Sourdough- the official bread of San Francisco. In fact, the lactic acid bacteria, which gives the bread its sour taste, is called Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. Although it's named after this city, you can produce perfectly delicious sourdough anywhere in the world.
This is a straightforward recipe. Just flour, a tiny pinch of yeast, water, salt and starter. What makes it different is the amount of starter used. While most breads so far have used a smaller ratio of starter to flour, this one uses almost as much starter as flour. The result is a wetter, more sour dough, which we shape into a boule.
Sourdough is best eaten plain, to fully taste the sourness. It also makes an amazing grilled cheese sandwich. Even if you don't live in San Francisco, you can still enjoy a delicious sourdough loaf at home.
Rye is wheat's more nutritious cousin. It's high in fiber and low in fat, and is low on the glycemic index. Although similar to the wheat plant, the taste and color are completely different. When making rye bread, you can completely change the outcome by the proportion of rye to wheat flour. This is a traditional rye bread, using at least 50% rye flour.
It's a very simple bread to make, with only a few simple ingredients. It also is the quickest bread to make in this book, with only a 30 minute fermentation and an hour of proofing. This dough does not require multiple folds or shaping, so it might be a good introduction to bread-making for a novice baker.
Although we traditionally think of rye bread with caraway seeds, Bouchon omits them. It varies from country to country, so we are keeping with the French style. The end result is flavorful and perfect for a slathering of butter or a sandwich with spicy whole grain mustard.
This bread is for anyone who feels a bit guilty about eating white French bread. It's loaded with whole grains, adding lots of nutritional value without sacrificing any of the delicious taste and texture we love in our baguettes. Adding whole wheat flour, rye flour, oats, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds loads this bread up with tasty rustic goodness.
The fermentation time for this recipe is quite short, only an hour total, unlike any of the recipes so far. So it's entirely possible to have a freshly baked loaf of multigrain bread in less than 4 hours.
The recipe gives instructions and measurements for both bâtards and demi baguettes, so you can choose which shape to make, or make both! The bâtard lends itself better to sandwich-sized slices, but the baguette is great for just snacking. At the end of the recipe, there's a note for fried eggs on toasted multigrain, which sounds just amazing, and would be a perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner.
