[HKH2]

When people add sugar to bread, you should be able to see that processed sugar is a big problem.

[BeetleB]

I always wondered about that when glancing at the ingredients, but I've never made my own bread. Did people in the past make bread without sugar?

[nerdbert]

> Did people in the past make bread without sugar?

They do it in the present.

Greetings from Europe. I hold in my hand a loaf of cheap (€1.20) supermarket bread, which tastes perfectly pleasant. The little supermarket on my street moves a full shelf of this every day.

The ingredients are:

- Wholewheat flour

- Water

- Wheat gluten

- Yeast

- Malt flour (barley, wheat)

- Rye sourdough powder

- Salt

- Sesame seeds

- Poppy seeds

- Polenta

- Rapeseed oil

I have experienced the bread in the USA and it tastes like a light cake. The sugar makes it cloying to my taste. I guess it's all about what you're used to. But yes, bread without sugar is a very normal thing, and I wouldn't want sugar in mine.

[hollerith]

The "Malt flour" in your bread is probably mostly sugar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt#:~:text=modifying%20the%2....

Also, it is pretty easy to buy bread not containing sugar in the US.

[ahartmetz]

Malt flour contains 6-20% of sugar according to a German source I've found, so together with its low rank in the ingredient list, it's not a whole lot of sugar.

[throwup238]

The standard (legally mandated) French baguette recipe is water, flour, salt, and yeast.

[rrr_oh_man]

> Did people in the past make bread without sugar?

Yes. I made flatbread in the pan yesterday from water, flour, and some spices.

[HKH2]

Sugar is unnecessary but it does help the yeast so you won't need to use as much, but when there's enough sugar for bread to taste sweet you might as well eat cake.

[gnicholas]

Sourdough has no sugar, for one thing.