Towerwater traditional Cape Sweet Sourdough Bread

Trying to find and use a traditional Cape bread recipe has been a real eye-opener. Particularly when it comes to the qualities of the food and ingredients that we use in our kitchens daily. It is safe to say that most of the basic ingredients that we use in preparing food, has been somewhat over manufactured or processed. Thanks to our journey with bread, we read the fine print on food packaging. We now prefer to avoid produce with questionable additives, preservatives, MSGs and Genetically Modified ingredients.

We try to eat as healthily as possible, growing our own organic vegetables and fruit. But we forget about the rest of the ingredients that we add to our meals in the form of water, rice, flour, salt, sugar, etc. All that has changed after we interrogated why a basic yeast recipe would not work using off the shelf ingredients. Discovering how basic ingredients like salt, water and flour are manipulated to go from essentially healthy in their best natural state to highly questionable in their manufactured state, helped us to be more cautious about what we buy and eat.

The risen pre-ferment starter (left) and the pre-ferment starter added to the flour (right)

Finding out the level to which our drinking water has been manipulated was sad. More especially when we do not have readily available alternatives to municipal tap water in our homes. Fetching water at a spring for baking is manageable, but not always possible for all food preparation needs.

The pre-ferment starter and flour now kneaded into dough (left) and the risen dough (right)

Our search for a traditional Cape bread recipe has also taught us the need to find better ingredients. It taught us to understand traditional cooking in the context of the available ingredients of the period. Hildagonda Duckitt would have had access to unadulterated ingredients for her food. Pure sea salt from the West Coast; stone-ground flour from a traditional wheat varietal, grown organically in fields within view of the house; and natural spring water from a source a short distance from the house.

We were fortunate enough to find a pure sea salt supplier from the West Coast and an organic stone-ground flour supplier from the Swartland, both sources close to Groote Post. Perhaps it was serendipitous that the ingredients and the recipe for the bread came from the same area. The best we could do when it came to spring water was the Albion Spring in Newlands, Cape Town, at least not far from Wynberg where Hilda wrote her books recording the recipe.

After several successful bread baking sessions with Hilda’s yeast and bread recipe, Keith has adapted the quantities for our needs at Towerwater. Thanks to Hilda, we now use our own traditional Cape sweet sourdough bread recipe.

Towerwater traditional Cape Sweet Sourdough Bread (as adapted from Hilda’s sweet sourdough recipe)

Ingredients: 
875ml (3½ cups) natural water only, 
10ml salt (2 teaspoons), 
150g (1 cup) unsifted whole wheat flour, and 
1kg white bread flour (organic and stone-ground as described).

Utensils required:  (Remember this is an archaic recipe and only very basic equipment, perhaps even antique - is required). A 5lt ceramic mixing bowl, 2lt ceramic mixing bowl onto which a suitably close-fitting lid can be placed, a tea-towel, a hand-towel, a wooden spoon, and a teaspoon. (The towels should not have been laundered with fabric-softeners.)

Note: All the water for the 75% hydration sourdough bread is added in the starter. This recipe provides for a little more flour (15g) to be added in the kneading stage. Should the kneading surface flour dusting exceed 15g, further additions of lukewarm natural water can be made while kneading so as to maintain the 75% hydration level.

Method for making the starter:

At about 17:00 on the day preceding the baking day, prepare the starter as follows:

1.      Add one level teaspoon (5ml) of natural sea salt to the mixing bowl.

2.      Pour over three cups (750ml) of boiling natural water.

3.      Carefully sprinkle over the water an even layer of one cup (150g) of unsifted whole wheat stone-ground flour.

4.      Place a folded tea towel over the bowl, close with a close-fitting lid and wrap the bowl in a hand-towel.

5.      Place in a warm place for a minimum of 12 – 14 hours. (A slightly warm oven not exceeding 28 C at any time works well.)

6.      At 06:00 – 07:00 the following morning, add a half cup (125ml) of boiling natural water to the mix which by now, has thickened. Stir in the water using a wooden spoon to achieve a smooth consistency.

7.      Cover, wrap-up and keep in a warm place. In two to three hours, the mix should have risen well with some bubbles and foam breaking the surface. If it hasn’t, give it some more time.

Method for making the bread:

1.      Measure off 1Kg stone-ground white bread wheat flour into a 5lt ceramic mixing bowl.

2.      Sprinkle over the second teaspoon of natural salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix the salt into the dry flour. Form an indentation in the flour without exposing the base or sides of the mixing bowl.

3.      Pour in the starter. It is now that you will observe the full extent of the fermentation, with lots of frothiness, bubbles and a disagreeable odour.

4.      Stir the starter with a wooden spoon to combine with the flour trying not to let the starter come into too much contact with the sides or bottom of the mixing bowl.

5.      As the flour and starter combine to form a dough, swop the wooden spoon for your hand or a pastry mixing scraper.

6.      Remove the dough from the bowl and on a flour dusted surface, knead for about 15 - 20 minutes until a good elasticity and smoothness has been attained. The dough should leave your hands clean when it has been kneaded sufficiently.

7.      Shape the dough into a sphere and place back in the 5 lt ceramic mixing bowl. Cover with the tea-towel and wrap with the hand-towel.

8.      Place in a warm location (but not warmer than 28 C) for approximately five hours or until the dough has risen to about double its original size.

9.      Remove the dough from the bowl to a suitable flour dusted surface on which the dough can be kneaded down for another 15 minutes.

10.   Grease the bread pans. (Butter would be the original greasing agent and is recommended.)

11.   Shape the dough into a loaf shape (or two loaves) to fit neatly in a single 37 x 14 x 10 cm bread pan or two bread pans of 24 x 14 x 7 cm.

12.   Cover with the tea-towel, wrap in the hand-towel and set aside in a warm place.

13.   Let rise until the dough has risen about 20mm in its centre above the sides of the pan.

14.   Pre-heat the oven to 200 C and bake for 45 minutes.

15.   Switch off the oven. Remove loaf from pan, turn upside down and place back in the oven for a further ten minutes.

16.   Know your oven. For fan-heated ovens, a lower temperature (180 C) and shorter baking period (say 30 minutes) may be in order.

17.   The bread is well-baked when the crust is a golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

I cannot wait for the wood-fired oven to be operational. When we take our first bread out of the ‘bakoond’ it will be true to the 1800’s and earlier. Made with a traditional Cape recipe in a wood-fired oven. The next steps are to master the skill of baking the bread in a wood-fired oven. It seems our bread journey continues.

The start of our bread journey - A traditional sourdough bread recipe for a wood-fired oven 

The second chapter of our bread journey - The secrets of salt, water and flour