A Guide To The Many Types Of Bread

Page 8: Glossary Of Bread Types ~ Q To S

This is page 8 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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QUICK BREAD or QUICKBREAD
A light, airy bread made with a chemical leavening agent (baking powder or baking soda). The name refers to the fact that since they are made without yeast, they don’t need time to rise before baking; the quick chemical leaveners activate as soon as they are moistened; no kneading or rising is required. Biscuits, cornbread, muffins, popovers, soda breads and sweet breads such as banana bread fall into this category. Banana bread (and other nut and fruit loaves), many coffeecakes, pancakes and waffles and waffles are also quickbreads.

RING
Numerous breads are baked in ring shapes; they tend to be artisan breads such as ciabatta and holiday breads such as Easter bread rings baked with colored eggs. An exception are the everyday bagel and bialy.

ROLL
Rolls A roll is an individually-portioned bread, often a smaller version of a larger loaf. It differs from a biscuit in that it is made with yeast as a leavening agent rather than baking powder or baking soda. There are numerous types of rolls, reflecting national and regional specialties. Examples of the different types of rolls include brioche, clover leaf, club rolls, crescent, dinner rolls, finger rolls, kaiser, knot, Parker House, pistolet and twist. Hamburger and hot dog rolls are referred to as buns.
Organic rolls from French Meadow Bakery, a NIBBLE
Top Pick Of The Week.

ROTI
Roti Canai Roti is the word for bread in Hindi, Urdu and many languages of India and Pakistan. A flatbread similar to a tortilla, it is the Indian bread, normally eaten with curries and cooked vegetables. Each region of India has its own version of roti, with varying names. Different flours are used—while most rotis are wheat-based, others are made from pearl millet, maize gram flour, other grains and flour blends.

Photo of roti canai (pronounced “chanai), a regional variation, by Su Yin Khoo | SXC. The term may derive from Chennai, the pre-Colonial name for the Madras region of India.

RYE BREAD
A bread made from rye flour, which is higher in fiber and denser than wheat bread, and stronger in flavor. The bread is usually made with a sourdough starter and may be baked with caraway seeds for additional flavor. There are light and dark rye breads, depending on the flour (which is classified according to the level of extraction of fiber) and added ingredients, such as molasses for flavor or caramel for color. Artisan loaves can include ground spices such as anise, coriander and fennel. A marble rye is a swirl of dark pumpernickel rye and light rye dough, and is a festive sandwich bread. See also pumpernickel. Origin: Britain. Around 500 C.E., the Saxons and Danes settled in Britain, bringing rye. Dark rye bread became a staple food until the Middle Ages. See Jewish rye bread.
Photo of dark rye bread by Klaus Post | SXC.

SANDWICH LOAF
See Pullman loaf.

SCONE
Scones are quick breads, similar to American biscuits. They are traditionally made with wheat flour, sugar, baking powder or baking soda, butter, milk and eggs, and baked in the oven—both in the traditional wedge form and in round, square and diamond shapes. This recipe produces a hard, dry texture. “Cream scones,” which use heavy cream in the recipe, produce a moister scone. Read the history of the scone and a review of our favorite cream scone mix, Iveta Scones, moist wonders and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

SODA BREAD
A chemically-leavened quick bread made with baking soda instead of yeast. Baking soda produces a lighter, airy crumb. While the traditional ingredients are flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk, soda breads are often sweet breads. Raisins and nuts can be added. Soda bread dates back to approximately 1840, when bicarbonate of soda was introduced to Ireland; it reacted better with the soft wheat grown in that climate, and replaced yeast as the leavening agent.

Moist, creamy Iveta Scones (here, cranberry scones) are a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

SOUR BREAD
Sour bread has a sour flavor caused by either a natural leaven fermentation, such as sourdough, or through the addition of a souring agents such as sour salt, vinegar or yogurt. Not all sour bread is sourdough bread; sourdough must be leavened by a sourdough culture of wild yeast and lactobacilli.

SOURDOUGH
Sourdough is a method of baking using lactic-acid-producing bacteria (lactobacillus) that produce a characteristic sour taste and aroma. The sour taste comes from from the lactobacillus, which lives in symbiosis with the yeast, feeding on the byproducts of the yeast fermentation. Until science uncovered the leavening process in the 19th century, all yeast-leavened breads were sourdough. Sourdough starter from a prior batch is used to create the new batch. Sourdough starters are different from other starters; while regular starters can live for several years, sourdough starters can live for generations.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

SPELT
Spelt (also known as farro, and called Dinkel in German) is a subspecies of wheat that was enjoyed by the ancient Romans and was an important staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times. It has a mild, nutty flavor. Spelt has slightly more protein than wheat; while it does contain gluten, the type of gluten is more easily tolerated by people who are sensitive to wheat gluten.

SPOON BREAD
A Southern specialty said to have originated in Virginia, spoon bread is a type of soufflé, rather than an actual bread. It is made with cornmeal rather than wheat flour, baked in a casserole or soufflé dish, rises like a soufflé and is served immediately. Like a soufflé, it must be eaten with a spoon; but because it has a cornmeal base (not an egg-white base, like a soufflé), it is heavier, like a pudding. Recipes include a broad variety of savory flavors, from simple herbs to cheese, meat and vegetables.

STARTER
A small amount of uncooked, leavened dough, retained from a previous batch, used to “start” the new batch of dough. The yeast or bacteria in the old dough start the fermentation of the carbohydrates in the fresh batch of dough.

STUFFING
Bread stuffings are typically made from day-old (or older) bread or breadcrumbs, mixed with fat and vegetables, including onion, celery, mushrooms and chestnuts. Stuffings are cooked in the body cavity of birds and fish, into cuts of meat that have been deboned (or into which a pouch has been cut). Vegetables are stuffed as well, although bell peppers, cabbages, grape leaves, tomatoes and other vegetables tend to be stuffed with rice and/or meat other than bread stuffing. In some regions, such as the south, stuffing is referred to as dressing, a term coined in Victorian England.

SWEET BREAD
Sweet breads are popular in many cultures, and can be found as loaves or rolls with a slightly sweetened dough, topping and/or filling. Often, they are made in decorative shapes.

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