> Did people in the past make bread without sugar?
They do it in the present.
Greetings from Europe. I hold in my hand a loaf of cheap (€1.20) supermarket bread, which tastes perfectly pleasant. The little supermarket on my street moves a full shelf of this every day.
The ingredients are:
- Wholewheat flour
- Water
- Wheat gluten
- Yeast
- Malt flour (barley, wheat)
- Rye sourdough powder
- Salt
- Sesame seeds
- Poppy seeds
- Polenta
- Rapeseed oil
I have experienced the bread in the USA and it tastes like a light cake. The sugar makes it cloying to my taste. I guess it's all about what you're used to. But yes, bread without sugar is a very normal thing, and I wouldn't want sugar in mine.