The color of bread made from wheat flour varies with the kind of wheat used in making the flour and also with the grade of flour used in making the bread. All wheats contain minute quantities of a yellow coloring matter, consequently a fresh, well-milled unbleached patent flour has a live, bright, yellow tint. This yellow tint disappears when a flour is aged or artificially bleached and the flour becomes almost snow white. The lower grades of flour have, in addition to the yellow color, a dark color, due to foreign matter and bran particles. This color does not improve much with age, nor is it possible to improve it by bleaching.

Bread usually appears whiter than the flour from which it is made. This is due to aeration, i. e., mixing air and gases thoroughly through the dough in kneading and fermentation. Very little bleaching really occurs during fermentation, in fact fermentation changes some of the starch which is snow white into dextrin, which is a yellow substance. The whitening effect of aeration, however, overcomes the yellow color due to chemical change and causes the bread to appear whiter than the flour.

In comparing colors of bread in comparative baking tests, there is no better method than allowing the loaves to cool, cutting a slice from each, placing side by side, and using your judgment as to the value of each color in comparison to standard loaf. In comparing a number of loaves by this method the colors will range through tints of white, yellow, gray and blue. Taking pure white as 100 per cent. the other tints in order of their value, are yellow, blue and gray, but it sometimes becomes a question of judgment of the observer which of the colors is the brightest and most clean and of most value.

The texture of bread is caused by the expansion of the dough by the carbon dioxide which tends to escape but is held in and gathers in small quantities through the dough. When bread is baked the dough retains a permanent shape and the cavities in which the gas gathered give the bread a porous appearance. These holes vary in size and shape. A flour with a good quality of gluten holds the gas in small globules and therefore the holes are small and usually elongated from bottom to top of the loaf. This is good texture and when touched gives a sensation of touching velvet. A poor gluten allows the gas to gather into large, round globules and produces a coarser texture and one which is harsh to the touch. Too long a period of fermentation or too much water in the dough will also produce poor texture. As in color, value of texture depends on the judgment of the observer.

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