sourdough

Dive Into Our Sourdough Goodness!

Ever wondered how Sourdough is made? At Fosters Bakery, we make different kinds of sourdough. You can learn about our processes here.

There are many different ways to make sourdough bread. In typical bread making, yeast is usually added to ferment the ingredients. With sourdough, however, the ingredients, usually just flour and water, are mixed together without added yeast and allowed to ferment naturally over several days or even weeks.

Fermentation occurs due to the friendly bacteria and natural enzymes present in the flour and the air. For example, in San Francisco, USA, the atmosphere is believed to contain natural bacteria and yeasts that give the bread a unique flavour.

Each day, the baker uses some of the fermenting sourdough to make bread by adding more ingredients. It is essential to refresh the remaining sourdough mixture daily by mixing it with fresh flour and water. In some bakeries, this process has continued for years, even centuries, using the same starter.

There are even companies that specialise in producing “starter cultures” to help bakers make sourdough bread. Sourdough has a distinctive, richer flavour and a firmer, chewier texture compared to regular bread.

At Fosters Bakery (The Bread People), we maintain several sourdough starters that are perpetually fermenting in large insulated fermentation vats. We stir each vat every hour and use a portion of the sourdough daily, replenishing it for the next day's batch. We produce both 100% sourdough loaves and breads that incorporate sourdough into conventional recipes..

We have recently installed two new sourdough tanks, effectively doubling our sourdough production capacity. Previously, our sourdough starter was kept in a refrigerator, but we have since invested in a computer-controlled sourdough system. This integrated system stirs the starter, heats or cools it as needed. These new mixer tanks enable us to produce an additional 2,000 sourdough loaves per day.