Sourdough bread, a heavenly pastry and job-hunting

I, J. Hardspear de la Azotea finally managed to produce a genuine sourdough loaf! (Well two actually) Much as I want to say that I have cultured the initial sourdough starter (suurdeeg plantjie) myself, I cannot claim that. After not getting it right, I sort of put off and put off and putt off doing it again, though I very much wanted to give it another shot. Then I heard about this peculiar bakery in Vanderbijlpark – remember I live in the Dirty Vaal Triangle. The place is called the Civic Bakery and is situated in an obscure place sort of on the edge of the CBD. Now, as everywhere else in South Africa, the CBDs of towns and cities have degenerated quite dramatically. High-end shops are now situated in malls in the middle-class and upper-class neighbourhoods. Now, when being told about this not-easy-to-spot bakery in Vanderbijlpark (town known for its mega-sized steel industries) which sells divine and heavenly items of confectionary, real sourdough bread and even unusual items such as pain de fantasie (breads sculpted into forms like animals or plaited or highly decorated breads), I must admit that I was sceptical. I had to go there though. I found it because of the good directions I was given. Walking up to the bakery, I was confronted with shop-front windows painted cream sporting a non-descript logo and the words ‘civic bakery’. It had the look of a low grade industrial bakery. Inside looked much the same, save for what was stacked behind the glass of the counter and shelves. ‘S true’s nuts! Little bread rolls looking exactly like tortoises, twisted & plaited breads. Crisp sugared doughnuts and the most irresistible looking Danish pastries. I chose a cherry Danish. I then asked the lady behind the counter if they use real sourdough. She replied that they did, especially the German and Austrian rye breads and the Italian chiabatta. I lamented that I am unable to culture my own sourdough starter and asked if she would sell me a piece of theirs. She then told me that her husband is the baker and that he is not in. I asked her for his number so that I can ask him myself. I must have looked desperate, because she went to the back and came back with a walnut sized piece of sourdough in a greaseproof bag. She looked a bit worried and informed me that she sincerely hopes that her husband would not be angry with her, and that he still would have enough for tomorrow’s batch. Outside I opened my little box containing the Danish and gingerly took a bite. At the sound of violins I closed my eyes and ascended to heaven. The fresh flaky pastry melted in my mouth. The richness of the buttery pastry, the sweetness of the icing and the tart cherry filling made me slowly spin in the air. I gave the big old black dog that has been snapping at my heels all week a great big kick in the mouth and he ran off yelping into the distance. Yes, no Prozac can dissolve depression like real top quality confectionary! But then it must not be a dry bready piece of confectionary filled with evil gag reflex inducing gelatinous confectioner’s custard or fake soapy confectioner’s cream made from dairy substitutes so loaded with trans fats that it coats your tongue and palate with goo reminiscent of rancid sheep’s fat. To make it worse, some of it is covered with “chocolate” which turns out to be chocolate icing made from cheap margarine. The strange thing is though, people love this crap. They queue at supermarkets’ bakeries to buy these abominations. Back on earth I manage to find my car and drive home. When I arrived I’ve sufficiently recovered to give the sourdough some attention. I made a well of flour (1 cup) on the countertop into which I poured ¼ cup warm water. I broke up the sourdough ball in this well and proceeded to incorporate some of the fresh flour into the middle. (Some higher-end SPAR stores sell organic unbleached bread flour from Eureka Mills near Heidelberg in the Western Cape.) I continued till all the flour was incorporated into a rather stiff ball of dough. I then kneaded till soft and very malleable. I then put it in a bowl covered with a tea towel in a warm place for about five hours. I repeated the process a few times every time increasing with a greater amount of flour and water till by the next day (Saturday afternoon) I had enough to bake with. All this and I ended up with two lovely loaves of Pain Blanc au Levain (white bread made from sourdough) We invited friends over and I made soup for starter and a hearty stew for mains. I served the bread as an accompaniment to both. The soup and stew went down well, but everyone raved about the bread. They finished both loaves and complained that I didn’t make more bread. One guest actually became upset. I managed to appease him a bit with baked pudding which he had with both cream and custard! As I have said, I had the old black dog on my back last week and did not have the energy to post regularly. The whole out-of-work-staying-at-home thing is getting a bit long in the tooth now. A cherry Danish saved me though, and bread baking gave me some purpose. I have saved a piece of my second refreshment of the sourdough and put it in the fridge. The challenge now will be to keep my sourdough alive. The bread is so delicious though, I have enough motivation to keep on baking. The next bread I am going to try is.... TADA!... a real San Francisco Sourdough! I have started looking for jobs with renewed vigour now, and I have actually had initial responses from putting my cv on a job-site on the internet. I am also considering going to the baker of that weird bakery to ask if he would take me in as an apprentice...

Potato Soup

Saturday morning Lamb and I decided to invite friends over for dinner. Enthused by my new passion for home baked bread, I devised a simple menu of bread and potato soup. I made a focaccia using the ‘sponge’ method described in the post below. Just before baking, I brushed the top with olive oil, fresh garlic and fresh rosemary (I forgot to sprinkle the salt flakes). This is my own version of potato soup and it is truly delicious, very easy to make and surely will impress your guests. This is one of my top winter warmer comfort foods. 5 large potatoes peeled, quartered and boiled till soft. 1 Chouriço (Portuguese) or Chorizo (Spanish) sausage 1 Kassler chop 2 large onions peeled and chopped 2 chicken and 1 beef stock cubes dissolved in 1 ½ litre of water. (I won’t insist on making your own stock or using expensive concentrate) Olive oil Little bit of lemon zest Juice of half a lemon Freshly ground black pepper.

(Serves 4 generous portions – increase stock & potatoes for more guests – double Chouriço and Kassler if more than 8 people)

Remove the piece of bone on the Kassler (but keep it) and chop together with the Chouriço to pieces roughly half the size of dice. Fry on low heat till browned in a large saucepan (including the piece of Kassler bone). Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and fry the onions slowly in the same saucepan till translucent and light caramel colour and add the stock. Increase the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the onions with a sieve and discard. Add the stock and meat back to the saucepan. Add the potatoes and carefully mash the potatoes – you want part to remain whole and the rest will thicken the soup. Simmer on a very low heat for 10 mins, add lemon zest, juice and black pepper. (Remove bone) Serve with a nice crusty chewy bread. The Chouriço imparts its wonderful spicy flavour to the soup and the Kassler adds extra smokiness and depth. Do not add any salt and be careful using too many stock cubes or too much stock powder/concentrate as the Chouriço and Kassler are salty already. Lamb contributed this easy and very good dessert. Some foodies may frown upon this, but trust me – it is good. Pour 1 litre Ultra Mel Custard into a bowl. Heat in microwave. Break up 1 box of Romany Creams Chocolate biscuits (not too small) and mix into the custard. Allow to cool completely before serving.

The table the next morning...

The smell of freshly baked bread

Up till last week I never did a lot of bread baking, as I am never satisfied with the results. It always comes out too dense and you have to eat it as it comes out of the oven – I’ve found my own homemade bread becomes stale before the day is even out. Once I became inspired by reading about bread baked the old fashioned way with a sourdough starter instead of commercial instant yeast. I set out to culture my own starter, with a recipe off the net, but failed. Recently I mentioned my desire to make my own sourdough starter at a braai. Most of the guests looked at me as if I am mad, but the hostess got very excited and said she has a book with instructions which she will borrow me provided that I give her a piece of my starter should I succeed. The book – “The Village Baker - Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America” by Joe Ortiz proved to be a treasure. This guy and his wife own a bakery in California. His mission was to produce very good quality breads, so he visited so called Village Bakers all over France, Italy and Germany to see how they do it. This book has cleared up the mystery of bread making and baking to me to a very large extent. Last week Thursday I have started a new sourdough starter, and so far it seems successful. I should be able to bake with it by tomorrow. With a sourdough starter the aim is to capture natural wild yeast in the air into a mixture of water and flour. This starter can then be used as a leavening agent instead of commercial yeast. It is a slow process though. The method I am trying this time calls for ¼ cup of flour to be mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. This is achieved by making a well in the middle of a small mound of flour and pouring the water into that. The flour is then mixed into the well slowly with your fingers. The result will be a firm dough which should then be kneaded for about 8 mins. One should then end up with a little dough ball the size of a walnut. This is then put in a small bowl, covered with a damp cloth and left in a warm draft-free place. After 2-3 days a crust will have formed, which if removed reveals that the dough has started bubbling and will smell slightly acidic. Without going in to much detail, this is then refreshed twice (every time a couple of days apart) with increasing amounts of water and flour till you are left with a cup or more of the starter which should be sufficient for an ordinary loaf. It is not necessary go through this every time, just keep some of the starter and refresh it (daily if you leave it in a warm place and weekly if you keep it in the fridge). In the meanwhile, I have started to experience with other methods, like the direct method with instant yeast as well as the ‘sponge’ method. I made these Hot Cross Buns from a kit sold by Woolworths. Lamb got it as a gift – but I couldn’t see her making it. The enclosed recipe and ingredients called for using the direct yeast method. This means one adds a sachet of instant yeast to the ingredients and knead it till it forms a dough and let it rise (prove) once. The smell from the oven whilst baking was indescribable. They were very nice straight from the oven, but were totally stale the next day. Here I tried baguettes using the sponge method (the one looks like a turkey drumstick or a club though). With the sponge method one use a lot less instant yeast than is called for in a recipe. The first step then is to create a ‘sponge’ by mixing about half the amount of yeast ordinarily required with flour and water to end up with something the consistency of pancake batter. It is then left in a bowl covered with a damp cloth (somewhere warm out of any draughts) 4-6 hours till the mixture has first tripled in volume and then fallen back on itself. The rest of the flour and water, salt etc. as required by the recipe is then added and left to prove for another 2 hours again. After this second rising the dough is knocked back and left for half an hour. The loaves can now be formed, put on a baking tray and left to relax for 15 mins. The baguettes only bake 15 – 20 mins in a hot oven. I tried one of the tips in the book, which is to put the dough in the fridge instead of a warm place for it to prove and rise much slower (up to 12 hours). A much more interesting texture can be created this way, and wow did it work. Inside the loafs were full of irregular large holes and it was chewy and delicious just as one expect from a rustic French loaf. Although the sourdough bread is my aim, I started experimenting with more common methods in order to start practicing the kneading and all the other steps & techniques in baking bread. With Joe Ortiz’s book as my companion, I learned quite a lot – stuff that as I have said, was quite a mystery to me before. Now I cannot wait for tomorrow, so I can try out the sourdough starter which I cultured myself.