Bready or not, here I crumb!

The smell of fresh toast in the morning, the crackling sound of the knife on the crispy bread spreading your favourite butter and taking that first crunchy bite.
Yes, this is one of thousands of ways to enjoy the miracle food that is bread.
My earliest memory of enjoying any kind of food is bread and to this day I am obsessed and intrigued by bread. Bread baking is an art, a science, and has become a well-respected occupation in many countries around the world.
Bread has been around so long it features in the Bible. So yes, it has been around for a while and has not disappointed once since its existence. Bread is indeed one of the oldest forms of food that has been prepared by human civilisation and has become a staple around the globe, developed and prepared differently in almost all countries. Just think of the pizza pie from Italy, baguette from France, Brötchen from Germany, and the list goes on.
The beauty of bread is the variety of ways to prepare it and it always ends up delicious in any way it is prepared. I think this is what makes it quite magical.
Simple bread is made by combining flour, water and yeast, then baked, fried or steamed until cooked. To enhance flavour and texture, butter, milk, eggs, salt, sugar and spices can be added to improve the dough.
Yeast plays a pivotal role in the dough as it is responsible for the fermentation process. Yeast converts sugars into carbon dioxide, which in turn stretches the gluten and creates air pockets giving dough its desired shape and structure, and of course its flavour.
I can talk about hot buttered buns all day – from making sourdough bread to making sweet banana bread – bread is and was always part of our lives and will surely be there in the future. For the rich or for the poor, bread is enjoyed equally around the world in all its different varieties.