OT: Good toasting bread

[Chris Hogg]

Until recently, I've always used Burgen soy and linseed bread as I'm pre-diabetic and it has a lower carbohydrate content than most ordinary breads. But the one local supermarket that stocks it either only has a limited supply and runs out very quickly or has stopped stocking it, and I'm having to eat 'ordinary' bread.

I mostly toast my bread, but so far I reckon I could make nicer stuff myself using cardboard paste and baking powder. They're awful!

Can anyone recommend a good toasting bread that browns on the outside but doesn't go crisp and brittle right through, and doesn't immediately dissolve into textureless paste in your mouth when you start to chew it?

[Robin]

It might help to know what you put on your toast.

But if you are a toast aficionado I hope you've met Pane Pugliese - something which is expensive but well beyond my modest bread making skills:

Other shops are available.

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], Chris Hogg [e-mail] writes

My caterer gets Warburtons seeded batch and shoves the loaves in the freezer. I take it out, half loaf at a time to re-fill the bread bin. Kept in the wrapper, it stays moist and makes good toast or sandwiches.

>

[Andrew May]

Vogel's is my current favorite.

Other varieties are available depending on what you prefer. Can't comment on suitability for diabetics though.

[Robin]

If seeds are your thing M&S Super Seeded bread is now cheaper than Warburtons Five Seed and has more seeds than most - 50 per cent more than Warburtons.

[news19k]

Have you thought of buying a bread maker? They usually give pretty good results and you can customise the recipes to some degree.

I usually buy bread from the "The Polish Bakery", which I find considerably less horrible than generic brand/supermarket loaves.

#Paul

[Andy Bennet]

You can't beat real bread from the bakers, unsliced. Then cut 20 - 25mm doorstops, toast, smother with tons of butter, cut in 2, enjoy!

[Andrew]

Cranks still make a good old fashioned dense wholemeal loaf (if you can find it anywhere apart from Waitrose). Keeps well in the fridge if like me, a loaf of bread lasts more than a week.

[Andrew]

Vogels used to be my favourite when they had a plain sliced wholemeal loaf, but that seems to been replaced with the 'modern' fluffy seeded variety of bread. The linseed-soya varient goes mouldy very quickly in warmer weather if not kept in the fridge.

[Andrew]

Village Bakery Rye bread is quite nice if you like a really dense, heavy loaf.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I rather like Tesco Finest Super Seeded. Keeps very well in the fridge too.

[Maurice]

Sainsbury's seeded wholemeal @ £1.25. (Local Tesco stopped stocking seeded wholemeal years ago...)

Regards,

[David]

Sadly, the real answer is to give up the bread while you are still not fully diabetic.

However that is a world of pain when you have eaten bread all your life.

Sympathy.

Dave R

[Chris Hogg]

Many thanks for all the suggestions, although I'm not sure how many will be available locally, but plenty to look out for, that's for sure.

To David re your suggestion of abandoning bread altogether: I was diagnosed as 'insulin resistant' (they call it pre-diabetic these days) two decades ago and have remained that way ever since, using strict control that included one slice of Burgen bread and one slice of rye bread, daily, and twice weekly blood glucose testing with a meter and strips. At the beginning of 2018 they stopped me having strips as they said my blood sugars meant that I no longer qualified, as if I'd somehow 'got better', like it was a cold or something!

Admittedly, since my wife died I've been slipping a bit - a few sweet biscuits and packets of crisps during the week, but nothing extreme. I had my annual check-up last week, and I have a review with the nurse this morning, so I'll se how the last few months have worked out.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

You need extra thick sliced for that to happen I think. That half and half stuff I quite like, but it is off course very much a personal taste thing.

Brian

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], Chris Hogg [e-mail] writes

Umm.. Last Autumn I think the NHS had some sort of push to persuade people to reduce their diabetes risk.

During an unrelated session, my doctor suggested I should see the practice nurse about low carb diet sheets to minimise my risk of type 2 diabetes. Now I was rather struck by this as I was overweight and both my mother and sister were type 2 diabetics at the time of their deaths.

Reducing sugar and related snacks got rid of 10 kgs but I have stuck with some bread as it is a convenient d-i-y lunch source. Crunch time next spring as a blood sugar test is threatened:-)

One point.. it is amazing how many sweetex pills they pack into one of those little dispensers!

>

[Andrew]

You sweeten (presumably) tea and coffee ?. Yuk.

[Andrew]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My father was a diabetic back in the 50s - long before it was as common as now. Or perhaps not just diagnosed so often.

He had a daily injection, and a pretty strict diet. With everything weighed. Included bread - although only wholemeal. And indeed a pretty good mixed diet. Only things forbidden were things containing large amounts of refined sugar.

[Chris Hogg]

These days it's appreciated that _all_ carbohydrates are best kept as low as practical - refined sugar is just one such, but things like pasta, rice, potatoes, biscuits, cakes etc are all best avoided, or at least kept to a minimum. But it's still a common misconception that diabetics can't take sugar, and that it's their only problem.