Bakery Bought Sourdough
Having only tasted my own homemade sourdough I was curious how a sourdough loaf bought from a store would compare. So today I bought a loaf from our local Eurphorium Bakery who claim:
"If you’ve tasted better bread anywhere in the world, then please let us know because we have artisan bakers at the ready to compete on the world stage. Our Almond Croissants have been called ‘iconic’, but we aren’t just taking on the croissant. No! We’ll bake whatever takes our fancy from wherever in the world. It could be sourdough, rye bread or an organic ciabatta – nothing will keep us from bringing the best of baking to the best of British."
I have to say the loaf looked wonderful, it had such a beautiful rise to it that it put my homemade sourdough to shame on that score, although the crumb was not as open as my bread. However the real difference was the taste. If I had never tasted homemade sourdough then perhaps I would have been happy with the flavour, but gosh it was just so bland. My bread has a real sour taste to it with an open crumb and is never doughy like this bread was.
What I am curious about though is how they get their sourdough to rise so much. Even my other half has asked why my bread doesn't turn out such a nice shape and it does disappoint me somewhat that despite my efforts I can't seem to match these shop bought loaves in height. I would say my loaves are about 4ins high compared to about 6ins at least for these store ones.
The recipe I use, which was very kindly given to me on here, is 500g white flour, 200g starter at 100% hydration, 300ml water & 11g of salt. I usually mix in my standmix, autolyse for 2hrs, do some stretch and folds for a few hours, shape and leave for half an hour. Shape again and put into bannetons, cover and put in fridge overnight. Take them out the next morning, leave them for about 2/3hrs then bake at 290c on a granite baking stone with steam.
Lyn