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August 2008

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Breadstuffs

A Guide To The Many Types Of Bread

Page 7: Glossary Of Bread Types ~ P

This is page 7 of a 9-page glossary of the many different types of bread. Click on the links below to visit other pages. You can also return to the overview and the history of bread or select from more than fifty food glossaries.

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PAIN AU CHOCOLAT
Literally “chocolate bread,” pain au chocolat is an oblong breakfast pastry or snack roll made of the same light, flaky, yeast-leavened laminated pastry dough as a croissant. It is filled with pieces of dark chocolate; when served warm from the oven, the chocolate is in a soft state. It is often called a chocolate croissant in the U.S., but this is incorrect; croissant means crescent, and there are croissant-shaped breads that are dusted or rolled with chocolate.
Photo by Berryspun | CSP.

PAIN AU LEVAIN
French for sourdough bread. These can be found in crusty oblong loaves round loaves, called boules (pronounced bools).

PAIN AUX NOIX
Nut bread. See walnut bread.

PAIN DE SEIGLE
French for rye bread. Traditional rustic French rye breads are baked in round loaves and boules.

PANKO Panko are coarsely-ground Japanese breadcrumbs, more like flakes. They have a large surface area, so tend to stay crispy longer than regular bread crumbs (and they also absorb less grease). The result is lighter, crisper, and crunchier breading (think tempura coating). PAN LOAF Loaves baked in plans for a softer crust and a uniform profile. They are sized for slicing for sandwiches, and are sold sliced and unsliced. They can be made from any type of grain, brioche, etc. PARATHA A flatbread from the Punjab region of Northern India. Made with whole-wheat flour, it is pan fried in ghee or cooking oil, and often stuffed with paneer (cheese) and/or vegetables such as boiled potatoes (aloo paratha), radishes and cauliflower.

Photo of aloo paratha by Simon Law, courtesy Wikipedia.org.

PIADINA ALLA ROMAGNOLA
Roman flatbread. Circular and flat like a tortilla, it is used to sandwich foods (grilled sausages and onions, for example), as a snack spread with cheese and with spreads, among other uses.

PAN DE SAL or PANDESAL
Literally, salt bread) is a Filipino breakfast bread. Made with flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar and salt, it tends to be on the sweet side rather than a savory bread.

PANE RUSTICA
See peasant bread.

PARISIENNE
A long loaf, wider than a baguette. In France, it is called a flûte.

PEASANT BREAD or PANE RUSTICA
Generally a large, round rustic loaf with a thick crust and a hearty, flavorful crumb. Rural peasants often made this type of simple, satisfying bread with whole grains. The breads were baked in open fireplaces or large brick community ovens, since peasants did not have sophisticated kitchens. Most are baked in modern, conventional ovens.

PITA
Pita takes the form of both a thick flatbread and a pocket bread consisting of a double layer of flatbread. Pita is traditional bread in many Middle Eastern cuisines, and in Mediterranean cuisines from Africa to Greece. Pocket pitas are used to hold other ingredients (falafel, shwarama); traditional pita is used for dips (hummus, tzatziki) and to wrap souvlaki and gyros.
Photo courtesy of Cabot Creamery.

PIZZA
Pizza is a flatbread made in a variety of diameters as a base for cheese, tomatoes and other toppings. While generally round, it is also made in rectangular and novelty shapes (hearts, e.g.). Most pizza is wheat-based, although whole-wheat and semolina varieties can be found.

POCKET BREAD
A flatbread formed into a pouch into which other foods can be stuffed. Pita is perhaps the most familiar example.

POPOVER
A quickbread, the popover is an Americanization of Yorkshire Pudding. A popover is an egg batter cooked in custard cups or muffin tins to produce a very light, hollow roll—essentially, an eggy crust. The name comes from the fact that the batter swells or “pops” over the top of the cup while baking. Popovers need to be eaten hot, or they become rubbery.
Photo courtesy American Egg Board, aeb.org.

PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD
A lightly sweet round loaf made with milk, sugar and/or honey, popular as a breakfast bread. Traditionally a Christmas and Easter holiday bread, baked with hard-boiled eggs for Easter, it is now available year-round.

POTATO BREAD
In potato bread, potato replaces a major portion of the wheat flour. It developed in Ireland as a way to use mashed-potato leftovers.

PUFF PASTRY Classic puff pastry (pâte feuilletée or pâte feuilletage) is a wheat dough spread with butter or other solid fat and repeatedly rolled out and folded. It creates a soft, buttery, flaky bread. Croissants are made with a variation of puff pastry dough that contains a small amount of yeast to aid in leavening (as does Danish dough); classic puff pastry uses only steam to rise. Cheese straws, napoleons, turnovers and numerous crusts and shells are made from puff pastry.

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Unlike so many origins that are lost to history, we actually know the inventor of puff pastry. Around 1645, a French apprentice pastry chef named Claudius Gele created a special loaf of bread for his sick father, whose diet consisted of water, flour and butter. Claudius prepared a dough and packed butter into it, kneading and folding the dough ten times before molding it into a loaf. Claudius’ master felt the butter would just run out, once the dough went into the oven. Both chefs were amazed at the size it attained. As it turns out, moisture in the dough turns to steam; the air trapped in the many foldings expands when heated, causing the pastry to puff and separate into hundreds of flaky and thin layers, pushing it up and out in every direction. While one of Claudius’ subsequent employers claimed to have invented puff pastry, he kept his secret to himself, always prepared his pastries in a locked room, and was a highly regarded artist.

PRETZEL
A soft pretzel is actually a yeast bread, rolled into a long rope and knotted.

PULL-APART BREAD
A softer style of bread that is scored and brought to the table whole, to be pulled apart. Monkey bread (round) and Parker House rolls (rectangular) are examples.

PULLMAN LOAF or PAIN DE MIE
A pullman loaf, also known as a sandwich loaf, is a white bread baked in a long, narrow, lidded pan; the lid slides on and off the grooves in the pan. The lid creates a flat top and even rectangles for making sandwiches (as opposed to a curved top crust). While the origin of the name is uncertain, some say the shape of the loaf made it easier to store aboard railway dining cars, or that the loaf or the pan resembled the shape of a railroad car."

POORI or PURI
One of the unleavened breads of India, poori is made from whole-grain durum wheat flour (atta), water and salt, and deep fried in ghee or vegetable oil, where it puffs up into pillows (which gradually deflate). Pieces are torn off and used to scoop up lentils, rice and other vegetables.

PUMPERNICKEL
Pumpernickel is a dark, dense rye bread, made from crushed or ground rye grains. It can be dark brown to almost black. Pumpernickel is baked for a long period at a low temperature in a covered tin; the long baking time is responsible for the dark color. Like most rye breads, it is made with a sourdough starter. There are different types of pumpernickel, most notably the German Westphalian pumpernickel, a dense bread made from 100% rye flour, including crushed or ground whole rye grains, and a sourdough starter, with a profound rye flavor; and American Jewish-style pumpernickel, which contains wheat flour and has a more mild flavor and more porous crumb than theWestphalian pumpernickel.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

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