"Real" wholemeal bread vs "spongy" sliced w/m bread?

Cranks has no additives and those spongy ones usually do... flour improvers, preservatives etc. Additives to puff it up, retain soft spongey freshness etc. The wholewheat content can be the same.

Waitrose has a nice sourdough loaf made by Bertinet. Not 100% wholewheat though. No additives and a 'proper' texture. They also sell 'artisan' spelt and wholemeal loaves as well.
Their in-house traditional wholewheat loaf is good.

I have had 100% wholewheat from a bread maker ... might be an idea. It's very easy.. just put everything in and wait for the fresh loaf to appear!

I will check my Waitrose! If true, I shall make my own wholemeal bread.

Oh, no, hope not all Waitrose branches have stopped selling Cranks Brad - it’s delicious, and healthy.

Oh, I wonder if they’ve stopped trading - seems out of stock everywhere

I occasionally buy the Cranks from Waitrose and will look for it tomorrow in my local branch .
I also like the Heyford loaf from the bakery in Waitrose- have you tried it GeeKay? It isn’t as dense as Cranks but is very tasty, and nothing like the plastic spongy brands.
They will slice it too.

NotAGran55

I occasionally buy the Cranks from Waitrose and will look for it tomorrow in my local branch .
I also like the Heyford loaf from the bakery in Waitrose- have you tried it GeeKay? It isn’t as dense as Cranks but is very tasty, and nothing like the plastic spongy brands.
They will slice it too.

Just what I was going to say! Try the Waitrose Wholemeal Heyford and ask for it to be sliced. I agree most supermarket wholemeal loaves are spongy and soft, like white bread that looks brown.
www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/wholemeal-heyford/432291-60813-60814

It is to do with how the bread is baked. Real bread, goes through a raising and 'proving' process, before being baked in a hot oven .

In 1961 the Chorleywood Flour Milling and Baking Research Assoxiation developed the Chorleywood bread making process. It involves putting lots of extra ingredients in the bread mix, which makes the bread rise fast and then steam cooking it. Here is a link to the process, its advantages and disadvantages www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13670278

Personally, when I was young I loved bread and spread, but in the 60s-70s, I gradually started eating less and less, it just didn't taste right. I had no idea why.

Then 30 years ago we moved to live in a village with a 'real' baker and I learn all about the Chorleywood process. With bread baked from simple ingredients and baked properly, I began to eat bread again.

I now have difficulty swallowing supermarket bread. It turns into a sticky paste like uncooked pastry and sticks in my throat.

Thanks for that article which was fascinating! I guess we've all noticed the change in bread since the 1950s, but as everything else has also changed it's no surprise. Food is now manufactured and most of what we eat today does not taste as it did in the past.

Since I hate any slab like dense bread I won’t be in mourning for Cranks.
Hovis make a lovely wholemeal sliced, not in the least spongy.

The reason many things including bread doesn’t taste as good as it used to is low salt.
Salt is what brings out the flavour in cooking and health diktats means that very low amounts are used.

Some bread that looks at first sight as though it is wholemeal is actually just "brown" bread and has none of the outer part of the wheat in it at all. It should be labelled as "brown bread" not as "wholemeal bread"
It’s often thought that ‘Brown’ bread is made from wholemeal flour. This is not the case as it is simply white flour bread with additives to make it look brown, such as caramel taylorsofbruton.co.uk/newsletter/quick-guide-to-bread-flours/

Bread and Flour Regulations 1998
"Wholemeal - all the flour used as an ingredient in the preparation of the bread must be wholemeal. The term “wholemeal” is not defined in law, however it is
generally accepted that wholemeal flour is the entire wheat grain, which contains the bran and the germ."
"Wheat germ – the bread must have an added processed wheat germ content of at least 10% calculated on the dry matter of the bread."
"Other descriptions of bread, such as “white”, “brown”, “stone-ground” are not specifically prescribed by law. However, the use of such descriptions will be subject to the rules of the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 – “where there is no name
prescribed by law for a food, the name used must be sufficiently precise to inform the purchaser of the true nature of the food and must not mislead"
"Note that as part of these legislative changes, the use of the flour bleaching agents, e.g. chlorine and chlorine dioxide is no longer allowed. Therefore claims for the use of unbleached flour are meaningless and should be avoided."
www.spab.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/MillsSection/Planning_Download_Bread_and_Flour_Regulations.pdf

I love Cranks bread, so emailed them to see what the situation is. Received this reply -

I make all my own bread as I have never found a good supermarket bread.
I make a wholemeal no knead recipe and a sourdough.
I have my grandchildren staying at the moment, they just want to eat my homemade bread and homemade butter!
It’s flour water salt and starter for the sourdough and flour, water yeast, oil and salt for the wholemeal.
So simple.
If I have potato water I use that, it gives extra rise.

Waitrose bakery section do a small organic wholemeal bloomer, unsliced, which reminds me of the bread I used to buy years ago from Cranks bakery.

Wasn't Crank's the first vegetarian/ vegan restaurant in London during the 60's?

Sainsbury has a pretty decent wheat and rye sourdough half-loaf and there are other variations in the range. TTD as you'd expect.

Findout if you have a local artisan baker. There may be one at your local farmers market.

Sadly our local baker closed after over 30years in business, but we found asomeone else local, working on a smaller scale, who sells at our local Farmers Market.

We are on the move, and I ahve already researched where the local proper baker is.

I have a cranks recipe book and actually made one of their recipes yesterday. I loved their food right from the start, when cranks came into being and I have been a bread maker for 55 years. In my genes btw

wrt bread, I make cranks-type bread a lot. Very basic simple recipes, not a lot of yeast and certainly no improvers. I don`t eat shop bought bread at all. My loaf this week was made from einkorn flour, low gluten, an ancient wheat and very tasty and satisfyingly dense

What I notice is the bread I make myself in the bread maker will last only a couple of days, three at most before it goes stale. Bought bread lasts 5 or 6 days. What are they adding and is it unhealthy ? Same applies to fruit and veggies. I found some old shop bought strawberries at the back of the fridge, a couple of weeks old. They didn’t have a mark on them which I found very scary. Maybe they will invent something to keep us from going off and old whilst they’re at it ?

Each time I try sliced wholemeal bread I detect a bitterness which has put me off. Instead I buy multigrain or seeded.

I like Jason’s bread - sold in most supermarkets. My favourite is the seeds and grains.

shysal, bitter if using old stale flour

That's bad news about Cranks bread.

Oreo

The reason many things including bread doesn’t taste as good as it used to is low salt.
Salt is what brings out the flavour in cooking and health diktats means that very low amounts are used.

I home make every food we eat, breads included.

I use 1t salt, 1t sugar, 1t yeast, 3+c flour, water - that means 1 loaf has daily salt for a person. We eat a slice (or equivalent of my other sorts of bread) at meals. How could the salt in 3 portions of bread be a health issue?