Bread is a good source of carbohydrates, it is portable, easy to carry, and can be paired with a lot of other foods. It is recently discovered that bread might be first invented 30.000 years ago. It was found that people in ancient Egypt made bread by using a common source of leavening in antiquity, it is to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize as form of sourdough starter. There are several type of breads known today, not only the ingredients that makes them different but also the method to bake them and from what region they came from can also differs the bread. Currently there are dozens type of bread in this world, but in this article we are going to talk about the regular bread and the flatbread.
Contents
Bread
Bread is commonly known as a staple food made from flour and water, and usually done by baking them. Until this day bread is a very popular around the world, and it is one of the oldest artificial food. Proportions of type of flour and any other ingredients may vary, as do as shape, and how it were cooked. The chosen leavening also takes an important part when baking bread, some bread is baked before it can leaven, including for traditional or religious reason. Non-cereal ingredients such as fruits, nuts and fats may be included. Commercial bread usually contain additive to improve its taste, texture, color, shelf life, nutrition, and ease of manufacturing. Bread can be served with various other foods, or can be eaten by itself. People usually eat bread in the morning when taking breakfast, but it is not unusual eating them for lunch or dinner, a lot of busy people commonly taking bread when they don’t have enough time to eat a proper meal. It is not a healthy lifestyle but bread is pretty convenient to eat on the go and easy to carry even when in a hurry.
To prepare a bread from scratch first in a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water, then add the sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour, ½ cup at a time to form a soft dough. Then turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, for 8-10 minutes and place in a greased bowl. Next is punch the dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, divide dough in half. Shape each into a loaf. Place in two greased 9×5-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, it will need 30-45 minutes. Bake at 375 degree for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Last is remove the pans to wire rack and let it cool, once it cooled down you can slice it up to your taste.
Flatbread
Flatbread is a bread that made with flour, water and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Commonly flatbread are not leaven but some of them are a bit leaven such as pita bread. There are other ingredients which can be used when making flatbread some of them are curry powder, diced jalapenos, chili powder, black pepper, olive oil or sesame oil can be added as well. Flatbread ranges from one millimeter to a few centimeters. Flatbread and pizza crust are quite similar, there are no official definition that can differentiate them, but some people described the flatbread texture is more cracker-like crust while pizza crust are more in the chewy side.
The way to make flatbread is prepare the needed ingredients like bread flour, salt, toasted and ground coriander seeds, smoked paprika, olive oil and warm water. The method to making it is first, mix the flour, salt, coriander seeds and paprika in a large bowl, make a well in the center an add the olive oil and the warm water. Use a fork to mix the flour with the water and olive oil, you can add more water if necessary. Once the dough starts to come together, use your hands to form a soft ball of dough. Second, dust your hands and in a clean work surface knead the dough for about 5 minutes or until it smooth and elastic. Put the dough back in the bowl and cover it with a clean napkin or plastic wrap for another 15 minutes. The last is divide the dough into 5 equal balls. Roll them out to the thickness of a £2 coin. Heat the griddle pan and cook the flat breads for 2 minutes each sides.
| Bread | Flatbread |
|---|---|
| - Made from flour and water, and usually done by baking them | - Made with flour, water and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough |
| - A kind of bread for breakfast | - Its flat shape resembles pizza |
| - Soft texture and chewy | - More crunchy and dry |
Conclusion
Between regular bread and flatbread neither one of them are healthier or taste better than the other. Both of them taste equally good depend on your personal taste. Flatbread is basically bread which are not risen up, so it was named flatbread. If you prefer softer, chewy type of bread then regular bread might be suit up your taste. But if you are more into the crunchy and dry type then you might prefer flatbread better.