Wood-fired Sour Dough Bread
Marilyn May 29th, 2006
Crystal Waters Village (see Slow Food story below) has its own baker, Les, who is happy to explain the process. He also sells at the organic co-op shop in Maleny or at the Noosa markets -delicious organic pumpkin, olive or country loaf sourdour for $5 per loaf. He explained some fascinating facts about why it is better to eat sour dough bread, rather than bread made with (brewers) yeast – which inhibits our ability to absorb protein and is really not suitable for the human gut. Does this explain why so many people these days seem to have problems digesting gluten? He only uses stone ground flour, his own starter and no mould inhibitors or other chemicals commonly found in supermarket breads.
Did you see in todays ‘good Life’ that Daryl Wilmot has moved form Platinum at the Sunshine Coast to Cinco Bistro at camp hill bringing with him his most prized possession- a bucket containing his 12 year old rye bread starter culture! To the san franciscans who are mad about the stuff, this is small fry, some have starters passed down through generations of families. IF you want to get your hands on some you can try this starter allegedly from 1847.
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/
nat
Good grief! Only in America — now that’s taking sour dough seriously! But with over 84,000 visitors since April 2000, it shows the interest being generated.
Les gave some Slow Food people some of his precious ‘starter’ – who knows where it will end up now. For the record, Les’ bread was a huge hit with the Slow Food group – for very good reason. The man has a true passion.
The “sour” dough breads we tasted were certainly excellent. They inspired me to activate a freeze dired “San Francisco” culture that has been in my frig for 8 years. Originally purchased by mail from Ed Wood’s Sour Doughs International. After 24 hours the mixture with tank water and Kialla unbleached organic plain flour appears very active and tastes mildly acidic. So after building it up with more additions of flour and water I’ll fire up the wood-fired oven and bake some bread. Ed Wood’s book “World Soudoughs from Antiquity” is published by Ten Speed Press in Berkeley where great naturally leavened (French “levain”) bread is made by Steve Sullivan’s Acme bakery and also by Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant. So called sour-dough breads need not taste sour. I prefer mild acidity from the lactobacilli.
Giles
Nothing must be done hastily but killing of fleas…