Making sugar-free bread

It amazes me every time how much sugar and put in ready-to-eat products. Every day when I am in the supermarket to do some shopping, I read the ingredient list and so many products have some type, or sometimes several, of sugars listed. Glucose, dextrose, fructose, palm sugar and so on.

In pastries I get it, that’s obvious but what about cans of vegetables, tomato sauces or in bread? Almost every prepackaged bread at the supermarket has sugar. So sugar-free bread is something that is really hard to buy, I found out lately. Let alone in Spain or Chile, so I thought it was high time to start making my own sugar-free bread.

Bread is so woven into Dutch culture, but you can also find bread on supermarket shelves in many other countries. In Spain, in particular, they use bread for your “pan con tomate” and for “bocadillos,” or sandwiches. In Holland, bread became popular in the 12th century and the funny thing is that the luxury bread we eat today with rye or oats was early for the poorer people. White bread or bread made from wheat was eaten by the wealthy.

Why is there sugar in bread?

In the 12th century, they ate the bread directly the same day so (of course I don’t know for sure, I was born then) no sugar was used. Nowadays, many loaves of bread need to be baked in a short period of time ánd they also need to have a nice brown crust. To achieve this, many products add sugar.

Making sugar-free bread

Fortunately, you basically don’t need sugar for that if you bake your bread at home. So making bread without sugar is quite possible. You can choose to put pumpkin seeds on top as a topping like I did, but if you like poppy seeds or sesame seeds better, that’s also perfectly fine. Above all, choose what you like.

Want a bread that goes well with your Italian meal? Then also make Italian bread, super delicious with sun-dried tomatoes.

Sugar-free bread with spelt and oats

Delicious sugar-free bread with spelt and oat flakes
Preparation 10 minutes
Cooking time 10 minutes
Number of persons 1 bread

Ingredients

  • 250 g spelt flour
  • 250 g spelt flour
  • 7 g yeast
  • 320 ml lukewarm water
  • salt
  • oat flakes
  • pumpkin seeds
  • olive oil

Preparation

  • Put the spelt flour and flour in a bowl along with the yeast and salt.
  • Pour in the lukewarm water and if you have a food processor, turn on the food processor. Don’t go straight to the fastest setting, because you’ll be covered in flour and flour. Let the machine knead until you have a big chunk of dough. If you don’t have a food processor, don’t worry, you can also just knead by hand it just takes a little longer.
  • Is it still a little sticky? Then add a little more flour. Is it just dry? Then add a little water.
  • Next, add some oat flakes. Put some flour in your hand and knead the dough a little more by hand. Add some oat flakes immediately. Want sweet bread? Then you can also add raisins and orange chips here.
  • When the oat flakes are well distributed, grab a bowl and put some olive oil in it. Place the dough inside and cover with a piece of cling film. Let it stand for two hours. Until the volume is doubled.
  • When the dough has risen, knead it a little more and then place it in a loaf pan on a sheet of baking paper. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Spread some pumpkin seeds on the top of the bread and press them into the dough a bit.
  • Is the oven hot enough? Then your bread can go in the oven! About 40 minutes of waiting. Do keep checking occasionally in the oven to see if the bread looks crispy yet. If so, take it out and pat the top. If it sounds hollow, then your bread is good. Enjoy your meal!

Notes

Tip: If I want fresh bread on Sunday, I make the dough as early as Saturday night. Then it can rise all night and I can put the dough in the oven first thing Sunday morning.
Tip: Making sugar-free bread takes time. If you have a large freezer, you can freeze the bread well. In my experience, the bread is often more filling than the bread from the supermarket. Try making other types of sugar-free bread, too.