# Bread and butter



## helenc (Mar 30, 2012)

can anyone recommend a brand of bread here that is more similar to that of UK I find the sliced bread too sweet, and also a milder flavor butter apart from paying for English butter such as lurpak, find the butter sickly and overpowering prefer a milder flavour, in France we did manage to find a sliced loaf similar that someone told us about but not in Spain so far but the baguettes are good 
thanks Helen


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

I find Panrico sliced loaves the closest thing to British ones that I can get. I buy 8 cereales sin corteza, but they do white as well. It makes a decent toasted sandwich when I have a craving. Other than that, most breads from a panadería will be less sweet than pan de molde like Bimbo. Chapata is my favourite, sliced diagonally to get a decent sized slice, it makes the best toast in the world.

I buy French butter, the make is Vrai, that is organic and traditionally churned and I get it in Carrefour in an out-of-the-way chill cabinet that contains weird stuff! You might try a different brand now and then and if you don't like it, use it for cooking? Asturiana, President, Dutch butters in tins, there are many to choose from.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Kerrygold Irish butter.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

We use Blanco Familiar or Integral Familiar from Mercadona but they also do a granary style one as well.

We also use their basic butter (with salt) - their brand name is Hacendado. I would love to use Kerrygold or Anchor but with the amount we use (family of 5) it just gets too expensive.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Mercadona's own brand butter (_con_ or _sin sal_) tastes to me exactly like the butter you get in England. (Lurpak is Danish by the way, not English).

I only buy bread from the local bakers, who make it in a wood-fired oven. So can't help with sliced bread I'm afraid, though friends buy a sliced wholemeal 5-seed loaf from Merca which they love.


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## helenc (Mar 30, 2012)

thank you


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## AllHeart (Nov 22, 2013)

The title "bread and butter" intrigued me. I thought you were going to ask the dreadful and impossible question about how to get a job in Spain. This turns out to be light reading!


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## helenc (Mar 30, 2012)

thanks for that 
am also looking for Douwe egberts coffee and haven't seen any can you get that here sure that's not English


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

helenc said:


> thanks for that
> am also looking for Douwe egberts coffee and haven't seen any can you get that here sure that's not English


The equivalent to Douwe Egberts coffee here is called Marcilla.

I also find Spanish sliced bread here has a sweet taste so I now only buy baguettes (barras) or frozen English bread when I can get to Iceland. Trouble is baguttes get stale very quickly.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

I've seen Douwe Egberts but I couldn't tell you where. It would have been in a normal Spanish supermarket though, since that's all I use.

ooh - just looked at http://www.douwe-egberts.com/

when you click through to Spain it takes you to http://www.marcilla.com/

so Marcilla must be the Spanish name for it. That's available everywhere!


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

DunWorkin said:


> The equivalent to Douwe Egberts coffee here is called Marcilla.
> 
> I also find Spanish sliced bread here has a sweet taste so I now only buy baguettes (barras) or frozen English bread when I can get to Iceland. Trouble is baguttes get stale very quickly.


Wrap the barras in silver foil as soon as you return home from the shop and put them in the deep freeze. Thaw as needed and they are perfect!


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

DunWorkin said:


> The equivalent to Douwe Egberts coffee here is called Marcilla.
> 
> I also find Spanish sliced bread here has a sweet taste so I now only buy baguettes (barras) or frozen English bread when I can get to Iceland. Trouble is baguttes get stale very quickly.


Over the years we've experimented but now have a solution to this problem.

We buy barras in quantity and then freeze them. As we need them, we thaw them in the microwave - they are just like new. This is necessary as we have to provide almuerzo for our children at school/college/university.

However, some brands don't work as well so it's best to experiment (we now use Consum although Vidal is almost as good).


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

OH makes bread when he has time, so that gets rid of that problem, but we never buy sliced bread. I really dislike it and have never eaten it. In some bread shops they ask you if you want a loaf sliced as they have a machine . I can't remember what the question is that they ask you - just "cortado?" I think.
We buy loaves like this
https://www.facebook.com/elabuelo.p...8119037630757/758134820962512/?type=3&theater

Or










And as you can see they can be cut using the machine in the shop. We don't get them cut, but plenty of people do.
Has anybody else found this possibility in bakeries?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Pesky Wesky said:


> OH makes bread when he has time, so that gets rid of that problem, but we never buy sliced bread. I really dislike it and have never eaten it. In some bread shops they ask you if you want a loaf sliced as they have a machine . I can't remember what the question is that they ask you - just "cortado?" I think.
> We buy loaves like this
> https://www.facebook.com/elabuelo.p...8119037630757/758134820962512/?type=3&theater
> 
> ...


Yes, I can get loaves sliced in bakeries, and yes I just ask for pan de whatever it is, cortado.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Mercadona do the Nespresso compatible pods by Marcilla/Douwe Egberts.

The bread there is pretty good too - not sweet like the rest. 

One thing about Spanish sliced bread is that it lasts much longer than UK bread which goes off in a couple of days.


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## helenc (Mar 30, 2012)

thanks, have seen loads of marcilla coffee will try it, yes we buy baguettes but they dont last, we toast them next day, dont eat to much sliced bread, but its good for toast, bought some burger buns and even they were sweet.


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## ccm472 (Jan 6, 2016)

helenc said:


> thanks, have seen loads of marcilla coffee will try it, yes we buy baguettes but they dont last, we toast them next day, dont eat to much sliced bread, but its good for toast, bought some burger buns and even they were sweet.


All bread freezes. We buy a whole baguette, cut it into 6ths, eat what's needed and then freeze the rest. 20 secs in the microwave will defrost 2 sections. Sliced bread, the same time for 4 slices.


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## 1664 (Nov 17, 2013)

ccm472 said:


> All bread freezes. We buy a whole baguette, cut it into 6ths, eat what's needed and then freeze the rest. 20 secs in the microwave will defrost 2 sections. Sliced bread, the same time for 4 slices.


now its funny you should say that , i love brown bread , the more bird food in it the better , just started to take out what i need for work and put it back in the freezer, sounds common sense, but its taken a long time :eyebrows:


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## 1664 (Nov 17, 2013)

arrr a baguette , apologizes, mind, it must have been a big one


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Or you could buy a bread maker and experiment?

In the morning I like half a litre of this

Hot Lava Java | Blends | Coffee | Taylors

It kick starts the day


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

All bread freezes, but some loses its crust when defrosted, and some is just more successful than others.
Here we have pistola, barra de pan and baguete/ baget/baguette (spelling differs). They are all cheap and made to be consumed in the day. If the day is not too hot you'll be able to toast it the next day, but it's often literally as hard as rock and unusable.
There is usually much better bread available and I would encourage people to try it
This is candeal









Hogaza similar to above, but not so dense









or the chapata








Or bread with seeds and different cereals, centeno for example (rye)


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> All bread freezes, but some loses its crust when defrosted, and some is just more successful than others.
> Here we have pistola, barra de pan and baguete/ baget/baguette (spelling differs). They are all cheap and made to be consumed in the day. If the day is not too hot you'll be able to toast it the next day, but it's often literally as hard as rock and unusable.
> There is usually much better bread available and I would encourage people to try it
> This is candeal
> ...


PS bread defrosts pretty quickly, and a slice of bread in minutes so a microwave shoudn't be needed


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## 1664 (Nov 17, 2013)

great suggestion , they do suck your electric as it normally takes about 3-4 hours to make a medium loaf , best taken out the machine warm , sliced , lurpak , bacon .egg, side dish of beans , mushrooms if your posh


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## DunWorkin (Sep 2, 2010)

xabiachica said:


> I've seen Douwe Egberts but I couldn't tell you where. It would have been in a normal Spanish supermarket though, since that's all I use.
> 
> ooh - just looked at http://www.douwe-egberts.com/
> 
> ...


Yes, as I said, Marcilla is Douwe Egberts here


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

1664 said:


> we already know that ?


You know it, I know it, but someone posted about putting it in the microwave so it was just a

in their direction _which they are perfectly at liberty to ignore_ if they, or you wish!


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## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

In Australia we made sandwiches with frozen bread and by the time you're finished it's ready to eat. Not quite as hot here but close enough that I get time to open a bottle of wine to go with it


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I'd much rather make bread by hand than use a machine. It doesn't take long and it's quite therapeutic kneading the dough.

I can walk up the road and buy a fresh baguette any day, including Sunday. Any stale leftovers get used for gazpacho/salmorejo, or thickening sauces (cut off the crust and soak it in water for 15 mins).

I am in England at the moment and just paid £1.40 for a proper French baguette.  homesick already!


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Alcalaina said:


> I'd much rather make bread by hand than use a machine. It doesn't take long and it's quite therapeutic kneading the dough.
> 
> I can walk up the road and buy a fresh baguette any day, including Sunday. Any stale leftovers get used for gazpacho/salmorejo, or thickening sauces (cut off the crust and soak it in water for 15 mins).
> 
> I am in England at the moment and just paid £1.40 for a proper French baguette.  homesick already!


We have a bakery in our town where you can buy fresh bread 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When the shop is closed there is a little grille in the wall where you ask for what you want and pass the money through.


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