Wizard Recipes

Traditionally, the bread and the ring of bread gather a totally positive symbolism: joy, richness, purity, inscribed on a common axis, these symbols are joined together in a symbolic energy, which the man strives to capture.

According to popular traditions, the bread is often considered a symbol of the divinity which sets a certain hierarchy of symbols in the popular culture. It is identified with certain gods in Christmas or Easter, funeral ceremonies scenes, when the bread or the ring of bread, specially shaped, are named after gods(Christmas, God, Virgin Mary, Archangel  etc.) and are offered as a ritual offering(”sacrifice”).

We can assume the representation practice by means of bread dough of some gods(the only food invested with this quality) as being anterior to Christianity, which identified bread as being the Body of Christ, clearly underlining its symbolism.

The basic phases of the long working process of the peasant start with the bread, the prototype of the final labor effect in the faith of Earth’s fertility: in Bukovina, one sets a loaf of bread on the plough or on the first ploughing furrow ; in Moldavia, one sets a loaf of bread  or a 8-shaped ring of bread on the horns of the oxen, before starting ploughing and in Dobruja, one breaks a or a ring of bread on the field.

For example, in Oltenia (Lesser Wallachia), when the new wheat flour is backed for the first time, the women bake small breads or rings of bread and they tie basil or a bunch of flowers. Then they soak the bread in a fountain and give it to small children to eat it. It it said then that the wheat will be “rich and pure”.

The preparation phase of the bread is marked by obligatory actions - the woman must fast with a couple of days before, must wash herself and put a new blouse and most important, she must cover her head.

The first phase of bread transformation, the strain of the flour, respects specific rules of a ritual action: one must strain the flour at dawn, “without bite or soup”, completely silent. The same rules are imposed to the ritual of bringing the necessary water ;  “the untasted water” is often replaced with dew.

The addition of the salt, incarnated in some cultures with “the Mother of God” or called holy(as in the Holy Justice), is meant to increase the magical-ritual powers of the bread.

Not less significant is adding the ferment. It is a symbol of vital force, through which the dough comes to life, it “rises”, it “blossoms”, it “grows”.  Beside this, the battering of the dough is also of great effort. The battered the dough is, the greater its spiritual value is.

When the bread is taken out from the oven, the tradition says one must leave something for the oven in exchange for the bread and not leave it empty, so people put wood on fire or the oven is sprinkled with water.

By Roxana Durdureanu

Cereal grains are the fruit of plants belonging to the grass family (Gramineae). Ten thousand years ago, wheat underwent spontaneous mutations causing this grass to hang onto its seed rather than scatter it to the wind.

Although this change was not in the interests of the wheat from the standpoint of its own reproduction, it enabled humans to store seed for the winter. The calorie density of grains prevented starvation and so played an important role in human history worldwide.

In China, rice was domesticated about 6,500 years ago, and in the New World corn was domesticated about 3,500 years ago. Until the past century, most grains were consumed as “whole” grains. In other words, the grain kernels were intact - not stripped of their vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Whole grains provide fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates, lignans, phytates, other phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals.

Fat-soluble vitamins are found in the germ of the grain, and B vitamins and phytochemicals are found in the husk or bran. Grain and grain products are also naturally low in fat.

Whole grains can be consumed plain as hot cereals, used in pilafs, added to baked goods, and eaten in dozens of other ways. Hundreds of products are made from grain. Two of the main ones -bread and pasta - are diet staples in nearly every culture on every continent, from couscous in North Africa to soba (buckwheat noodles) in Japan.

Grains and grain products literally feed the world, providing most of the calories and much of the protein consumed by the world’s population.

Basics

Grains are the seeds of plants. Although the grains eaten by humans belong to a wide range of botanical families, they have the same basic structure   and contain these components, from which plants begin to grow:

Bran - This is the outer layer of the grain seed. It’s full of B vitamins, trace minerals, and, especially, fiber.

Endosperm - Sometimes referred to as the kernel, the endosperm contains the majority of the material within the seed and is meant to nourish a seedling. The endosperm is where most of the protein, carbohydrates, and small amounts of vitamins are located. It is composed mainly of starch, and often it is the only part of the grain that is eaten.

Germ - The germ is the part of the seed from which the new plant sprouts. As the embryo within the seed, it has the highest concentration of nutrients, including B vitamins, trace minerals, and some proteins. It also contains fat, which increases its perishability.

Grains are usually milled before they are used as food. Milling usually means that the bran and any husk surrounding the grain seed (along with the nutrients they contain) are removed. Then the seeds are ground in a process that converts the grain into flour or other products.

The product’s use and name often depend on how much of the bran is left. Wheat, for example, can be milled into whole-grain flours that contain all parts of the seed. Refined flours, which are used most often by Western nations, contain only the endosperm: the bran and germ are removed (along with much of the grain’s nutrition).

Nearly any grain can be milled and made into products such as bread, cereal, or pasta-food staples worldwide-with varying degrees of success depending on the chemistry of the grain.

History has taught us which grains work best and in what combinations. Gluten, which is found in grain protein, gives bread its springy texture. It becomes stretchy and thickens when liquid is added to the flour and the combination is kneaded.

The resulting gas from the fermentation of the carbohydrate in the flour is trapped by the dough, causing the gluten to stretch and, thus, the bread to rise. Because wheat and rye contain the highest quantities of gluten, flour made from these grains has proved best suited for making bread.

Other grains, such as corn, have less gluten, and products made from them are more crumbly. In most countries, the highest proportion of cultivated land is devoted to grains.

Crops such as wheat, rice, corn, barley, oats, and millet remain critical components in the diets of people worldwide. Wheat is amino acids (the building blocks of protein) that your body needs.

However, grains also do not have the twin disadvantages of animal-based protein-saturated fat and cholesterol, both of which are linked to cardiovascular disease. Grains can be eaten in combination with other foods-such as legumes, small servings of meat or poultry, and dairy foods-to provide the complete balance of amino acids.

Important minerals found in whole grains are iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc. Whole grains are also a source of B vitamins (niacin, thiamin, riboflavin) and antioxidants, such as vitamin E and selenium. Scientists the most widely grown grain. But, because multiple crops of rice can be grown in a year in tropical areas, a nearly equal amount of rice and wheat are grown each year.

Bread is such a fundamental food that the word “bread” itself is often equivalent to “food” or “money” in many parts of the world. Although it is a simple food, bread requires the conversion of grain into flour, leavening ingredients, and a means of baking.

Bread also plays a role in many customary rituals, such as the breaking and blessing of bread in religious rites. Although there are hundreds of different types of bread, the main types are leavened (meaning raised) and unleavened breads.

There are also quick breads, in which baking powder or baking soda is used as a leavening agent.

The main ingredients in most breads are the following:

Flour-The powdery material from ground grain, flour is the main ingredient in bread. Because of its high gluten content, wheat flour lends itself best to bread making. The gluten, when mixed with water, gives the bread dough elasticity.

This allows the dough to expand when the yeast ferments, yet it is strong enough to contain it. The result is light and airy bread. Any grain can be used to make bread. In countries where wheat is less readily available, grains that are used include millet, barley, rye, and oats.

Liquid-Water is the most common liquid in bread making, but beer, milk, and fruit juice also can be used. Liquid is needed in raised bread to allow the gluten in flour to do its work. The type of liquid used can result in the bread having different properties. Water, for example, will result in a thick crust.

Yeast-Yeast is a one-celled organism that is used to leaven bread. Unleavened breads and quick breads do not contain yeast. When yeast ferments the substances naturally present in flour, it produces a gas called carbon dioxide.

Bread rises as the gluten in the dough traps this gas. Yeast is also responsible for bread’s delicious aroma and gives it its flavor.

Salt-Bread can be made without this staple, but salt does several things when it is added to dough. It adds flavor, helps strengthen the gluten, and helps regulate yeast production.

Optional ingredients-Two ingredients that do not have to be added to bread but often are include sugar and fat. Sugar provides a ready food source for the multiplying yeast, adds flavor to bread, and helps it stay moist.

Fat is often used in commercial bread making. It adds flavor and tenderness. In addition, it gives the dough more elastic qualities, allowing it to expand more.

The most common type of bread eaten in the United States is made from refined white flour. Although enriched during processing and baking, not all of the nutrients lost when the flour is refined are returned to it.

A more nutritious choice is whole-wheat bread. Whole-wheat bread is made from flour ground from whole-wheat grains-meaning the bran and the germ also are used. Make sure the label indicates that only whole-wheat flour was used.

Otherwise, whole wheat or cracked wheat may have been added to white flour.

1. Straight dough method-mix the dry ingredients, add the warm water with dissolved yeast, and the dough is ready to be kneaded.

2.Sponge method-mix half of the flour with all dry ingredients and yeast but omit salt. Add part of liquid ingredients to form a sticky, almost runny dough. Set this sponge, covered, in a warm place for several hours or overnight. The yeast feed on the sugar to produce a fermenting, bubbling mass. They multiply rapidly during this period of fermentation.

When you are ready to bake, work the rest of the flour and salt into the sponge, knead and let rise. The sponge method replaces the first proofing of the dough so you may shape the bread after kneading. But an extra proofing time helps to create a better-flavored bread.

The sponge method, centuries old and used as standard in many commercial bakeries, produces the same dough as the straight dough method. The resulting bread, however, is moister and richer-tasting because acid-producing bacteria in the sponge have had a chance to add their byproducts with their pleasing, slightly tart flavors. It does take longer than the straight dough method, so it is no longer suitable for large-scale bread production where time is money.

Choose whichever method you prefer and have time for. Recipes often specify one or the other, but there is no reason why you cannot change the recipe to suit your preference or time constraint.

You have three choices for mixing dough, provided you own a food processor and a mixer. If you don’t own either, your only choice is by hand.

Kneading a stiff bread dough is about the most demanding job you can ask of a home appliance, or yourself for that matter. The machine needs to be quite powerful to be able to do the job without overheating or stalling. A small or even a medium-sized food processor or mixer won’t do. However, kneading by hand is not difficult. It just takes a little longer and can relieve a lot of anger or frustration if you really get into roughing up the dough like you should.

Here are two of the most popular dough mixing methods when using your hands.

1. Add the dry ingredients to a bowl. Mix liquid ingredients in a container, including the dissolved yeast, slightly beaten eggs and milk if the recipe calls for these. Slowly add the liquid ingredients to the bowl while stirring with a heavy spoon. As the dough starts forming, it gets harder and harder to stir.

When it gets to this stage, dump the dough on a large cutting board or counter top, and switch to hand mixing. As soon as the dough is formed, start kneading. If it feels too sticky, sprinkle a little more flour on and work it in. If too stiff, sprinkle the dough with water and work it in.

2. The second method is faster and more professional, using a dough cutter, also called the bench scraper, a very useful kitchen tool. A dough cutter is square 4×6-inch (10 to 15 cm) steel wit a handle on one long edge.

The straight edge of the dough cutter is its blade, not sharp as a knife but thin enough to easily cut dough. It also makes cleanup work easy when you use it as an efficient scraper to clean the dough off your work surface.

To mix dough with a dough cutter, pile the dry ingredients in a small mound in the middle of your work surface. Your liquid ingredients are ready in a bowl. Reshape the flour mound to form a large well in the middle, and pour all liquid into this well.

Using the blade of your dough cutter start mixing the flour into the liquid little by little, scraping small additions at a time into the liquid until well mixed, then adding some more. Keep an outside dike of dry ingredients around the liquid so none escapes from the well. By the time you get to the last ring of flour, the ingredients should form a dough. Now a few more turns by hand and the dough is ready for kneading.

A variation on this second method is to use your hands instead of the dough cutter to draw the flour into the liquid. It is also fast, but you end up with sticky, gooey fingers, a sure signal for the telephone to ring. A good bread dough is neither sticky nor stiff but just comfortable to shape or manipulate.

However, it is always better to be slightly on the too-moist side than too stiff. If your dough is too stiff, it resists the force of the enlarging bubbles and you don’t get the fullest rising possible. A very stiff dough barely rises on proofing or in the oven. A slightly sticky dough rises much better, plus it also has plenty of extra moisture to turn into vapor in the oven, vapor that further helps to enlarge gas bubbles in the dough giving you a coarse, airy, light texture. But beware of too sticky dough or it spreads on the baking sheet before it solidifies.

Most bread recipes call for a fixed amount of liquid and instruct you to adjust the dough by adding more or less flour. However, starting with fixed amount of flour is a better approach, because you end up with a specific-sized bread. Start with the flour and add warm water gradually until the dough has the perfect consistency.

When you add sharp-edged ingredients to your dough, such as coarse cracked grains, it is a good idea to add them only after kneading and mix them in by hand. The sharp edges may damage the gluten strands and sheets, particularly with powerful machine kneading. Damaged gluten can limit the dough from rising to its fullest.

Baking seems simple to us: put the well-risen, proofed dough in the hot oven and take it out when it is fully baked. If all went well (and there is no reason why it shouldn’t), we place a still steaming, irresistibly-perfumed, brown-crusted, mouth-wateringly beautiful loaf of bread on a wire rack, and we are ready to cut into it after a short cooling period.

But the baking process is anything but simple. There is a series of very complex chemical reactions and physical processes that happen during bread baking, so complex that even food scientists who have studied the baking process for decades are far from fully understanding it.

For our purposes as home chefs we don’t need to know more about these complex reactions than the very basics which are simple. In a nutshell, here is what happens in the oven. There are three stages of baking.

1. The first stage covers the first quarter of baking time, until the temperature of the dough reaches 140°F (60°C). That is the temperature when the yeast cells die. Up to that point the rising heat keeps the yeast more and more active to produce a great amount of carbon dioxide gas.

All the gas trapped in the dough now expands rapidly as we still remember from our physics class-heat expands gases. Another thing happens, too. The by-product alcohol the yeast produce after gobbling up the sugar evaporates and turns into gas in the hot oven.

The result? Even more gases in the dough. As a consequence, the dough expands rapidly. Bread bakers call this process oven spring- the bread dough springs up. Anticipating oven spring is the reason why you don’t let the dough fully double in the last rise.

If you allowed the dough to rise too much, the expanding gases during oven spring may rupture the barely solidified gluten structure, and the loaf may partially deflate. Also, if you let the dough rise too much, its structure becomes too unstable, and even such last-minute action as slashing and glazing may partially deflate it.

Should that happen to you, don’t trash the bread-it is still edible but a little dense and too firm. It may still be fine for toast. At the end of this first stage the gluten begins to coagulate and the starch to gelatinize.

Both processes are changes from soft, flaccid phase to firm and solid, and both occur at close to the same temperature, about 145°F (63°C). Once both gluten and starch are solid, the oven spring ends, the structure cannot expand any more-but by then the yeast cells are dead and they cannot produce more gas anyway.

2. During the second phase of baking, that makes up about one-half of the total baking time, the structure becomes more solid, progressing from the solidified crust toward the center. This phase is over when the center finally also turns solid. In the same time, near the end of the phase, the top crust begins to brown.

3. In the third phase, the final quarter of baking, the top surface dries out and turns brown.

These two processes form that splendid crisp crust of a fresh-baked bread. Even though browning only takes place on the thin outer surface, it affects the flavor of the entire loaf because the flavors (produced by the browning reaction) disseminate inward.

To prove the importance of this stage, try baking one light-colored and one dark-colored loaf from the same dough. The darker one will have noticeably more flavor. When knowledgeable housewives bought their breads in European village bakeries, they always asked for the darker loaves.

Appearance and presentation are all-important in contemporary North American dining rooms. The truth is, we consider bread almost like a glass of water by our plates, a standard fare.

You can bake a wonderful bread that looks like a showpiece in a classy baker’s window, yet few of your guest stop dinner conversation to ooh and aah when you bring in the bread basket filled with a spectacular, warm Italian Tuscan bread you just pulled from the oven. Few even ask if the bread is your own.

But a perfectly arranged and color-coordinated dinner on a plate, an artistically composed salad or a simple decorated poppy seed-chocolate torte will stop the most heated discussion, even if only for a moment.

A major reward you do get from baking your own bread is satisfaction in performing this seemingly demanding task and, of course, savoring it.

As far as difficulty is concerned, if you are organized, you keep your basic staples on your shelf replenished, and have a basic kitchen experience, you can assemble a quick bread batter in 15 to 20 minutes.

By the time you pour the batter in the pan, the oven is hot, and in 40 minutes you have the loaf cooling on the counter. It is ready to cut, butter and eat in another 15 minutes. Actual work time is 25 minutes, including slicing and cleanup.

Yeast breads take a considerably longer time, but surprisingly not much more total work time once you are a regular bread baker.

To assemble the ingredients and knead the dough takes 15 to 20 minutes, less if you use a food processor or mixer. The first rise takes about 1 to 1½ hours.

It takes only a few minutes to punch down the dough, shape it and place it in a pan for the second rise, which takes some 40 to 50 minutes. A bread bakes in another 40 to 50 minutes, rolls 15 minutes.

Total time is over 3 hours, but your actual working time, including slicing and cleanup, is about 25 minutes when hand kneading or 15 minutes when using a machine. Is this realistic? Once your bread baking is routine, it is and you can prove it to yourself.

Is yeast bread worth the wait? You bet! Other culinary achievements that rival the satisfaction of baking a great bread is stirring up a wonderful, hearty soup or baking a spectacular cake.

In 1930, with the discovery of vitamins, scientists have understood what had happened and so the miller men began adding B vitamins to refined grain. So the obvious deficiencies have been corrected. More recently, scientists have recognized that many of our diets contain not enough folic acid, so in 1996 the public health authorities have imposed those from the milling industry to add folic acid to flour. But it will take a long time until the science will understand that this strategy of addition for the “wonder bread”, so as it was called by a nutritionist, will not resolve all issues generated from the refining of grain. Diseases caused by deficiencies are easier to follow and to be treated (the successful medicine in their treatment is an important element for the nutrition prestige) rather than chronic diseases and found that the refinement of carbohydrate is involved in the appearance of some chronic diseases- like diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancers.

The refined grain story is a parable about the reductionist science boundaries which are applied to something so complex as food. For several years, nutritionists know that a food rich in whole grains reduces the risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. (The statement remains valid even beyond the indication that people who eat more whole grains probably have a healthier lifestyle and other point of view) Different nutritionists have attributed the benefits of whole grains to different nutrients: fiber of bran, folic acid and other vitamin B from the germ, antioxidants and various minerals. In 2003, “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” published a non-reductionist study which demonstrates that benefits of whole grains can not be attributed to a single nutrient. The usual reductionist analysis of isolated nutriments could not explain the health improvement of whole grains consumers.

The epidemiologists David R. Jacobs and Lyn M. Steffen from the University of Minnesota has reread previous research and discovered ample evidence of the fact that a rich in whole grains diet reduces mortality which has different causes. Surprising was the fact that, after adjusting the levels of fibers, vitamin E, folic acid, fitic acid, iron, zinc, magnesium and manganese in food (all the benefits that we know about are found in whole grains) it has been discovered an additional benefit of consumption of whole grains, which couldn’t be attributed to any single nutrient nor their totality. So, subjects receiving the same amount of the listed nutrients, but from other sources were not as healthy as those who ate whole grains, “the analysis suggests that another element from the whole grains protects against death”. The authors concluded, somehow vague, but suggestive that “the various grains and their component act synergistically” and they have suggested to their colleagues to take into account the concept of “food synergy”. So here is an argument for a revolutionary idée in relation to the nutritional standards: it could happen that a whole product is much more than the amount of nutrients that it is made.

It is no need to tell you that the proposal was not enthusiastically received by the food industry and this thing is probably not happening anytime soon. Even while I write, Coca-Cola launches drinks full of vitamins, there is the concept of “wonder bread” for industrial food products in their ultimate state (wonder drink?). Since ever there have been invested large amounts of money for processed food and not in whole food marketing and probably the industry investment in a reductionist approach to nutrition is just one. The problem is that there is something in us that love carbs, and that something is the human brain. Human brain keens on to carbs that are reduced to their essence power, which is pure glucose. Once the industry discovered a way to transform the seeds of cereals in the chemical equivalent of sugar, there was no going back.

From this point of view, the refinement of whole food means not only an invention of new ways to make products more resistant and more portable, but also to focus their energy and in a way to accelerate them. The major leap in terms of acceleration was made around 1870, when in Europe were introduced the rolls (iron, steel or porcelain) used for grinding grain. Perhaps more than any other technology, this, which in 1880 replaced the millstones throughout Europe and America, marked the beginning of our food industrialization -reducing it to its chemical essence and accelerating its uptake. Refined flour is the first product of fast food.

Before the millstone revolution, wheat was grounded between two stone wheels and white flour could not be a perfect white because the millstones were removing the bran from the wheat grain (and therefore most of the fiber), but could not remove the germ or embryo that contains essential oils rich in nutrients. The stone mills were only crushing and releasing germ oil. The effect was the gray-yellow shade of the obtained flour (the yellow color is given by carotene) also the shelf-life was shorter because, in contact with air, oil, and rust quickly, that means it grows rancid. People saw and smelled these things and were not satisfied. But what their senses were not perceived was that in the seeds were the most valuable flour nutrients, including most of the proteins, folic acid and other B vitamins, carotenes and other antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids which quickly grown rancid.

The insert of rollers which could remove the germ by grinding only the endosperm (the starch and protein package from the seeds) has resolved the issue of conservation and color. Now, almost everyone could afford to buy immaculate white flour, which could now be preserved for several months. There was no need for each city to have its own mill, because from that point flour could be transported for long distances. (In addition, it can be ground throughout the year by large companies in big cities: heavy stone mills based on hydraulic power depended on watercourses; the new shafts could be maneuvered whenever and wherever steam engines) And so, one of the basis food product from the Western diets has escaped the space and time limitations, it was sold by appearance and not on the criterion of nutritional value. From this perspective, white flour was one of the first modern industrial food products.

The problem was that beautiful white powder was null or almost null in terms of nutrition. The same was now in the case of corn flour and white rice, whose refining (i.e. removal of the most nutritious parts) was introduced around the same period. In all regions where there were introduced on a large scale, the new refining technologies appeared in a short time, devastating epidemics of beriberi and pellagra. Both diseases are caused by vitamin B deficiencies which were contained in seed. But probably because ot the sudden disappearance of other micro-nutrients from bread, and also the omega-3 fatty acids, affect health, especially that of poor townspeople in Europe, for whom bread was a fundamental food product.

Did you know that some foods take their toll own our mood? Some nutrients are absolutely mandatory for the good functioning of our brain and nervous system which is in charge, among others, with our good well being. Here are some of the most important nutrients to keep us happy!

1) GLUCIDS

Glucids are in charge of stimulating the production of  serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences the so called ‘good mood’. Sugar, for instance, is one of them, but, in order to keep our organism healthy, it is better if glucids are consumed in forms of cereals, bread, potatoes, beans, but not in excess, of course, because the body will transform them into fats. Also, eat generous portions of fruits and vegetables, and, the wonderful chocolate, that, even if you care about your figure, you can consume from time to time, but in small quantities. You may non know this, but the sweet tooth you always have may be a sign of lack of serotonin.

2) MINERALS

Iron. It is essential for the whole organism, helping neurotransmitors to be formed and transported. We can find it in meat, fish, some vegetables, nuts, cereals and seeds.

Zinc. It plays almost the same role  and it is found in the same foods as iron, with the exception that we can find plenty of zinc also in liver and oysters.

Magnesium. With calcium, it helps transmit the nervous impulses. If you are stressed, your magnesium level decreases, decrease that can lead to anxiety or depression. We can get magnesium from nuts, peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, green leafed vegetables, fish, seafood, cereals.

3)B VITAMINS

Folic Acid (B9). Stimulates the serotonin secretion. Lack of folic acid can lead to irritability

agressivity, depression. B12 Vitamin can be found in green leafed vegetables, wheat,

soya, eggs, liver, oysters, cereals, and B6 in bananas, avocados,

asparagus.

4)FATTY ACIDS

Last researches show that fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6 which we can find in fish, seafood, regulate some hormonal actions, including the ones for our mood. These acids are very important to our brain, improving consistently our cognitive capacity. according to these studies, consuming one portion of fat fish, at least once a week decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer. Also, fatty acids contribute to improving you skin aspect, being used in cosmetic treatments.

Original Articles. Constant-Content.