Wendyl Nissen: A complicated take on your daily bread

NZ Herald·

12 May, 2017 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Tip Top Sandwich Thins. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

These new additions to the already very crowded bread aisle caught my interest because they look like a cross between a piece of bread and a crispbread. And on closer inspection they have the texture of an English muffin.

I think the big idea with these is that you can take one 40g thin which is split in two and make a sandwich out of it and only eat 99 calories (minus the filling).

Tip Top Sandwich Thins. $3.99 for 6.

Ingredients (greatest quantity first):

Wheat flour
This is normal flour as you would use in baking.

Water

Wholemeal wheat flour (20%)
The addition of the wholemeal flour provides some fibre - you'll get 2.3g of fibre per 40g thin.

Baker's yeast
This is yeast used in baking bread to help it rise.

Canola oil
This oil is extracted from rapeseeds and is high in polyunsaturated fats.

Vinegar
Vinegar is sometimes used in bread baking to provide flavour but also gives the yeast in a bread dough a bit of a boost.

Wheat gluten
This is often added into bread as it is a good source of protein, the gluten also helps keep the structure of bread when it has heavier ingredients such as wholemeal flour and bran.

Dextrose
A form of sugar. You will get just 1.3g of sugar per 40g thin.

Wheat bran
This is the outer husk of the wheat grain and is often added into foods to provide fibre.

Iodised salt
Not a high salt product at 150mg sodium per 40g thin.

Sugar
This will be in here for taste.

Emulsifiers (481,471)
These are sodium lactylate (481) and mono and dyglycerides of fatty acids (471). Both will be in here to help the structure of the bread.

Vegetable gums (466, 415)
These are sodium carboxy methylcellulose (466) which is extracted from green plants and algae and xanthan gum (415) which is fermented glucose and sucrose.

Soy flour
Not sure why this is in here, but it is a very small quantity coming right at the end of the ingredients list.

Vitamins (thiamine, folic acid)
These will be added for extra nutrition.

My recommendation:

So these taste bready but also English muffiny and bit sconey. I wouldn't eat them on their own as it's not a great taste sensation. But toasted with a bit of cheese in the middle it's not too bad.

You will save calories eating these. If you were to make a proper sandwich using two slices of normal white bread you would use about 250 calories, so you are saving about 150 calories making a sandwich with these.

You are also, however, taking in a lot of additives. Most normal white bread has wheat, water, yeast oil vinegar, salt, soy flour and a bit of fibre. These have a lot more.

Cost-wise you will get six sandwiches out of this packet for $3.99 compared to a loaf of Tip Top white sandwich bread for $3.50 which will also give you about six sandwiches.

If you're looking for something different then by all means try these for a change, but don't go expecting a normal bread experience.