Long time readers of this blog will know of Struan Farm's love affair with Laucke's Golden Wholemeal Bread. It's been our freshly baked bread offering to farmstay guests since we opened the farmstay years ago now, although there was a not-so-brief hiccup after the NZ distributor went out of business and Countdown Supermarkets stopped stocking the product. While I eventually found an acceptable alternative via a commercial food supplier, it wasn't as good as Laucke. So I was overjoyed when a new distributor was appointed and Bin Inn started to stock Laucke bread mixes. We haven't looked back since then.
(Note to NZ readers: many Bin Inns have refreshed themselves from a 1970's time warp and updated product offerings. You will know they aren't keen on excessive food packaging, you can bring your own for many products sold. The Takanini and Waitara stores (two on my flight path) are especially good. I do wish the store in Te Awamutu would invest in an update, it has a tired look in my view, but they are friendly and informed.)
This past week I was down at the Waitara Bin Inn and discovered a Laucke mix I hadn't seen before, "Barossa Sour Dough Rye."
While I think of San Francisco as the home of sour dough, it turns out that French bakers brought this style of bread making to California during the Gold Rush. Read more about the history of this type of bread here. Sour dough bread is increasing in popularity and availability in NZ due to its relative health benefits. I thought I'd give it a try, not for farmstay guests given continued rave reviews for the wholemeal, but rather as a possible option for us when we want to eat bread. Like the wholemeal, there's a lighter version using 500 grams of the Laucke mix and differing amounts of water and yeast, so I went with that for my first test.
This bread is traditionally made with a "starter," the sort of living thing people hand down to family, feed and keep alive in their fridges for years. While I'm relatively keen on giving most things a go, I don't see myself making sour dough from scratch and having to worry about keeping a starter alive in the fridge for years. John, the dog and the pet lambs are really enough for me with the work involved in the gardens and farmstay (you may recall I couldn't cope with a worm farm). I figured finding a shortcut to making sour dough bread would be great, and I was hoping this might be it.
The medium style loaf has a beautifully crispy crust. I sampled a heel as it was cooling from the oven, which tasted mostly of butter. Yum but hmmm. There weren't the air holes that I typically associate with sour dough, which is almost chewy. While it was good, it wasn't exceptional. Wholemeal is still ahead in the bread stakes in my books, along with "Lazy Ladies Loaf" (ciabatta, and please pardon the grammatical and/or punctuation error but this is what the recipe is called...).
I decided to make the regular style version of Barossa Sour Dough Rye to see how it might differ, and gave nephew Mike the rest of the warm, aromatic loaf to take home after a day of working outside in the rain. He was happy and so was I.
The next morning I tackled the medium sized, regular style loaf. Basically 600 grams mix, 1 tsp. yeast and 420 mls. water. I baked it for the usual 27 minutes. The crust on this one was crisp but there wasn't such a distinction on this loaf between the crispy crust and soft inside. I must say I liked this one better! It's hard to articulate why, except maybe to say it's about the consistency of the inside. It wasn't quite as light a la supermarket bread, so more what I look for in homemade bread. It will be interesting to see how this toasts up.
Laucke "Barossa Sour Dough Rye" definitely gets a thumbs up from me. We won't be changing from the "Golden Wholemeal" we offer to farmstay guests, since I still think that is better for breakfast toast and has more general appeal. But if you're looking for a good bread mix to have in the cupboard, add this to your list. It's dairy free, soy free, and has no added sugar or preservatives.
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