Pane - the Staff of Life
"Give us this day our daily bread.” The Lord’s Prayer, from a time when bread was a nourishing staple, instead of a spongy filler wrapped in plastic.

 No feeling can compare to that of setting foot in a small neighborhood bakery in the morning and breathing in the sweet scents of fresh bread!  

Good bread is a simple food with simple ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt and it is said, that this simple food is the reason that civilization exists in the way we know it today. But in a supermarket in the Western World, it’s difficult to find a commercial loaf of bread that would sustain life for any amount of time.  The differences between an artisanal bakery’s bread made by traditional methods and an industrial loaf have to do with quality, taste and nutrition.

If you compare a list of ingredients for an industrial baked loaf, to that of an artisanal loaf, you will inevitably notice a big difference in the length of the lists and the amount of chemicals used. Bread from artisanal bakeries is made from flour, water, sourdough or yeast, and salt.  Industrial bread, on the other hand, contains about a dozen additives, including not only preservatives, but acid regulators, emulsifiers, flour improvers, flour treatment agents, bleaching agents, and sometimes coloring.  Add to that, the hard milling of the wheat to make the flour that is used in these breads, destroys the natural vitamins, so synthetic ones are added. Instead of the twenty-four hours that is needed to proof artisanal bread, an industrial loaf rises in twenty minutes. Since the industrial method favors quantity and speed rather than quality, the dough needs help from the addition of a large portion of artificial gluten, which is known to cause allergies in many people. An artisanal loaf takes time. It ferments slowly and uses a better quality of wheat with natural gluten, that helps the bread rise and hold moisture. The superior nutrition and taste of a hearty artisanal bread is created during the long proofing time.