April 30, 2023 - 12:34pm
How is this a black bread?
Just bought a black bread. Ingredients:
Wheat Flour, apple juice, yeast, salt, oil, caraway seeds.
It certainly looks like a black bread but not sure how they got the colour. I was under the impression all ingredients must be listed but they seem to have left something out.
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Forgive me, I have no frame of reference of what black bread is or should be... But in terms of appearing black, I can imagine oxidised apple creating a deep brown colour.
On that note, black tea unlike green tea, is black / deep brown, because it is made from green tea leaves that have been purposely oxidised. And there other products that get that colour from oxidation...
Balsamic vinegar is black in colour but is actually made from white wine... Wine that is oxidised and then concentrated.
Whether this has anything to do with your question, I don't know, but I'm throwing it out there...
There's no other ingredient that would result in "black bread".
20230501_011236.jpg
As you can see very dark in colour and that was the full list of ingredients. I wonder what else the apple juice brings to the final loaf apart from colour.
Ingredient(s) are missing from the list. Are you able to post a photo of the ingredients list/nutrition facts label?
Abe can you post a photo of the crumb, how dark is it?
There are a few recipes online which include squid ink powder or activated charcoal to make black bread. I think can understand why it might not appear in the list of ingredients.
I think they must have missed an ingredient on that label. Whether it is cocoa,coffee,or truly rye flour. But there is no ingredient to account for that dark a bread with those ingredients.
Did you taste it? Any clue?
What does the inside look like?
Abe, some varieties of whole wheat flour milled from red wheat would make bread that is this black, for example Red Fife wheat.
I have searched and searched but I cannot find any references to making a bread this dark ( or even close) by using any kind of solely whole wheat without additional ingredients. I did find reference to a purple wheat (rare variant)that makes a darker loaf but no pics. Also interesting is that the Red Fife variant of wheat hales from the Ukraine-an ancient source of black breads but usually rye-derived. All the recipes I have found in making a black bread had some other ingredient to drive the color to being very dark-cocoa, coffee, rye even charcoal as examples.
Is there a chemical way (pH?) to achieve this with just wheat? I am very interested in finding out more info.
After I saw the charcoal reference, I wondered if charred wheat might be the magic ingredient, though it is usually "charcoal" and not "charred". Burnt wheat might have a strong flavor. Experiment time-add it to the list!
EDIT: Ha! Who knew! I don't know how dark this product bakes but I am astounded at its existence. Necessity (poverty) is so often the mother of invention.
GRANO ARSO
I do not know why my RedFive flour gave such a dark colored crumb, but with experience I discovered that the same recipe of water, salt, whole grain flour and starter gives me the whole range of colors in bread. This happens with both 100% whole ryes and 100% whole wheat flours.
Textbooks tell us that it has to do with the soil properties, not with the color of the bran/kernels of wheat or rye, although we all know that white whole wheat is supposed to give us nearly white crumb and red whole wheat - brownish or tan colored crumb, in reality, it is not always so.
With ryes, I know how to make them always pitch black, I just ferment the sponge longer, until it is reddish in color.
With wheat, it is not possible to ferment the sponge that long (gluten will be liquefied). So with wheat, the only "natural" solution that I use is to sift out the bran, boil it with water from the recipe to extract color, and ferment this "bran&water mix" very well before returning it to the bread dough, admixing it. That colors the crumb very brown or dark chocolate brown where the usual breadmaking method would give much lighter crumb.
In the middle of moving home. Hectic but almost done. Need to buy myself a new oven or at least a bread maker which I can come up with recipes/techniques for sourdough.
Thank you for all your comments. As far as I know it's law to list all ingredients that's why it's puzzling. The crumb is the same colour as the crust. I'm going to write to them. I'm too curious as how they've managed such a dark colour with wheat and if they have a 'secret' ingredient how they get around the law of listing everything.
Missing Ingredient!
Found myself in the same store and also found the bagel version of this Black Bread. Took a photo of the ingredients.
Bread.jpg
Spot the difference...
Bagels.jpg
Well that makes sense now.
The nutrient info between the two breads is not the same.