Sourdough, Naturally!

Making sourdough once was a complicated process, up to twelve tricky steps and many days. No wonder it fell from favor in our high-speed industrial societies. However, with our new scientific understanding of sourdough you can produce an artisan sourdough loaf with less than 30 minutes active time in the kitchen, after you have developed a starter. The main secret of high quality artisan sourdough is in the starter, a truly wild one based on solid science. Other secrets are the use of natural ingredients, extensive use of parchment for ease of handling soft dough, the slow low temperature development of the dough allowing the microorganisms and enzymes naturally present in the flour to do their work and last of all baking in a Dutch oven to best duplicate the conditions in a French steam oven.