If you spent the dark days of lockdown perfecting your sourdough technique — and posting crumb shots of your lofty loaves on Instagram (because otherwise, did you even make them?) — you may feel you have got this bread thing cracked.
The current vogue for naturally-leavened, airy loaves filled with alveoli of empty space can be traced back to Chad Robertson at San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery, whose Tartine Bread book published in 2010 is the modern baker’s bible.
But sourdough bread did not start in San Francisco. Thousands of years ago, it was made all over the world, including Ireland, with locally-grown wholegrains milled into wholemeal flour rather than the strong white refined flour that is the cornerstone of the Tartine method.
The high gluten content of strong white flour gives structure to the classic sourdough boule we have come to know and love. But at a time when there’s so much talk about supporting Irish farmers and producers, the dirty secret of sourdough, the thing nobody talks about, is that the vast majority of the flour used to make it is imported. And the refining process used to make strong flour strips it of dietary fibre and many of the micronutrients that are in short supply in the typical Irish diet.
Terri Ann Fox of River Run Ferments in Glencree, Co Wicklow is one of a small and growing band of bakers in Ireland determined to up the nutritional content and flavour of the bread we eat, while at the same time supporting Irish grain farmers and millers.
“I want to change people’s minds,” she says, “and start a wholegrain revolution.”
Having lived in San Francisco for many years, Terri Ann is no stranger to the Tartine-style boule, and has taught hundreds of Irish home bakers how to replicate it in her online and in-person classes. Personally, though, she has been moving away from using imported flour and wants to raise awareness of what’s lost through industrial production. “Also, there’s pride at stake,” she says, “I live in Ireland and I want to use grains grown and milled here.”
The strong white flour that’s key to the airy, holey sourdough we have embraced in recent years is high in gluten, a protein which imparts structure to a loaf. The Irish climate is not considered conducive to growing the varieties of wheat with a high-gluten content needed to make strong flour, although some farmers are now challenging that perception.
“It’s time to move away from air and texture as the be-all and end-all of the Instagrammable loaf,” says Terri Ann, “and to embrace the heightened flavour and nutrition that you get when you bake bread using wholegrain flour with a lower gluten content. Gluten is what gives bread its support structure so it’s difficult to make a boule with lower-gluten flour as it flattens out. So I’ve been experimenting with breads baked in a tin using a higher proportion of lower-gluten, wholegrain flours, including Emma Clutterbuck of Oak Forest Mills’ awesome wholegrain spelt. The tin provides the structure the gluten in strong white flour would provide in a boule.”
Joe Fitzmaurice of Riot Rye in Cloughjordan eco-village, Co Tipperary, has been teaching people to bake bread for 20 years and his Common Loaf recipe (see riotrye.ie) has always included a minimum of 20pc wholemeal rye and doesn’t use a white refined flour starter. He too is on a mission to improve both the flavour and nutrition of the bread we eat.
“When we remove the bran and the germ to make white flour, we take away 25pc of the weight but 75pc of the nutrients,” explains Joe. “The endosperm, the white, which is left, is primarily protein and carbohydrate of which we all have plenty in a modern western diet. The carbohydrate makes the bread sweet. The micronutrients are concentrated in the bran and germ and these are deficient in the western diet, so when you refine flour, you lose these.
“Strong white flour is easy to work with and makes a big light loaf with a sweetness that appeals because we are all conditioned to like sweet things. But when you make your loaf with 75pc strong white flour and 25pc wholemeal flour, you are doubling its nutritional value over bread made wholly with white flour and no one will notice. In fact, it’s easy to make a loaf using 30pc wholemeal wheat and 20pc wholemeal rye without hardly noticing — you can still get a light loaf.”
As an experienced baker, Joe is currently making a 100pc organic wholewheat loaf from flour he mills and sifts himself, but he says that for home bakers trying to transition it’s tricky to go straight to 100pc wholegrain.
“My advice is to slowly increase the level of wholewheat. Rye is trickier again because its gluten content is lower. The difficulty is with hydration — you can have a lot of dispiriting failures… pancakes. When you are using strong white flour, by pushing up the hydration to 85pc and beyond you get more holes, but it’s the opposite when you use Irish wholegrain flour; you reduce the hydration to 60pc.”
According to Joe, this is a great time for home bakers to transition away from imported strong white flour, as growers and millers such as Ballymore Organics, Little Mill and the Workman family at Dunany are pushing the boundaries of what can be grown here.
“Now there are crops of ølands and purple wheat being grown in Ireland,” he says. “They have amazing flavour and a real sense of terroir, which we usually think of in relation to wine or and coffee. As bakers it’s rare we would make bread with one single variety of wheat, we blend all the time, and I’d encourage home bakers to do the same. Using 10 or 15pc of purple wheat imparts huge flavour, and the ølands has the nutty flavour of old-style wheat, plus good protein strength. I use a tin — the bread fits in a toaster and there is less waste, it suits how we eat bread in Ireland.”
Irish wholemeal loaf three ways
Recipe by Terri Ann Fox
This recipe showcases two beautiful grains grown and milled in Ireland, Dunany Organic wholemeal rye, and Oak Forest Mills’ wholemeal spelt. I love the combination of these two flours, the intense earthy flavour of rye meeting the light sweetness of spelt to create a nutritional powerhouse that is truly representative of this island.
Using 100pc wholemeal low-gluten flour may mean sacrificing a bit of air in your loaves, but you’ll soon see that wholemeal bread far surpasses its refined counterpart in terms of flavour complexity and nutrition.
This loaf is easy to make, especially if you’re already in the swing of sourdough bread baking. The leaven can be prepared before bed and dough mixed the following morning. The dough is only in the bowl for two hours before shaping into a tin. It’s never even on the worktop!
INGREDIENTS Leaven • 50g 100pc hydration rye starter • 100g water (20°C) • 100g wholemeal rye flour Dough • 275g water (20°C) • 200g 100pc hydration rye leaven • 11g fine sea salt • 150g wholemeal rye flour • 150g wholemeal spelt flour
Optional add-ins Option 1: Breakfast loaf • 80g golden raisins • 18g toasted caraway seed Option 2: super seeded loaf • 50g toasted sunflower seeds • 50g toasted pepitas • 25g toasted white sesame seeds • 25g toasted back sesame seeds • Extra seeds for the top of the loaf Option 3: plain wholemeal • No additions required
METHOD 1. Mix leaven: Mix leaven 6-12 hours before you plan to mix your dough. Mix water and rye starter in a pint-sized glass jar until no lumps of starter remain. Then mix in rye flour and press the mixed leaven into the corners of the jar so there are no air pockets. Cover with a loose lid or plate and ferment at room temperature (19C-21C) until leaven has doubled in size.
2. Mix dough: Mix water, salt and leaven in a large bowl until no clumps of leaven remain. Add the flours and mix by hand, squeezing fistfuls of flour into the wet mix until the dough comes together, scraping down the side of the bowl with a dough scraper. The dough will be very sticky and resemble a thick paste. Do not add more flour. Cover the bowl with a cutting board or lid and allow the dough to autolyse (absorb the water to fully hydrate) for 30 minutes.
3. Stretch and fold and add optional add-ins: Sprinkle ½ of the add-ins over the dough. Using a wet hand, work your way around the bowl with 4 to 5 stretch and folds, then sprinkle the other ½ of the add-ins over the dough and work your way around the dough, stretching and folding one more time to incorporate all of the ingredients. If you’re making a plain loaf, simply stretch fold two rotations (8-10 stretch and folds) around the bowl.
Stretch and fold 1 rotation around the bowl every 30 minutes for the next 1.5 hours. You may need to use your dough scraper to help with your stretch folds as the nature of this dough is quite sticky. This is normal and expected. Resist the urge to add flour. You will not likely notice a large amount of gluten strength in the dough, this is also expected.
4. Shape and final proof: After 2 hours from the start of mixing the dough, prepare an 800g greased or parchment lined bread tin. Using your plastic dough scraper, gently guide the wet dough from the bowl into the prepared tin. Once the dough is in the tin, use your fingertips to gently press the dough into the corners of the tin and smooth the surface of the loaf.
Note: This dough may seem difficult to handle if you are not accustomed to using these flours with such high hydration. Don’t worry, the dough is very forgiving. Once the dough reaches the tin, it’s smooth sailing. Sprinkle seeds or a dusting of flour over the loaf. Ferment at room temperature 19C-21C, under an inverted bowl until the loaf is just doming the tin (4-5 hours).
5. Bake: Preheat the oven to 230C (without fan) with a shatterproof casserole dish in the bottom of the oven.
Place the loaf on the wire rack in the middle of the oven. Gently pour ½ mug of water into the preheated casserole dish in the bottom of the oven to create steam. Quickly close the oven door and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the casserole dish and lower oven temperature to 215C and bake for an additional 35 minutes. Note: Don’t underbake, this bread needs to be baked sufficiently.
6. Cool: Remove loaf from the oven and take it directly out of the tin. Cool on a wire rack for at least 4 hours. Don’t be tempted to slice this bread warm as it will cause a gummy crumb. Slice thin, toast and slather in your favourite nut butter, cheese or drizzle of honey!
