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

The secrets of salt, water and flour

Finding an early 1800s authentic Cape bread recipe that was used before commercial yeast was available, was made possible by the Africana cookbook collection in the Towerwater library. The first commercial yeast factory in South Africa was started in 1923 by Daniel Mills and Sons.

Salt, water and wheat

Deciding to make bread using Hildagonda Duckitt’s recipe for yeast, which was the family’s own recipe, set us on a path of discovery. A path that would ultimately change how we look at food. Hilda was born at Groote Post on 21 February 1839 and it is safe to say that the recipe must have been in use by her family for a long time before that.

Hilda explains in her book "Hilda's Diary of a Cape Housekeeper" (published 1902), how every day of the week on the farm was set out for different activities. Baking was done on Tuesdays and Fridays by their man cook Abraham. She describes their oven as follows, “There was a large oven (built into the kitchen), which took a cartload of wood to heat; by wood I mean “rhenoster bush”, which grows on the hills, and strange to say, wherever land has been under cultivation, in a few years it is covered with this bush, which makes excellent firewood, and was put round the kraals as fences as well. When this oven was heated twice a week for baking all the bread required on the farm, we generally made a supply of sponge- and tea-cakes at the same time, and turn-overs for picnics.”

Groote Post homestead with the thatched stables next to the round roof of the silo. Photo: Alice Mertens - "From the days that are gone" 1967

The Cape homestead and its surrounding outbuildings, on large farms such as Groote Post, would almost constitute a small village. Since wood was scarce in the Cape Colony, and it was far more economical to do so, bread would be baked centrally for the entire farm community. These remote largely self-sufficient communities would typically include the leaseholder/owner and household, the blacksmith and other artisans and their households, farm hands and their families and labourers and their families. 

   Plan of Groote Post, the bakoond is indicated by no 14 and the kitchen no 11. Image:"From the days that are gone" published 1967 by Howard Timmins

It is therefore unsurprising that Hilda’s wood-fired oven could take 70 loaves of bread at a single baking. The oven at Towerwater is estimated to take about twenty-six 1Kg (2lb) loaves at a time (two baker’s dozen), or most likely a baker’s dozen of the more likely 2kg (4lb) loaf. All these breads were baked in bread pans made on the farm from re-purposed metal.

This background to Hildagonda Duckitt is of interest as it is her authoritative published bread recipe that will serve to prepare a typical mid- 19th Century (1800’s) loaf. The recipe, with its’ only ingredients being flour, salt and water, is significant. In considering others of the period, it would seem to form the basis of the most generally accepted method for making bread in the rural Cape, with minor regional adaptations. This pre-ferment methodology prevailed prior to the invention of instant baker’s yeast in 1860 and its subsequent availability. The recipe would appear to pre-date all others consulted. 

This bold assumption is made on the basis that the recipe does not distinguish itself as being one for sourdough bread, though it clearly is. All ancient leavened bread-making, the same methods having been brought to the Cape in 1652 with European settlers, was from sourdough in some form or another. The recipe is therefore simply, “a bread recipe”. Notably, it uses only the ingredients of flour, salt and water. Later recipes, following the invention of baker’s yeast, add the descriptor, sourdough. The name sweet sourdough was then assigned to the recipe to differentiate it from other forms of sourdough, which use a continuous starter, potato or fruit additive to create a yeast. Of course, typical sourdough was not universally held in high esteem. Many found the sourness distasteful or reflecting a lack of accomplishment on the part of the baker (Source: Putnam’s Handy Book Series of Things Worth Knowing – Bread Making. By G P Putnam’s Sons, New York 1884).

The sweet sourdough process (which is unlike contemporary sweet sourdough recipes consulted), produced a bread that was much less sour, hence ‘sweet’ sourdough. This ‘sweetness’ might be ascribed to the yeast preparation which was a shorter one-off process. The pre-ferment starter was consumed entirely in each bake for which it was prepared.

Key features of this recipe in terms of the sourdough starter, is that it is a no fuss, no waste and time efficient method. To be expected in a very busy household, where bread-making was a basic routine driven by functional necessity. To bake your sourdough loaf from starting the starter to removing the loaves from the oven can be achieved in less than 24 hours, if all goes well!

A challenge is to interpret this recipe for contemporary use. First, in terms of the measurements. It should be remembered that all measurements in the recipe are in imperial quantities as would have been the standard of practice in the Cape Colony. For ease of use, these imperial measurements can be converted to metric measurements. In addition, few households today would require such quantities of bread as provided for in Hilda’s recipe (six large loaves of a baked weight of a kilogram each or twelve loaves of a ½ kilogram each). The recipe therefore can be scaled down (using 1Kg flour, excluding the starter) to make say two, 1Kg loaves or a single 2Kg ‘farmers’ loaf.

The yeast only required three ingredients, salt, water and flour. Easy enough because we had the ingredients readily available. Keith reduced the quantities for our domestic use and followed Hilda’s recipe to the letter. Although the mixture had a “disagreeable odour” as mentioned in Hilda’s recipe, there was no “frothy appearance” in the mixture. We were taken aback as to the lack of fermentation in the mixture. And serious research was undertaken to find out what could have gone wrong.

We discovered that our yeast was unresponsive because all three ingredients (on tap and off the shelf) that we used were “dead”; having none of the natural nutrients and minerals required by a traditional Cape yeast. 

Using the correct flour

Through our research, we established that if one wants to make authentic 19th Century bread, one would need to use simple rough wheat meal (course flour). Nothing added, or removed, the wheat cultivated organically, and stone ground. Stoneground flour, ensures that the temperatures reached during milling, do not achieve the high temperatures and damaging effects of roller milled flour. 

Conventional flour is unrecognisable from the flour Hilda would have used. The wheat is reconstituted with the germ and hull stripped away. Today, flour is treated with bleaching agents and sometimes maturing agents for artificial aging. To this end, additives commonly include Potassium bromate, Benzoyl peroxide, Ascorbic Acid, Chlorine dioxide, Calcium peroxide, Azodicarbonamide. Then there are the preservatives added which may include one or a selection of, Calcium propanoate, Sodium benzoate, Tricalcium phosphate, Butylated hydroxyanisole. 

Stone-ground unbleached natural flour

Some flours supplied to bakeries are also bromated. This is when potassium bromate is added to the flour to improve rise and the elasticity of dough! Contemporary methods of manufacturing flour strip away the natural nutrients and these are then sometimes replaced in ‘enriched flour’. These include the addition of iron and B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin thiamine and sometimes calcium. In addition to enriching the flour, bread flour is also often ‘fortified’ with the further addition of a cocktail of micro-nutrients. 

Hilda’s recipe simply does not work with this kind of flour. Use only organically grown, non-gmo’d, 100% pure natural flour that has been stone-ground.

Finding the correct salt

Groote Post is closely located to the West Coast. Indeed, the Duckitts had a lovely home on the seaside. The West Coast is rich in sea salt deposit pans, and doubtless the family would have sourced their natural sea salt from one of these deposits. 

The first commercially iodised salt was manufactured and available in the USA in 1924. Manufactured commercial salt the world over is predominantly iodised. The process of ‘manufacturing’ salt, involves the washing, draining, cleaning and refining of salt until it is nearly 100 percent sodium chloride. It reportedly has no fewer than 84 naturally occurring minerals and trace elements removed in the process. Salt is iodised to mitigate the effects of iodine deficiencies in diets. A deficiency in iodine can lead to intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

Pure salt crystals

From personal experience, it would seem that iodine has a negative effect on sourdough yeast. Apart from this, keeping true to the original recipe to achieve an authentic 19th Century loaf of bread demands non-iodised salt. Salt is now a manufactured product. It is bleached to present it as white as possible and has an anti-coagulant added to ensure that the salt runs better. We have discovered a source of natural sea salt from the same area as Hilda’s source. This calcium rich salt, we have found to be considerably (I would estimate 30%) stronger (saltier) than any conventional salt. 

Hilda’s conservative use of salt in the recipe is not necessarily a nod to contemporary health priorities. Her measure is dictated by the strength of the salt she was using. Salt inhibits the development and function of the yeast. 

Exceeding her measurement using a strong salt will disrupt the starter. Salt has a very important role to play in the making of the bread. It controls the yeast development, slowing it down and developing the best flavours of the bread. It contributes to the colouring of the crust allowing it to become golden brown in the oven. Salt of course is also a preservative, allowing the bread to mature gracefully without the development of mould.

The importance of the correct water

Municipal water has many additives, the list varies from municipality to municipality. Primary among them are chlorides and fluorides. The water which Hilda used, was from a local spring on the farm a short distance from the house. This water was rich in mineral content and entirely untreated. Municipal tap water has in the past century been sanitized to the point where all ‘life’ has been removed from it. Hilda’s recipe will not work with municipal tap water. The yeast will not develop.

  The "waterbalie" in Groote Post that would have been used to store the spring water. Photo: E.C. Lodge "From the days that are gone" 1967   

We have discovered in our numerous attempts to make this bread, that only the best organic, original non-gmo varietal wheat stoneground into flour; the purest untreated natural sea salt and fully natural untreated spring water, will work. Even the slightest ‘contamination’ of any one of these three ingredients will cause the bread to fail. This fact has been the most extraordinary discovery of this journey. It is therefore no wonder that this bread is in a very literal sense, the bread of life. A health bread par excellence.

(This post has been co-authored by Keith Loynes)

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

Click here for the Towerwater traditional Cape Sweet Sourdough Bread recipe More about tradional Cape waterbalies - Listening to buildings

A traditional sourdough bread recipe for a wood-fired oven

Ever since we restored the 19^th century house at Towerwater, we always planned to use the wood fired oven or bakoond in the kitchen. Living in a house built in the first quarter of the 1800’s, with a garden designed to complement our lifestyle, asked for traditional methods and activities to be revisited and rediscovered.

The restored hearth and bakoond

Food is such an integral part of a culture. Even more so if it is steeped in tradition. Cooking on fire is a skill and art that comes with practice. Baking in a bakoond is a completely different way of cooking. Particularly if one is used to a temperature-controlled fan oven with a glass door through which one can monitor the next masterpiece that is going to emerge and be presented to guests.

The cast iron door of the bakoond

The cast iron door of a bakoond is a keeper of secrets. Secrets that only reveal what transpired in its dark depths after the cooking time has been reached. I remember the crisp suckling piglet made in a wood fired oven in a restaurant in Segovia, Spain. I went to Segovia in search of Ponche Segoviano, which is a traditional Spanish cake originating from Segovia. I was also keen to try Cochinillo Asado or Segovia’s Roast Suckling Pig.

I enjoy eating local when I travel. Ponche Segoviano is made with marzipan, my one weakness and Segovia’s roast suckling pig is world renowned. I cannot remember the name of the restaurant I went to nearly 20 years ago, but I remember that piglet as it came out of the wood fired oven. It was so tender and the skin so crispy.

I vaguely remember the Alcázar de Segovia, the aqueduct, the cathedral and the heat, but the memory of the food is as if I ate it yesterday.

Some of the Africana cookbooks in the Towerwater library

We enjoy the traditions and history of food as much as we enjoy its eating. I believe in preserving our culinary culture through recording it and collecting Africana cookbooks. 

The 24 loaf bakoond needs to be reconfigured for more modest cooking purposes. The bakoond of the main dwelling of a historical farm would have produced bread and baked goods to feed every soul living and working on the farm.

An outside oven at the Drostdy museum in Swellendam

The sister of the house-owner from whom we bought nearly 30 years ago would describe how they baked 24 loafs of bread at a time in the bakoond.  The Towerwater main house must have been considered a big house for its time as it had an indoor oven. Smaller houses with the luxury of a wood fired oven, would usually have it as a free-standing structure outdoors.

A photograph of a windmill on a Cape farm in the Mayville museum in Swellendam

A windmill, horsemill or a watermill would have been part of the layout of the farm. The type of mill depending on prevailing winds or the availability of a suitable water source nearby or not. Most vernacular farmhouses would have had a handmill or "gatskuur"(two circular stones on top of each other that was used to mill wheat by grinding the stones together with a handle fixed to the top stone).

The wheel of the watermill at the Drostdy in Swellendam

Detail of the watermill mechanism at the Drostdy in Swellendam

In preparation for the inauguration of the restored bakoond one day, Keith decided that he would like to find a 19^th century bread recipe to make the style of bread that would have been baked in the oven. He would practice his traditional bread baking skills until he can confidently bake a couple of loaves in the bakoond one day. The secret was to find how bread was made in the Cape before baker’s yeast was commercially available.

                                       A handmill or "gatskuur"     Photo:  Wheat Industry museum, Moorreesburg 

We found three such recipes in the Africana section of the Towerwater library. One from Hildagonda Duckitt, from her books "Hilda's 'Where Is It?' of Recipes" (published 1891) and "Hilda's Diary of a Cape Housekeeper" (published 1902). 

Hildagonda Duckitt (1839 - 1905)  Photo: http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/

On page 261 of “Hilda’s where is it?”, she gives an old Cape recipe for yeast.

“YEAST (FOR MAKING HOME-MADE BREAD).

(Our own Recipe)

Take two quarts of boiling water, an ounce of salt, three cups of meal. Put the salt into a saucepan, pour on it the boiling water, strew on it gradually three cups of meal, then cover closely, putting a cloth between the lid and pot to absorb the steam. Set it over-night in the warmest corner of your stove. At six o'clock next morning stir into it a cup of boiling water; stand the saucepan on some hot ashes, and soon it will begin to ferment. When ready for use it will have a frothy appearance and a disagreeable odour. Pour it into six pounds of meal, mix with warm water, and knead into bread.”

In her book “Diary of a Cape House Keeper” she refers to the yeast as follows “The old recipe for yeast, given in Hilda’s where is it, p.261, is excellent, though it often takes longer than twenty-four hours to ferment. In winter and very cold weather I find it best to make it thirty-six hours before required, or say at three p.m. if required at eight o’clock next morning.”

One from Elizabeth Jane Dijkman’s book “Di Suid Afrikaanse Kook, Koek en Resepte boek” (first published 1890).

Elizabeth Jane Dijkman (1840 - 1908)

“Soet Suurdeeg No. I, Extra Goed. Neem 1 blik emmer waar sowat 12 of 14 lb botter kan in gaan, gooi daarin ½ kelki sout en daarop 2½ bottels kokende water, di water moet borrel. Sit dan di emmer in ‘n kombers in di bak kis, strooi bo op di water 2 lb. grof meel, maak toe met di kombers en laat so 12 uur staan, druk dan di suurdeeg fyn met di hand, roer om met een lepel en gooi weer amper ‘n bottle water wat sink daarin, roer meel daarin dat dit so styf is as pampoen pap, strooi meel oer, en maak weer goed toe, in ‘n uur tyds is dit goed, dit moet skuim, altemit eerder goed. Dese suurdeeg het ek self uitgevind, en nog nooit hoef weg te gooi ni, dit is altyd extra, sorg mar goed dat di emmer of blik suiwer skoon is, en dat jy seker jou meel afweeg as jy oerstrooi, en as jy oerklop, moet di suurdeeg mooi styf wees, anders kom dit ni op ni, as dit te slap is.”

Translation: 
Sweet Sourdough No. 1, Extra Good. Take 1 tin bucket which can hold 12 or 14 lb of butter, throw in a half (tot?) measure of salt and pour over two and a half (pint?) bottles of boiling water, the water must be bubbling hot. Place the bucket in a blanket into the bread-baking trough, sprinkle over 2lbs of course meal, close up in the blanket and let stand for 12 hours, then press the sourdough fine by hand, then stir with a spoon and add a little less than a bottle of water that soaks into the mix, stir meal into the mix until it becomes as firm as pumpkin porridge, sprinkle flour over and wrap snuggly again, in an hour’s time it is good, it must foam, even better. This sourdough method is my own discovery, and never have had to discard, it is always extra (good), take great care that the bucket or tin is thoroughly clean, and that you measure off the meal that your strew over, or mixed in, the sourdough must be nicely firm, otherwise it will not rise, if it is too runny.

One from Susanna Johanna Elizabeth van Hoogenhouck Tulleken’s book “Die Praktiese kookboek vir Suid-Afrika” (first published 1922).

Susanna H van Tulleken (1872- 1945)

“Soet-Suurdeeg. – Neem ’n erdekastrol. Gooi daarin 3 koppies kokende water, voeg 1¾ eetlepel sout by, strooi 2½ koppies boermeel daaroor (ongesif of gesif). Maak die deksel goed toe en sit op ‘n warm plek. Gewoonlik is dit mooi gerys die volgende more, maar as dit nie goed is nie, voeg dan ½ koppie byna kokende water by en klop goed op; ook so ‘n handjie vol meel. Strooi meel oor, en ‘n ½ uur of ‘n uur daarna sal dit goed wees. Maak die pot goed toe en rol dit in ‘n ou stuk sak of kombers, ook gedurende die nag.”
Translation:

Sweet-sourdough - Take an earthenware mixing bowl. Add three cups of boiling water, add 1 and three-quarter tablespoonsful of salt, sprinkle two and half cups of course meal over (sifted or unsifted). Close carefully with a lid and keep in a warm place. Usually it is well risen the following morning, but if it hasn’t, add a cup of water that is practically boiling and beat well; and a small handful of meal. Sprinkle the meal over and in a half an hour or hour thereafter it will be good. Close the crock well and wrap well in an old sack or blanket, also overnight.

Each of the chosen cooks had a bread recipe for what the latter two called a ‘sweet’ sourdough bread made only with salt, flour and water. Keith decided to use Hilda’s recipe, scaled down for our purposes.

This is the first blog post about the traditional Cape bread adventure. In the next installment I will share how modern ingredients compare to traditional ingredients and how it impacts on a very simple recipe.

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

Click here for the Towerwater traditional Cape Sweet Sourdough Bread recipe