Making REAL Sourdough
Flour + Water + Salt + A LOT OF TIME & LOVE = Authentic Sourdough Bread
Organic, vegan and good for your gut!
No additives, no preservatives!
Ingredients: Organic WHEAT flour, organic SPELT flour, organic RYE flour, water, salt
Allergy Advice: For allergens including cereals containing gluten, see ingredients in BOLD above.
Produced in a kitchen that uses milk, eggs, soy and tree nuts .
Native Grain
100% UK Stoneground Flour
I am committed to using grain grown as locally as possible. For now 'local' means 'UK' but in time I hope it will mean 'South West' and eventually 'Cornwall', but always from small, sustainable farms who prioritise a low-input approach to farming, either organically or regeneratively. By sourcing grain locally, I hope to form direct and mutually beneficial relationships with the farmers who grow them, to become more connected with the growing and harvesting processes, and to learn more about the different varieties of grain that thrive in this area.
All of the flour will be stoneground on traditional stone mills. This retains the nutrients and fibre contained in the outer layers of the grain, helping me to produce a supremely nourishing and flavoursome loaf. The dough is naturally leavened by my trusty sourdough culture and it takes over 40 hours to create each loaf. This long, slow fermentation ensures that all of those nutrients in the stoneground flour are broken down to increase their bioavailability, so that, when you eat the bread, you can digest it easily and gain the maximum benefit from it.
To keep with the local theme, I only use Cornish Sea Salt, a beautiful salt from just down the road on the Lizard peninsula.
Sabzi Deli
Sabzi is a wonderful deli serving delicious and nutritious food - I am delighted to be working with Kate to have my bread available for sale in both the Truro and Falmouth shops. To start with, through December 2022, the bread will available in both shops from mid-morning every Friday.
https://www.sabzideli.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/sabzideli
My Story So Far...
My Background
Hello and thanks for showing an interest in me, Sourdough Tim! After a few years getting to grips with running a sourdough micro-bakery in London with my wife Harshini, we moved back home to my native Cornwall at the end of summer 2020 and undertook a huge house renovation project. Finally the house is (almost) finished and I can turn my focus to bread again. I am starting small and to begin with (Dec 2022) will just be selling my loaves from Sabzi Deli in Truro and Falmouth.
I’ve had a rather unconventional career path leading up to this point, having studied Aeronautical Engineering at uni, then working at a software company for eight years, and as a maths teacher at a secondary school for the last seven years. I’m a bit of an obsessive perfectionist and so the huge number of variables affecting sourdough production, and the myriad different skills required to execute it effectively, provide the perfect challenge!
My Start in Sourdough
After a great few years of competitive home-brewing I started a new hobby making sourdough bread in September 2018, mainly to produce something other than beer, something that my two inquisitive young daughters could get fully involved with, both in the making and the consuming! It quickly became an obsession and I found myself studying the works of some amazing bakers, namely Chad Robertson (Tartine Bread), Maurizio Leo (The Perfect Loaf) and Trevor Wilson (Open Crumb Mastery). Persistence, practice and patience eventually started getting me the results I strived for and I began experimenting with different flours to try and hone in on my own perfect loaf. That has ended up being 25% wholegrain with a mix of wheat, spelt and rye, and a fairly high hydration of 75-80% to achieve a super succulent crumb. It’s the bread that I always want to eat and never get bored of and it’s the one I hope you will come to love as well!
My Sourdough Routine
We haven’t really bought much bread at all since the first loaf came out of the oven in Sept 2018! I ended up making bread most days and settled into a nice baking rhythm of mixing the dough in the morning, shaping it in the evening, and baking the following morning. It really is a great way to relax and de-stress from the demands of family life and the daytime teaching job. I’ve heard people describe it as meditative, and can certainly relate to that in some ways, but for me it’s just the sheer joy and satisfaction I get from handling the dough and producing such tasty, good-looking bread! Each loaf takes about 40 hours for me to produce (depending on the ambient temperature, and how I can squeeze the process in around my other commitments) and this is the mark of truly authentic sourdough - made by hand in small batches and fermented slowly. It is made with just three ingredients: flour, water and salt. No commercial baking yeast is added and there aren't any of those other nasty chemicals that mass-produced bread has to artificially speed up production and superficially extend the shelf life - check the ingredients list on your normal bread!
Try My Sourdough
Available from Sabzi Deli in Truro & Falmouth, currently Fridays only.
Get In Touch
Thanks for reading and do email me (sourdoughtim@gmail.com) or drop me a note on Instagram or via the contact form (below) if you want to register your interest or ask any questions!
Health & Happiness with Sourdough
The health benefits of sourdough really are quite remarkable and this is a key factor that drives my motivation to bake. There is a lot of scientific research currently in progress but, from personal experience with our family and friends, it really is incredible how much happier our tummies feel when compared to eating commercially produced bread. In short, the long slow fermentation by the naturally present yeasts in the flour and the actions of the lactic acid bacteria help to break down the long protein molecules and the gluten so that it’s easy for the body to digest and so that the nutrients are more readily accessible. This helps alleviate the bloating effects that commercial bread can have and acts as a prebiotic to promote good gut health. Lots of people with gluten intolerances and IBS also report being able to consume sourdough without suffering any ill effects. For a more detailed look at these benefits I recommend having a look here:
The benefits of eating sourdough
The role of sourdough in supporting a healthy digestive system.