Bread, the gift of love this Mother's Day

1. SOURDOUGH BREAD COURSE

Sourdough bread has risen to prominence in our everyday life; this ancient method of baking bread has become part of our culinary lexicon and is taking the daily bread market by storm.

WHAT IS SOURDOUGH?

It's a bread comprising three simple ingredients — flour, water and salt. These are transformed by the addition of the levain, a natural starter made up of flour and water, which on fermenting captivates naturally occurring wild yeast and good bacteria that give the dough the oomph to rise. With this —  and the guidance of expert hands and temperature — the dough is transformed into a bread that's so much better than the commercial offering.

Sourdough comes with that characteristic “eat me” look, the irresistible crispy-crackly crust, offering bags of great flavour and a deliciously soft and chewy texture. The added bonus is the health benefits from an authentic sourdough (remember not all loaves labelled sourdough are the real thing, so check labels or find a trusted baker in your hood), which is way more easily digestible and nutritious.

MAKING SOURDOUGH BREAD AT HOME

It's an age-old tradition which can be performed at home, but I do recommend a novice or someone wanting to improve their skills to attend a hands-on class, as I did recently. The best way to choose the best class for you is through your taste buds.Taste the bread made by the said baker/bakery offering the course and, if it lives up to your sourdough expectations, you’ve found the place — and this is how our stumbled on Linden Loaves.

This micro bakery in suburban Johannesburg supplies excellent handmade 100% sourdough bread — made with Champagne Valley stone-ground flour, farmed and milled in the Drakensberg — to a variety of outlets. The bakery is the brainchild of Caro and Matt Tapson, who during Covid-19, almost five years ago, started making bread in their wood-fired oven built by Matt on their back stoep in leafy Linden.

By their own admission, it has been a steep learning curve and today, together with their small team, they make up to 120 sourdough loaves daily. Their speciality is the delicious country loaf baked from Tuesdays to Saturdays in the newly enlarged oven on their premises. Their ethos and pride is to keep it local, and they do so by supplying a variety of shops, delis, cafes and restaurants in their hood, all listed on their website.

THE ONE-DAY COURSE

The well-organised full day course offers a complete sourdough experience, as Caro walks and talks you through all the steps to create the bread. There were 14 of us in the class, with refreshments on hand and a welcome lunch — featuring their breads of course — together with a myriad of toppings for all tastes.

Caro is patient, warm and friendly, sharing all the tips to sourdough mastery — even fixing/rescuing dough as we went about making our own under her guidance.

Though sourdough bread-making is a two-day process the Tapsons have found a way to demonstrate it in one day — saving you time by using a portion of their valuable starter (and you get to take some home as well) to get one going. Everyone is allocated a station, the ingredients including the all-important starter are weighed out, and there’s hands-on guidance with fermentation, shaping and baking. his is where Matt steps in, teaching one how to undertake the all-important slash across the top of the dough before it goes into the wood-fired oven on the back stoep, where he tends the baking process to perfection.

I was delighted to return home with a warm sourdough under my arm to boast about and enjoy with lashings of butter. Participants get their very own sourdoughs, two shaped bread doughs in proving baskets (the baskets must be returned), to be refrigerated overnight and baked the next day. And if you can't do the baking yourself, the Linden Loaves team will do it for you, for collection the next day.

If desired, you can purchase the Champagne Valley flour and other bread baking aids on the day.

BOOK A LINDEN LOAVES COURSE

Participants are supplied with all flour and other materials, and you are sent home with a portion of the starter culture used to leaven their bread — and lots of bread. You will master the baking of a traditional sourdough country loaf, covering aspects of baking, managing and understanding of a starter, mixing, fermentation, shaping and baking. 

Refreshments and lunch are provided 

Date: Saturday, May 17 , 10am-5pm

Where: Linden, Johannesburg

Cost R1,250 per person

Bookings: lindenloaves.co.za, Instagram @linden_loaves 

2. BAKE MEGHAN'S EASY FOCACCIA FOR MOM

With Love, Meghan is Meghan Markle’s cooking show that recently debuted on Netflix. Here, one gets to see her in the kitchen (not hers because, she says, in consideration of the safety and security of her family, she hired the neighbour's kitchen) and invites friends and “famous” guests to join her. In the fourth episode, entitled Love is in the Details, Meghan gets together with polo friend Delfina Figueras, and together they prepare a picnic — including a homemade focaccia — and share the recipe.

MEGHAN'S FOCCACIA

Makes 1 

250ml (1 cup) warm water

5ml (1 tsp) instant yeast

240g (2 cups) bread flour

15ml (1 tbsp) olive oil, plus more for drizzling/coating the pan as well as the focaccia

5ml (1 tsp) salt

1-3 sprigs rosemary leaves

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the water, yeast, flour and olive oil until a shaggy dough forms.

2. Add the salt and mix until the dough comes together. It will be sticky. Coat the top of the dough with a thin layer of olive oil, cover with a tea towel and place dough in a warm place. Let it rise for two hours.

3. Turn dough out into a well-oiled enamelled cast-iron pan or metal baking pan. Gently stretch dough to the edges of the pan. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220ºC.

4. When dough is ready, coat your hands in olive oil and gently dimple the top with your fingertips to create small wells. Drizzle with extra olive oil, rosemary and flaky salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and cool for a couple of minutes before removing from the pan. Slice, serve and enjoy dunked in olive oil or your favourite dip.