Quality breads in Chiang Mai bakeries

[Mekong Bob]

Molasses or other things can give bread a brown color. Read the ingredient list.

The word "whole" should always appear before the name of the grain, such as whole wheat, whole oats, or whole rye. And it should be the first thing on the ingredient list.

Don't be misled by labels that say "multi-grain," "stone-ground," "100% wheat," "cracked wheat," or "seven-grain." These usually aren't whole grain.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Not sure whole grain is all that important in bread.

No sugar or preservatives is what I want.

And to get that, I have to make my own.

Not to mention, whole grain bread usually gets a wagonload of additives to make it rise.

Edited July 12, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[Mekong Bob]

Not sure whole grain is all that important in bread.

No sugar or preservatives is what I want.

And to get that, I have to make my own.

Not to mention, whole grain bread usually gets a wagonload of additives to make it rise.

Some of Chiang Mai's bread products are made from refined grains. Refining helps make bread light and airy and gives it a longer shelf life.

But it also strips away fiber, iron, and many B vitamins. "Enriched" just means that B vitamins and iron are added back after refining. But fiber may not be added back to "enriched" breads. Fiber is found in bread made with whole grains though, so that's your healthier choice.

Which additives are commonly added by local bakeries? All bakeries?

Let's hope some bakeries will step forward and tell us what's in their bread.

[JDGRUEN]

Are you speaking of 'whole grain' meaning unground wheat? Or are you speaking of wheat (or other grain) that is ground but with the ground portion of the outer seed husk layers still included? Serious question.

[FolkGuitar]

I suppose if one only eats bread products a few times a week rather than with every meal, it really doesn't make very much difference if there is fiber in it. We can get more than enough fiber from the vegetables that make up so many Thai dishes. Vitamins and minerals too. Choose your breads for their taste and texture rather than nutritional content. There are plenty of great ones in Chiang Mai!

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Potassium Bromate is fairly common (banned in the west now), makes the wholegrain rise.

Plenty of other chemicals used.

http://drlwilson.com/Articles/BREAD.htm

http://www.microsour.com/dough_additives.html

Edited July 12, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[ARISTIDE]

100% Whole grain bread will rise well using active dry yeast alone provided that you use the Peter Reinhart 'double fermentation' method. No need for any chemical

Not sure whole grain is all that important in bread.
No sugar or preservatives is what I want.
And to get that, I have to make my own.

Not to mention, whole grain bread usually gets a wagonload of additives to make it rise.

Edited July 12, 2014 by ARISTIDE

[AnotherOneAmerican]

100% Whole grain bread will rise well using active dry yeast alone provided that you use the Peter Reinhart 'double fermentation' method. No need for any chemical

Not sure whole grain is all that important in bread.

No sugar or preservatives is what I want.

And to get that, I have to make my own.

Not to mention, whole grain bread usually gets a wagonload of additives to make it rise.

Bakerys are usually in too much of a hurry for that, not enough time, not enough space.

We aren't talking about home made bread where you can have it sitting around for hours.

[ARISTIDE]

Preservatives. Majority of bread makers in CM don't use preservatives as the shelf life will normally be displayed as 3 days. Farmhouse toast has preservatives (I think)

Not sure whole grain is all that important in bread.
No sugar or preservatives is what I want.
And to get that, I have to make my own.

Not to mention, whole grain bread usually gets a wagonload of additives to make it rise.

Some of Chiang Mai's bread products are made from refined grains. Refining helps make bread light and airy and gives it a longer shelf life.

But it also strips away fiber, iron, and many B vitamins. "Enriched" just means that B vitamins and iron are added back after refining. But fiber may not be added back to "enriched" breads. Fiber is found in bread made with whole grains though, so that's your healthier choice.

Which additives are commonly added by local bakeries? All bakeries?

Let's hope some bakeries will step forward and tell us what's in their bread.

[Dante99]

Mekong Bob:

In what stores do you find quality breads with an "ingredient list" on the bag in Chiang Mai?

[Ulysses G.]

Butter is Better is one of the few places that I know of in Chiang Mai that has real 100% whole wheat bread and it tastes fine. Even the health food stores mix in some white flour as it is easier to make it taste better. Kasem's will make it, if you specify what you want and order in advance.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[ARISTIDE]

All major bakeries are required by law to list the ingredients (but who knows if it's really what they are using) If the bread is too soft most the time they will use bread enhancer. I think Tops supermarket make pretty nice bread.

[DaamNaam]

All major bakeries are required by law to list the ingredients (but who knows if it's really what they are using) If the bread is too soft most the time they will use bread enhancer. I think Tops supermarket make pretty nice bread.

Thai law? I think not. I have never seen a list of breads ingredients displayed in any Thai bakeries.

Yamakazi's "7 grains" and Rimpings "French Country" both my favorites.

[Ulysses G.]

I think that he means bread selling on store shelves. All of them have a list of ingredients, but I don't know how reliable they are.

[CNXBKKMAN]

I think the Yamazaki bakery is a level or two above anything at Tesco or Tops bakery. Tesco bakery stuff is very low quality and at the Kamtieng Tesco the bakery area is covered in flies, there are hardly any trays, they are dirty, the tongs are filthy. I often wonder does that store have a manager and if it does, does he ever go on the shop floor?

I don't buy much bread but if I do its the baguette type stuff at Yamazaki airport plaza. Yamazaki was always good when I used to live in Taipei. Buns filled with mashed potatoe and a blog of mayonnaise on top awesome.

[zippydedodah]

i really like the bread store on the bottom floor of central festival, next to the grocery store.... excellent breads

[Tywais]

I used to eat the whole wheat bread you find ubiquitous at all the stores including 7-11. Now I usually buy whole wheat/whole grain found at Rimping, JJ's or Ludda depending on availability and type. The common one I still keep around as it works well with peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and my wife and her sister like it for toast.

However, the common one if I leave it on the table for several weeks it is still 'fresh' while the others a few days and they are growing things. So those go in the frig right away.

The mass produced whole wheat, note the Sodium content.

The JJ's/Ludda whole wheat/grain/etc. Note the use by dates.

[Ulysses G.]

Check how much "whole wheat" is actually in those breads. I really like JJ's wheat sandwich bread, but I think that it is something like 50% white flour and the mass produced whole wheat is probably even less.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[Tywais]

Check how much "whole wheat" is actually in those breads. I really like JJ's wheat sandwich bread, but I think that it is something like 50% white flour and the mass produced whole wheat is probably even less.

The Ludda shows 45% whole wheat and JJ's shows 35% wheat floor and 17% whole wheat. I would prefer higher whole wheat percentages but seems not an easy find.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Check how much "whole wheat" is actually in those breads. I really like JJ's wheat sandwich bread, but I think that it is something like 50% white flour and the mass produced whole wheat is probably even less.

The Ludda shows 45% whole wheat and JJ's shows 35% wheat floor and 17% whole wheat. I would prefer higher whole wheat percentages but seems not an easy find.

That's because the more the whole wheat, the harder it is to make the bread.

20% whole wheat is fairly easy, 50% needs additives (and/or time & effort).

If anyone is interested, I was in Yok today, and they have a range of flours I haven't noticed before.

Cottage Farm

Whole Wheat 1Kg 38bht.

Rye Flour 1Kg 85bht.

Pretty good prices for Thailand.

Edited July 12, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[Ulysses G.]

Check how much "whole wheat" is actually in those breads. I really like JJ's wheat sandwich bread, but I think that it is something like 50% white flour and the mass produced whole wheat is probably even less.

The Ludda shows 45% whole wheat and JJ's shows 35% wheat floor and 17% whole wheat. I would prefer higher whole wheat percentages but seems not an easy find.

As I said before, try Butter is Better. They make 100% whole wheat bread that - IMO - is quite good.

[Tywais]

Off topic posts removed. This is about bread not US laws.

[jobin]

Hey. Haven't you guys heard: bread was good food for hundreds, thousands of years. Before the advent of the chair. Now because we overuse the chair we no longer need to eat bread. In fact, bread is not only not needed, but also not good for us anymore.

[DaamNaam]

Hey. Haven't you guys heard: bread was good food for hundreds, thousands of years. Before the advent of the chair. Now because we overuse the chair we no longer need to eat bread. In fact, bread is not only not needed, but also not good for us anymore.

Food of the gods.

Bread is happy food. If you don't want it don't eat it.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Hey. Haven't you guys heard: bread was good food for hundreds, thousands of years. Before the advent of the chair. Now because we overuse the chair we no longer need to eat bread. In fact, bread is not only not needed, but also not good for us anymore.

Wheat bread is no longer healthy, the wheat you use now, is not what was used for hundreds or thousands of years.

Hybridized and genetically altered wheat is what they use now, with unnaturally high gluten levels.

[DaamNaam]

Hey. Haven't you guys heard: bread was good food for hundreds, thousands of years. Before the advent of the chair. Now because we overuse the chair we no longer need to eat bread. In fact, bread is not only not needed, but also not good for us anymore.

Wheat bread is no longer healthy, the wheat you use now, is not what was used for hundreds or thousands of years.

Hybridized and genetically altered wheat is what they use now, with unnaturally high gluten levels.

Yet we are living longer than our ancestors.

Vegemite on toast is the secret, drowns out any "unhealthy" stuff in the wheat (or Monsantos grand evil plan of world domination).

[femi fan]

I believe a word of warning, over and above ingredients lists, is necessary for those who are conscious of keeping healthy in their lives...

I went to peuan krua in nong hoi (the big kitcen supplies and ingredients shop) a year or two back. I feel pretty sure this is where most bakeries will get their flours from with which to make their own breads. I asked the staff there where their flour came from because it was not labeled. They went off round the back to find out and the answer was America.

That means to my understanding a strong likelihood the wheat is genetically modified. Labelling of GM ingredients in the US is banned (people might refuse to buy them and then monsanto will go bust), and it is certainly not required by thai law.

I have personally continued to buy the extremely tasty wholewheat brown bread (70 baht loaves) from kasem, but i'm now taking a break from it.

I'm afraid it is a strong likelihood that much bread in thailand is made from GM wheat, but there's no way of knowing for sure.

[femi fan]

Hey. Haven't you guys heard: bread was good food for hundreds, thousands of years. Before the advent of the chair. Now because we overuse the chair we no longer need to eat bread. In fact, bread is not only not needed, but also not good for us anymore.

Wheat bread is no longer healthy, the wheat you use now, is not what was used for hundreds or thousands of years.

Hybridized and genetically altered wheat is what they use now, with unnaturally high gluten levels.

Yet we are living longer than our ancestors.

Vegemite on toast is the secret, drowns out any "unhealthy" stuff in the wheat (or Monsantos grand evil plan of world domination).

Well, it's up to you if you want to believe those stats at face value. But most people at the end of their lives are held into place by pills and pain. Certainly no quality of life, but they do massage the stats.

And i'm afraid we've arrived at a generation, perhaps for the first time, where many parents are outlasting their kids, such is the explosion in death of young people by cancer. Their parents grew up in a much less chemically-poisoned world and therefore gained strong immune systems. Younger people nowadays were born into the full-on chemical toxic world that we now have, and have compromised immune systems which means they get cancer while their parents live on to a ripe old age.

GM foods are a major influence of our toxic world, and wheat along with corn and soya bean are the main culprits in America. Any of those foods that come here to thailand are bad news indeed.

That means bread.

[big drop kick 2]

occasionally i have found the need to go past UN irish pub for bread but mostly not.

never seen any ingredient listed.

as with most open foods best avoided in the days of mozzy spraying and after for a few days too.

Edited July 12, 2014 by big drop kick 2

[MMan]

I concur with the poster who likes the Whole Wheat bread at Butter is Better - really very good. They also make a tasty multi-grain bread, and will tell you up front it is not whole grain.