Baking Sourdough Bread
We're catching our breath from all the great Eat Local Week events. One of the workshops people always look forward to is the sourdough bread workshop.
Joe Cleary demonstrates sourdough bread baking
Sourdough starter is a bit like a soup of local cultures, where yeast and bacteria are invited to stay and multiply in a vessel with (local) flour and (local) water. What happens next is nothing short of magical, when - with the proper coaxing - bubbles begin to form, a yeasty aroma rises, and the soupy mixture stretches and sours. A little of this added to a fresh bowl with flour, water, and salt yields gorgeous sourdough bread.
I find this process fascinating and, though I don’t consider myself a baker (you know that old distinction between cooks and bakers), I love to talk to people who do!
Joe Cleary has been teaching sourdough bread baking through City Market for a number of years. A Co-op member himself, he is generous about sharing his experiences baking sourdough bread in his home kitchen, though his day job with instrument building keeps him pretty busy.
To see Joe's recipes and instructios for baking sourdough bread, you can look at the sourdough brochure on our website.
To get your hands on a sourdough starter, Joe recommends King Arthur Flour in Norwich (either drive, or mail order: sourodugh starter).
How did you get started baking sourdough bread?
JC: I worked as a professional baker in Idaho for a couple of years, and wondered if I could make anything close to the great breads we have in the Burlington area. Someone gave me a small amount of sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour. It was active and easy to work with, so I started baking again.
What keeps you baking, when others fall off the wagon?
JC: Fresh bread is the best! Also, it just feels good when someone says, "You make the best sourdough pancakes!" Even if they're just 6 years old.
Any funny bread stories? (successes/mishaps, etc.)
JC: Balloons, pancakes and hockey pucks (underproofed, overproofed, burnt to a crisp): These are the little mishaps that can and do happen.
More hilarious – but only in hindsight – would be times I either overslept or underslept. Once, I went to bed at 7 p.m., and woke up and raced to the bakery at 8 p.m., believing it be morning.
What kinds of things do you typically bake, and what do you bake for special occasions?
I've developed a pretty simple and flexible sourdough recipe for bread loaves and pizza. Some small additions produce nice fresh bagels, and the same sourdough starter can be taken in another direction to make pancakes and crepes. One of my favorite holiday loaves has spinach in the dough, rolled around Havarti cheese.
Baking with sourdough takes a lot of practice, so there's always bread to share and give away for any invented occasion.
Any similarities/differences to instrument building?
JC: The scope and scale are incredibly different, but there are some similarities to instrument building: Bread baking is slightly technical and precision is helpful, but you've really got to follow your nose as well to adjust to changing materials and conditions.
It's a blend of art and science, you strive to make the next one better, and you can eat your mistakes.
(Baking only.)