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Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own
by Andrew Whitley

Synopsis
Andrew Whitley, organic baker and founder of The Village Bakery, reveals the deplorable state into which modern supermarket bread has fallen, and the secrets behind making good, nutritious bread at home. All is not well in British baking. Commercial bread is laced with additives to make it look good and stay soft. It uses varieties of wheat that have been bred for high yield and baking performance with little concern for human nutrition. To rush it through the bakery at the lowest possible cost, it's dosed with four times as much yeast as before. Described as 'fresh' when it may have been frozen and re-heated, it's sold as a loss-leader at knock-down prices which undermine what little respect it may once have commanded. Even before the Atkins diet frightened people off, there was evidence of a massive growth of intolerance - to gluten, wheat and yeast in particular. Call it coincidence. Dismiss it as hypochondria if you will. But things have come to a pretty pass when people avoid their staple food - the staff of life - in droves. "Bread Matters" offers a solution. Revealing the madness behind this modern adulteration of our most basic food as only an insider can, organic baker Andrew Whitley, founder of The Village Bakery in Melmerby, shows why and how to make real bread at home. Unlike many bread book authors, he has baked for a living for over 25 years. His recipes are fool-proof because he explains what's really going on, demystifying the science, sharing a practical baker's craft. Using the skills he deploys on his popular courses, he guides and inspires beginners and seasoned bakers alike. And he brings good news to those who have had to abandon bread because of dietary sensitivity, showing how to bake tasty and nutritious food without yeast, wheat or gluten.

From the Author
Are you one of the many people who find that modern bread doesn’t agree with them? If so, Bread Matters may be partly your responsibility.

I had been making fairly ordinary breads at the Village Bakery for about fifteen years, when people started to ring up and write in asking whether I made any loaves without wheat, or baker’s yeast, or both. It seemed that they felt ‘bloated’ or worse when they ate shop bread. Tests suggested that they should avoid wheat, gluten or yeast. I brushed up my baking skills and started to make bread differently, using rye and spelt flours and a long rising process using only natural yeasts. Customers said they could digest the new breads, no problem.

This set me thinking – and researching. I came to the conclusion that there was something fundamentally wrong with the way modern bread is made, from the chemically-grown wheat, to the roller-milled flour to the super-fast factory production which allows no time for the dough to mature and stuffs it with additives to give it superficial appeal. So Bread Matters is the product of a great British belly-ache. But I hope it helps many people to take their health in their hands and escape from the clutches of the food industry by making their own.

Entertaining polemic and great recipes - what more could I ask? - 2007
Reviewer: Paul Lynch

If you bake bread, then you will be in sympathy with what Andrew Whitley has to say. The author rants extensively about the state of the industry, and the depredations to our palate caused by the Chorleywood process with no signs of abatement. He informs this with an eye to the biochemistry of baking that is missing from most 'hard-core' bread books.

About three quarters of the book is devoted to the process of baking; we are taken through simple yeast risen recipes, and led directly into creating a no nonsense rye sourdough starter. The recipes here are centred around Russian style ryes, with additional recipes for different grains: wheat and rye of course, but also spelt and gram. Later chapters include the modern trend for flavoured doughs (tomato and onion, mushroom and garlic, etc), and cover the range from ciabatta and calzone to stollen and lardy cake, with an extensive chapter on gluten-free baking.

It should be clear to the experienced from the above description that Andrew Whitley favours working with very wet doughs, using natural leavens and a wide variety of grains. For a novice some of the descriptions could be more detailed, and the number of permutations for using leavens tends towards the confusing. On balance, I think that a novice breadmaker would be able to learn to make bread from the progressive instructions given in the three chapters devoted to this.

I baked my way through the central section of the book; I had to substitute dried yeast for his fresh yeast in the initial recipes with some stumbling on my part - the instructions for conversion are located in a different section of the book. My rye starter worked exactly as he predicted, and is currently producing a series of fantastic wholemeal rye loaves and French country style wheat and rye (which he calls Cromarty Cob). The doughs all come out somewhat wetter and more fluid than the author describes, but bake successfully (which is what really matters). He also suggests baking at 220-240 C for an initial period, which my last two domestic ovens refuse to reach (they all lie about their temperature, too, which is a very common problem).

Bread Matters is joining my bookshelf alongside Ed Espe Brown, Elizabeth David, Laurel's Kitchen and Nancy Silverton. I can't say any better than that.

Interesting thoughts on bread - 2007
By buffaloboro

I bought this book for £10 at a chain bookstore. It is an interesting read & like a lot of the 'real food ' zealots, his heart is in the right place. I agree with the comments of an earlier poster - it isn't always easy or affordable for us to always eat as we wld like.

I found it a book that you need to study & the authors views give an overall view of where he sees bread in the World.

If you just want a book that shows you how to make good bread , consider 100 Great Breads by Hollywood. If you are 'into' the total experience of making bread - consider this. I am happy I own it.

Recipes, a treatise on healthy eating and humour too - 2007
By Jon M Wood "Home Baker"

This is a great book, with a wide variety of interesting, easy to follow and delicous recipes. There is lots of advice and a huge amount of indepth knowledge on the state of bread in Britain today.

Not only is the book presented with a huge amount of knowledge and with obvious passion for the subject, but it is also written with a lovely gentle humour - altogether a joy to read, and to follow. Well worth the money.

Best Book buy for home bread making - 2007
By Paul Savident

This is a terrific book. I have been baking my own bread for years but this book not only has excellent, easy-to-follow recipes but also gives the home bread baker an understanding of the ingredients and processes that go into making good (and bad!) bread. I had always been concerned when a dough was too wet - now I know not to be. Many other books on home bread making, though excellent, prove (sorry!) to be inadequate when you want to try something new - this book encourages learning how and why things happen, and them changing them to suit. It helps the reader learn about different types of flour, yeasts, sourdough, temperature, water, how gluten is changed etc. This is a must-buy book for home breadmakers.

Use your loaf! - 2007
By June A "June"

An excellent book, both as a serious study and as a recipe book. I had known for years that modern bread was the main reason for my and other people's ills but had no scientific proof. No longer do my friends and family look on me as freak who cannot eat modern bread. Home baking tastes wonderful and can be healthy - so don't stop with bread.

Bread time reading? - 2006
By JOe Wood

In twenty years time it will be interesting to look back at this book and assess the verdict of history. Whitley is a passionate man and founded the Village Bakery in Melmerby as long ago as 1976 - there's no doubt that he can bake a good loaf, and there is no doubt that he has done a great deal to popularise the sourdough loaf. In this fat book he lays into the plant-baking industry, he attacks the nutritional content of plant-baked bread; he blames fast roll mills for diminishing mineral and vitamin levels; and he worries about enzymes. In short he sees everything as very black and white. Craft Bakers, yes! Plant Bakers, no!

A lot of what he says is very interesting and there are certainly some terrific recipes for the home cook - calzoni; potato and quinoa bread; arkatena bread from Cyprus; caraway rye bread; and many more. But his commentary on the baking industry comes from an extreme standpoint and is sometimes well outside the mainstream of reality. We would all like to eat wild salmon, but we all know that on 99 occasions out of 100 we can only get, and we can only afford, its farmed cousin. With the national diet in such a terrible state it would have been a good thing if he had made the case for people eating more fresh bread. Fresh bread has the most appetising smell in the world, and that aroma will do more to change the bread eating habits of Britain for the better than any rant against the Chorley Wood Process. Let's start by getting people to see the merits of fresh bread and then convert them to more artisan breads, such as wholemeal, rye and sourdough. Surely it is more worthwhile to encourage several million ordinary people to enjoy fresh bread than to provide a small elite with ultra-traditional, slow-risen, exotic breads?

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