown meal, representing 20% of the whole grain, was itself composed of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour. In 1848 it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm, but by 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the germ.

Colour

The brown color of whole grain breads is caused by cerealine, a discovery attributed to Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès of France. Cerealine, considered by Mouriès an active principal or ferment similar in action to diastase, came from the cereal layer of rectangular cells that millers considered a part of bran: later it was alternatively called the aleurone layer. In a statement attributed to Mouriès, if the cerealine is neutralized, white bread can be made from bran-containing flour.

Regional varieties

Irish brown bread

Irish wheaten bread is a form of Irish soda bread made with whole-wheat flour.

Borodinsky bread

is a slightly sweet sourdough rye bread of Russian origin, usually flavoured by caraway and coriander seeds and sweetened with molasses, which augments its already quite dark color coming from the rye flour. It is named after the Battle of Borodino, and the legend says that it was invented by the widow of one of the Russian generals who died in that battle, though in reality it was probably created much later, at the end of the 19th century.

Boston brown bread

New England or Boston brown bread is a type of dark, slightly sweet steamed bread popular in New England. It is cooked by steam in a can, or cylindrical pan.
Boston brown bread's colour comes from a mixture of flours, usually a mix of several of the following: cornmeal, rye, whole wheat, graham flour, and from the addition of sweeteners like molasses and maple syrup. Leavening most often comes from baking soda though a few recipes use yeast. Raisins are often added. The batter is poured into a can, and steamed in a kettle. While most variations are quick breads, and can be made in less than an hour, several commercial brands are available. Brown bread is somewhat seasonal, being served mostly in fall and winter, and is frequently served with baked beans.
Brown bread is closely related to an earlier bread known as rye and Indian or thirded bread from its use of rye, cornmeal and wheat flours. Unlike modern Boston brown bread, thirded bread is generally yeast-raised and baked rather than steamed.