What makes artisan bread so special?

[Lucyellensmum95]

Its really expensive so i have never bought it, what is it exactly?

Snob value

It's made by Lentil weaving hippys.

More excuse to Hyke up the prices

Hello there

This one isn't really an AIBU so we've moved it to 'Food'.

I don't buy bread - one look at the list of chemicals puts me off and often the poncy looking bread is just as bad! We make our own, very easy, cheap and crap free!

DP's bread last night was lush - we stopped buying shopbought cardboard loaves a while back and now he has ressurected the breadmaker we may not buy it for a while either.

Artisan bread is up there with boden and capers for me :)

What's wrong with capers? What have I missed?

its bloody easy to make yourself!

now, click here on the link to the basic recipe for Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day and buy some decent strong bread flour (ie not the ratshit floor scrapings for 40p a lb) and you'll make better bread than you'll ever buy

Thanks for that link kiwi, I've saved that recipe. I usually do bread in the bread maker. It's gets eaten so fast around here

Hiddenhome - don't forget the flour weevils for added protein!

My artisan bread takes about ten minutes to put together and about half an hour in the oven, I actually give quite a bit of it away to family and friends, I'm going start attaching a price sticker to each loaf could be a nice little earner

I do the first stage in the bread making but I do the second proving in a standard bread tin and bake in the oven. Bread kneaded using the food mixer is easier to handle, easier for pizza making.

It is hand-made not mass-produced.

Often from organic flour.

usually get some more unusual varieties e.g.. sourdough.

No nasty chemical additives.

usually tastes much better than bog-standard supermarket bread.

And is more expensive (because it is not mass-produced).

I don't know why some people on here seem to think it's pretentious. It's a bit like the difference between buying a ready-made frozen lasagne with added horse meat and making your own from scratch.

As a breadmaker myself I struggle to work out how

Sadly the term 'artisan bread' has no legal definition and so is technically meaningless.

Beware of imitations - supermarkets might use the word 'artisan' to market loaves that look sort of rustic but have they been made on site by skilled local craftspeople using high-quality ingredients and natural longer fermentation processes? Or have they been made by machines using a cocktail of artificial addtives in a process that hasn't allowed the dough to ripen and develop flavour naturally, perhaps somewhere far away before being frozen and rebaked in-store?

The Real Bread Campaign prefers the term Real Bread, which we define as made without processing aids or any other artificial additives.

Real Bread is at once simple and universally accessible (anyone young or old can make it, either in the oven or in a machine) and open to being elevated to something special in the hands of a genuine artisan.

We believe in an honest price for an honest crust. A small, independently-owned bakery helps to create more jobs per loaf for people in your local community (and skilled jobs at that) and helps your local high street and economy, rather than the shareholders of a large industrial loaf manufacturer or supermarket chain.

See the Real Bread Campaign website for more info.

I have a sourdough starter that started life as Herman the German. It takes me 5 mins to make the 'sponge', 10 mins the next day to knead and 20 mins to bake. I use spelt flour.

I cannot imagine why I would ever want to buy shop bought bread again, or indeed why I would buy 'artisan bread', which is clearly the coming thing, when it so quick and easy to make your own.

When I made proper custard a while back my friend called it 'artisanal custard'.
I also made artisanal mayonnaise last week.