Eating Healthier in Today's World

Making Bread Without Salt

Who these days hasn't heard about the dangers of too much salt?  Is there one among us who can down even a small bag of pretzels (much less potato chips) without a nervous twitch, a pang of guilt?  But BREAD is not a salty food, so why this post?

All true, and unless you are on a sodium-restricted diet--or are one of the people who actually prefer bread without added salt--bread is one of the last places you would want to cut back; a little salt goes a long way in bread, not only transforming the flavour but strengthening the dough to make a lighter loaf.  Even so, it can be done, and the saltless bread that tastes so blah at first gradually begins to taste just right if you are persistent and dedicated to re-educating your palate to a saltless regime. 

 RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM

And so if it is saltless loaves you want, tasty and light as they can be, I offer in this post some hints and also some really excellent recipes.  Other bread can be made without added salt, following these guidelines as well.  In general look for a recipe with a lot of flavour interest:  the ryese and the sourdoughs for example, will be most successful.  Most of our recipes call for 2 Tbsp. of salt for a 4 loaf batch of bread: such breads do not depend wholly on salt for their flavour, but the ones that do call for a more are apt to need it.

If you are on a salt-restricted diet and have made an honest but futile attempt to get to like saltless bread, try using just 1 Tbsp. for the 4 loaf batch which is only 1/2 tsp. per loaf--a third of what would be in a store-bought loaf of bread.  Unless you eat a whole loaf in a day, you won't be getting a lot of salt from it.

When you make bread without salt in a Bosch Universal Plus you will find that the dough with clean the side of the bowl at first but after a few minutes of kneading it will separate and stick to the sides of the bowl.  With all your power, resist the temptation of adding more flour.  This will not make the dough any different but will make the bread heavier.  After the 8 to 10 min. of kneading for your whole grain bread, oil your hands and scrape the dough hook onto the counter and shape your loaves as usual.  Salt free bread dough will also rise much quicker than regular bread dough, so watch it carefully to make sure that it doesn't overferment.  To help control the fermentation (rising time), try making the dough with cool rather than warm water and letting it rise a room temperature rather than using the oven to incubate the rising loaves.  Keep the dough on the stiff side, and more important, don't let the shaped loaves rise too long in the pan, but put them in the oven a little before you think they are ready; otherwise they can collapse.

Though saltless bread rises faster, it will never be so high as the same bread made with salt.  Since denser loaves are more flavourful, this is a natural compensation for the absence of salt.  Nonetheless, you do want the bread to rise, so be sure to knead your dough as well as you can if your are making the bread dough manually, letting the gluten develop as much strength as possible.  If kneading is difficult for you and making saltless bread important to your health, if would be worth investing in a Bosch Universal Plus kneading machine to do the muscle work for you.

Incidently, making rolls out of all or part of the dough has special advantages when you bake salt-free.  Rolls can rise longer than loaves without the danger of falling, and the increased crust area give extra flavour and appeal--especially when poppy or sesame seeds add their cheery zest. 

SALT FREE WONDER LOAVES RECIPE