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from the man-cannot-live-on-bread^W-sweets-alone dept.
For Subway, A Ruling Not So Sweet. Irish Court Says Its Bread Isn't Bread:
In a decision shocking to those familiar with the $5 footlong, Ireland's Supreme Court has ruled: Subway bread isn't actually bread.
At least, not legally.
That's because its bread has too much sugar, the court said Tuesday. The country's Value-Added Tax Act of 1972 says tax-exempt bread can't have sugar, fat and bread improver exceed 2% of the weight of flour.
In Subway's recipe, sugar makes up 10% of the weight of the flour, according to the judgment. That's five times what the law deems acceptable.
[...] "The resulting product falls outside the definition of 'bread' for the purposes of the Act," the ruling said. Five judges considered the case.
[...] An Irish Subway franchisee, Bookfinders Ltd., prompted this legal interpretation after it sought a tax break for some of its menu items.
The country allows "staple" foods, which include bread, to have value-added taxes set at 0%. The franchisee originally submitted a claim in 2006, asking for a refund for some of the value-added taxes it paid in 2004 and 2005.
[...] "Subway's bread is, of course, bread. We have been baking fresh bread in our restaurants for more than three decades and our guests return each day for sandwiches made on bread that smells as good as it tastes," a Subway spokesperson said in a statement. The company says it's reviewing the ruling.
A 6-inch Subway bread roll contains 3 to 5 grams of sugar, except for gluten-free, which has 7, according to data from the company.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by zoward on Sunday October 04 2020, @12:39PM (7 children)
Replying to myself. Spent some more time looking over the individual bread machine recipes. Many of them include 2 tablespoons of sugar, not teaspoons, for larger recipes that have 4 cups of flour. Adding up the other ingredients by tablespoon assuming 4 US tbsp = 1/4 US cup (it's actually a little less):
4 cups flour (64 tbsp), 12 oz water (24 tbsp), plus another, say 3 tablespoons of oil, salt and yeast combined, plus the 2 tbsp of sugar itself:
2 tbsp sugar / 93 tbsp total = ~ 2.2% sugar.
Yikes! And that's rounding up, and estimating the ratio of tbsp/cups on the high side. What the hell is Subway doing to raise that to 10%?
In the bread machine-specific books I have (four of them), I only found one basic bread recipe without sugar. I'm trying it - in the machine - right now. I'll report back when it's done. Note there are far more no-added-sugar recipes in the non-bread machine cookbooks.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 04 2020, @12:53PM (3 children)
Basic White/French Bread 2lbs
1-1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbl. vegetable oil (optional)
4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. salt
2-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
Sourdough Bread 2lbs
2/3 cup sourdough starter
1 cup warm water
1 Tbl. sugar, honey or maple syrup (optional)
1 Tbl. oil (optional)
4 cups all purpose flour, or bread flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dry yeast
(Score: 2) by zoward on Sunday October 04 2020, @12:57PM
The top one is more or less the one I'm using right now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday October 04 2020, @06:19PM (1 child)
IMO, you will get better results if you use strong bread flour (more protein - approx 12%) than using all-purpose flour (10%).
The only bread recipes that I have found that use sugar originate in the US. I've not found any European recipes that advocate using it.
(Score: 2) by zoward on Sunday October 04 2020, @07:42PM
Yeah, we use King Arthur bread flour, an upscale brand in the US.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 04 2020, @04:18PM
In my old family cookbook, most of the non-sourdough recipes call for 1/4-1/2 cup of sugars (many use honey or molasses instead of refined sugar). Some of those recipes are for two loaves, but even for one the sugar ratio is far lower than ten percent, especially with all the extra flour that gets added during kneading.
(Score: 3, Informative) by zoward on Sunday October 04 2020, @05:55PM
...and the bread came out just fine. Made a sandwich for lunch. Time to dial back on the sugar content of my homemade bread!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 05 2020, @06:16PM
You're comparing volume. You need to look at the weights.
1 cup water = 236 g
1 cup flour = 120 g
1 cup oil = 240 g
1 cup sugar = 200 g
salt/yeast = insignificant
Your recipe: 1.5*236 + 4*120 + (3/16)*240 = 879 g
So 2 Tbs sugar = (2/16)*200 = 25 g ==> 2.8%
Likewise, 10% sugar by weight = 88 g = 16*88/200 = 7 Tbs, or almost 1/2 cup (give or take, we didn't include this into the total weight so it is a little low)
Working the sugars in:
Yours: 1.5*236 + 4*120 + (3/16)*240 + (2/16)*200 = 904 g ==> (2/16)*200/904 = 2.8%
Subway: 1.5*236 + 4*120 + (3/16)*240 + (7/16)*200 = 966.5 g ==> (7/16)*200/966.5 = 9%
A half cup sugar in your recipe puts the sugars at 10%.