Brot Bakehouse School and Kitchen,Fairfax
Heike works to demystify sourdough baking.
Inside \bro:t\ (German for bread) bakehouse, magic awaits, an almost inherent promise offered by the handsome stone house hugged by an inviting white addition. Enter from the stone patio, and you’re in the classroom-kitchen, soothingly lit, with a wood-fired oven built into the wall. Here, Heike Meyer, owner and baker, gathers her students eager to learn about baking.
There are lots of people in Vermont who are masterful at bread baking and who could teach others how to make bread, but Heike is different from all of them. She is Vermont’s only bread sommelier (the East Coast’s only bread sommelier and only one of three in the country), a title she earned after a year’s worth of study at home and the German National Baking Academy. Although she is a teacher at Brot Bakehouse, she was a student in the course along with others from around the world.
During her study, she honed her sensory skills, especially taste, allowing her palate to pick up “roasted and fruity flavors,” in bread, especially sourdough. Armed with this experience, Heike is undoubtedly a better baker and a better teacher at the school she started in 2011 to help students develop an understanding of the alchemy of sourdough baking.
Some people think making these loaves is mystifying and magical or trendy and highbrow. Looking at loaves that adorn cookbook covers or fill a bakery’s racks, some might think making this bread is too difficult or even possible. But Heike works to demystify sourdough baking. Here are some things she cleared up about sourdough baking as we spoke.
BAKING WITH SOURDOUGH IS NOT TRENDY
“Sourdough,” Heike says, “was the means of leavening for thousands of years.” Commercial yeast, by comparison, has been available since the late 1800s, and instant yeast, which is what you usually find in packets on supermarket shelves, only since the 1970s. When you tear into a packet, you find “a highly concentrated and highly processed rising agent,” Heike says, “and the process of making yeast uses a lot of resources and it is not a clean process.”
Kylie and Austin Gagan, students at one of Brot Bakehouse’s sourdough classes, sampling treats Heike passed around during class. PHOTO: STEPHEN D’AGOSTINO
Heike reminds us that bread baking is an enduring technology. Sourdough baking, she says, “is like tapping in to one of the oldest food-making techniques known—it’s cool to think that humanity has been doing exactly this process for thousands of years!”
MAINTAINING A SOURDOUGH STARTER IS NOT DIFFICULT
To bake with sourdough, you need a starter, which, Heike explains, “is a mixture of flour and water fermented by naturally occurring microorganisms,” including natural yeasts and lactic acid bacteria found in the flour, on your hands, and in the air.
“While the yeasts are responsible for the rise by consuming sugar and producing carbon dioxide, which forms bubbles in the dough,” Heike says, “the lactic acid bacteria provide mainly flavor and texture and unlock the nutrients in the final product.” Once you have some starter, all you need to do is feed it with water and flour. If you do that in the morning, you’ll see it’s risen by the afternoon.
After in-depth sourdough classes, Heike notes, people still email saying, “I think I killed my starter.” Heike adds, “It’s a very hard thing to wrap your head around that starter is a very forgiving organism.”
To obtain a starter, you could take one of Heike’s classes, where you’ll leave with at least a dollop of it and any bread you’ve made. If you have a friend who likes to bake with sourdough, they’ll likely share a bit of their starter. You can also make your own. The process is similar to the feeding described above. In the first few days, it may not look like it’s doing anything, but soon, you’ll notice bubbles on its top, and every day, you’ll see more until it’s rising predictably.
When handing out starter, she advised the students not to fret. Feed it every day if you can. If you forget, feed it when you remember, knowing it may take a little time for it to be ready for use. If you go away, put it in the refrigerator and feed it when you get home.
SOURDOUGH BREAD'S BEAUTY IS MORE THAN CRUST-DEEP
To Heike, how the bread looks is the wrong thing to focus on. Yes, figuratively, we taste with our eyes, but the value of bread is what your mouth tells you. “Do you really want it to be beautiful,” she asks, “or do you want to taste it?”
Heike reminds us that bread baking is an enduring technology. Sourdough baking, she says, “is like tapping in to one of the oldest food-making techniques known—it’s cool to think that humanity has been doing exactly this process for thousands of years!”
