Natural Leaven and "Mixed-Leaven" Breads

(Baker's note:  I was just thinking about this recently--in the shower, where so many interesting ideas percolate--and it occurred to me that "natural leaven" isn't the right term for these "sourdough" breads.  Opposing "natural leaven" to "yeasted" implies that commercial yeast isn't "natural," but it is.  So I considered "wild leaven," but at this point I feel our starter culture is actually quite domesticated and mannerly.  So, I don't know.  I guess we'll keep using the inadequate "natural leaven" or sourdough for the time being.  If you have any ideas, let us know.  bl  9 june 2008)

Natural leaven bread, pain au levain in French, is bread made without commercial yeast.  The yeast that makes natural leaven bread rise comes from a starter culture, levain.  Some people refer to all such breads as "sourdough" breads, and we often use that term, too, for convenience's sake.  It's just a lot easier to describe our Wheaty loaf as "organic sourdough wheat," than to say, "It's a natural leaven whole wheat bread made with all organic flours."  And most people don't care about semantic bread-nerd hair-splitting.  They want their bread, and they want to get to their favorite grower before the tomatoes are all gone.

The reason we make the distinction is that, to us, "sourdough" is a specific kind of bread made in a specific place, namely San Francisco and environs, where a strain of wild yeast prevails which produces a notably sour bread.  Our natural leaven doughs, risen with a starter culture born of organic whole rye flour and fed on rye, whole wheat, and unbleached white flour, make breads ranging from very sour to not sour at all, depending on many factors:  the flours in the bread; how long and at what temperature the dough rises; the weather; the phase of the moon, perhaps; how the starter is feeling that week.  A natural leaven starter is a complex and living thing, an ecosystem of yeasts and bacteria coexisting in a sludgy batter of flour and water (we use a semi-liquid levain, for fellow bread-nerds).   About what exactly is going on in there, we have only the most general idea:  the yeast is eating one part of the flour, and producing carbon dioxide and alcohol;  the bacteria are eating another part, and producing acid, and, maybe, other stuff (sorry to be so technical...).  Mostly what we know is how to use it to make very tasty, long-keeping breads.

In our experience, it is much, much simpler to make breads leavened simply with commercial yeast, whether active dry yeast, which we use, or fresh cake yeast.  This form of leavening produces consistent, quick, predictable results, and combined with good ingredients and techniques, it makes excellent bread--like our baguette, honey whole grain, brioche, etc.  It's just that, for dedicated bread bakers, and for avid bread eaters, breads made only with commercial yeast are, well, sort of boring.  Baking is generally a boring, repetitive activity, and while a certain amount of predictability is good, one also seeks a sense of accomplishment, the thrill of living life on the edge.  That's what natural leaven baking provides (yes, it's true, we don't get out much).  Every batch is somehow different from the last.  The dough is stiffer or stickier than last time, it rises faster or slower, holds its shape in loaf form or sprawls out across the peel.  We like to see our natural leaven breads fall within a certain range of sourness, crustiness, texture in the crumb, rise in the oven; we're never entirely sure what we're going to wind up with.

Of course, we don't really bake with natural leaven solely to gratify our inner thrill-seeker.  Natural leaven produces an entirely different type of bread from commercial yeast.  Our natural leaven breads undergo a long fermentation, first as a sponge--a thick batter of flour, water, and starter--then again after the dough is mixed.  During this long "proofing", the yeast and bacteria work on the flour in their various ways; this, and the byproducts of fermentation mentioned above, produce complex flavors in the bread.  There's acidity, of course, in varying amounts, but other flavors, as well:  malty, nutty, winey, and mildly sweet notes.  Not to sound like one of those pretentious wine writers....  But a well-fed natural leaven starter does smell like new wine, sharp and yeasty and earthy.

 One happy side effect of using natural leavens is that the resulting bread stays fresh a long time.  Natural leaven breads are generally denser than plain yeast breads; the acidity also seems to fend off staling and spoilage.  In fact, I believe that natural leaven breads--particularly those made with whole grains--often belie the idea that fresher is always better in bread.  Our Wheaty, Tata's Rye, and fruit and nut loaves really need an overnight rest to set up and develop all their flavors, and I think that they actually improve for three or four days, as the crust becomes crunchier, the crumb gets denser, and all the flavors both mellow and intensify.  I'll go so far as to say that five-day-old walnut bread is better than fresh-baked.  Spread with some soft goat cheese or good butter, or just eaten plain, to me there's nothing better.

These breads should never be closed in a plastic bag.  That will kill the crust.  We just leave the loaf on our breadboard, cut side down.  A cloth bread bag is another option, or a breadbox, or, if you must, a plastic bag with the mouth left open.  This topic is discussed further in "Caring For Your Bread," from the menu at the left.

As for "mixed-leaven" breads, these are loaves leavened both with starter and with active dry yeast.  We use this method a lot.  The resulting breads usually aren't terribly sour, if at all, but the starter adds a depth of flavor and a texture you wouldn't get with plain yeast.  We use this method for our Pain de Campagne (Country White), the various shaped flatbreads called "fougasse," and even in our rich and slightly sweet briochettes and the legendary "Lake Street Galette."

(To make your own starter, see Missive #2, The Sourdough Manifesto.) 

Our breads vary from week to week, but these listed below are never off the menu for long.

Natural Leaven Breads  

Wheaty, our organic, natural leaven whole wheat bread.  This sort of rustic loaf is common all over Europe--it's the pain au levain of the French (think Poilane), the "wood-oven bread" of the Germans.  A heroic crust, a dense, chewy, quite sour crumb.  If you like this kind of bread, you will love Wheaty.  It's made from organic whole wheat, rye, and unbleached white flour, water, starter,  salt.

Tata's Rye is always in our baskets, because Tata is always at the market.  Our friends Tata and Misha (I almost said "Russian friends," and they are originally from Russia, but consider themselves proud new Americans) were among our first customers our first year in the market.  They tried our "Sourdough Rye" and found it passable, but each week Tata came back and told me the bread needed more rye.  I was afraid of using too much rye flour, which makes a sticky, difficult dough, especially in a natural leaven bread.  But I kept trying and eventually came up with a bread that should satisfy the most demanding rye bread fans.  This is a pure, natural leaven rye bread--no caraway, no molasses or "pumpernickel" colorings or flavors--just organic rye flour (about 80%), unbleached white flour, enough to get it to hold together and rise, water, starter, salt.  Tata says she eats it "like pastry."  I guess that says it all.

Walnut bread.  Just last night, as we sat down and tucked into a salad of frisée from our garden, with a walnut oil dressing, topped with seared walnut crusted goat cheese and accompanied by sliced walnut bread, it occurred to me once again that if there were a Nobel Prize for doughstuffs, this bread should win it.  This bread combines organic rye and organic whole wheat flour with unbleached white flour, walnuts, water, starter, and salt.  We brush the loaves with walnut oil after they are baked.  It's a gorgeous bread, and delicious plain, buttered, with goat or other cheeses, toasted with honey, in a tuna salad or grilled cheese sandwich.  As mentioned above, this bread stays fresh a long time, and actually improves with a few days' aging, which would make it a great bread to take camping, or when traveling to any place where you might worry about not being able to get really good bread. 
 

Very Fruity is made in the same dough as the walnut bread.  Instead of the nuts, it's garnished with dried apricots, dried black Mission figs, currants and golden raisins.

Mixed Leaven Breads

Pain de Campagne, is our "country white" loaf, a mix of unbleached white flour, organic whole wheat, organic rye, water, starter, salt, and yeast.  Let me tell you what I don't like about a lot of the artisan breads produced by commercial bakeries around here:  they're boring.  They look great, the crust is good, but when you cut into them, the crumb is just too white, too monochrome, and too rubbery (because of the super-high-gluten bread flours they use, but that's another story).  I don't think it's giving away any kind of trade secret to say that we've discovered that using a variety of flours results in a bread with more--and more complex--flavors and textures.  None of our breads, except for some buttery things like the Breton Butter Cake and brioche, rely on one kind of flour to make the dough.  Unbleached white flour and bread flour have their uses, but all alone they make for one-note bread.  Which is the farthest thing from our Campagne loaf.  We describe it as grainy white or country white, because the white flour is in the majority, but the color of the crumb is really an appealing light brown.  The crust is excellent, crunchy, aromatic.  This is our best sandwich bread, in my opinion, also makes great toast, French toast; accompanies any plate with élan.

Walnut Fig Anise bread is a small loaf based on the pain de campagne dough, densely packed with walnuts, black mission and Turkish figs, lightly spiced with ground anise seeds--wonderful in combination with the sweet, chewy figs.  This is great bread all on its own, and is terrific with sharp cheeses--aged cheddar or gouda, say.  This bread was new this year, and judging by the response from our regulars, I'd say it's pretty addictive.

Herb Garden Boule and Bâtard (also Herbes de Provence) combines unbleached white flour, Swany organic white, organic whole wheat, olive oil, water, starter, chopped fresh herbs, salt, and yeast.  The herbs vary according to what's abundant in our garden.  The "Herb Garden" version usually has parsley, chervil, chives, thyme, sometimes fennel greens or basil.  Herbes de Provence always has rosemary and thyme, usually fennel greens, sometimes basil.  A boule is simply a round loaf, bâtard a sort of plump, short baguette.  The olive oil make the dough nice and tender, while the added acidity from the oil strengthens the gluten to give this bread a nice spring.

Fougasse:  Herb and Olive.  Fougasse.  Fougasse.  I just like saying the word, typing it, even:  fougasse.  What is this thing called fougasse?  Comes from Provence, so we hear.  Haven't been there, keep getting drawn back to Brittany and the Loire.  Etymologically, it springs from the same source as focaccia, which is the Latin focus, which means hearth (isn't that just a lovely derivation?).  So it's a hearth bread, and hearth breads usually are flat breads--pizza, focaccia, fougasse--baked right on the hot stone, as opposed to breads baked, say, in some kind of container, I guess (in the modern artisan bakery, even one in a home kitchen, pretty much all the breads are baked right on the hot stone).  What distinguishes fougasse is that this bread is usually cut with a razor knife into intriguing shapes, most commonly a leaf or a ladder.  Our olive fougasse is cut in the ladder shape and contains Kalamata, green Greek, and oil-cured Moroccan olives.  For the herb versions we usually fresh basil or sage from our garden, and these breads we cut into the leaf shape.  The result of all this knife work is 1) A very pretty bread, golden brown and glistening with the extra virgin olive oil with which we brush these breads after baking, and 2) Lots of crust surrounding a tender, fragrant crumb.  These will make your cocktail or apéritif leap from its glass and sing La Marseillaise (well, almost...)
    . The basic dough contains unbleached white flour, organic Swany white flour, organic whole wheat flour, water, starter, olive oil, salt, and yeast.

Pumpernickel Rye:  You may think you know what pumpernickel is, but do you really?  I thought I did, until I started researching our recipe.  I found a range of opinions on the subject, from a straight sourdough rye with no added flavors to a baroque concoction containing butter, shortening, yogurt, molasses, chocolate, espresso powder and prune butter (!).  The only common element was rye flour, which I believe is what the word pumpernickel actually denotes.   Our pumpernickel is a dense, dark, slightly sour bread the flavor and color of which comes from molasses, unsweetened chocolate, a bit of brown sugar, and caraway seeds.  (Organic rye and whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour, water, starter, milk, molasses, butter, unsweetened chocolate, salt, caraway seeds, brown sugar, yeast ; brushed with egg wash.)

All breads may contain a small amount of cornmeal.