[0:00] Sourdough differs from normal bread, as you 
might call it, by the fact that we're using a  
[0:06] wild starter instead of baker's yeast. So baker's 
yeast is one single strain of wild yeast which is  
[0:13] mass-produced, to create this milky substance 
of yeast that's then compressed into a block,  
[0:18] and that's trillions of cells which means you 
can make bread much much quicker without any time  
[0:22] of developing that dough and growing 
that yeast, it's already been grown.  
[0:26] With a sourdough you don't know what type 
of yeast you're going to get in your bread,  
[0:30] so you get lots of different 
yeast creating different flavours.  
[0:33] What you do with the wild yeast is you grow it 
from a small culture. Wild yeast settles on the  
[0:38] outside of a grain berry, as soon as that's 
ground into flour and you add water to it,  
[0:42] it begins to feed on the sugars. When it feeds on 
the sugars it creates alcohol and it creates gas,  
[0:47] the gas being CO2. In five days time you'll start 
to see some bubbles popping up into the culture.  
[0:53] Those bubbles are the first sign that the yeast is 
beginning to take a hold and grow. Lactobacillus  
[0:58] is basically a good bacteria that grows alongside 
the yeast, that's what gives sourdough its name.  
[1:02] It creates lactic acid, it gets sharper and 
sharper. It gives it it's flavour so it's a  
[1:07] very important thing that the two grow together. 
In the morning when you come into the bakery it  
[1:11] smells more like a brewery because of all the 
starters fermenting creating alcohol and gas.  
[1:15] We then take a little bit of that, feed it with 
fresh flour and water and by the next day it's  
[1:19] bubbling away like mad and that is your culture. 
Once you've created that culture, you just have  
[1:24] to keep feeding it every day, keep a little bit 
back and feed it, and that will last you forever,  
[1:29] as long as you remember to feed it every day. 30% 
of the dough is made up of the culture, unlike  
[1:34] a small amount of yeast you would add to bread. 
We're adding 30% of this culture, to fresh flour  
[1:39] and water to make the dough. The dough is then 
mixed, to allow the proteins to join together.  
[1:45] The proteins are what trap the gas. So you've got 
two different types of protein that create this  
[1:49] chewy gum-like texture to the dough that trap the 
gas produced by the yeast. We allow it to prove to  
[1:55] double its size. This takes quite a long time when 
making sourdough because you're growing yeast.  
[2:00] So once the dough's developed or 
'proved' we've got this massive  
[2:04] marshmallow of dough so we're then gently 
shaping it because we don't want to lose  
[2:08] all those pockets of gas. It's taking a long 
time for that wild yeast to create that gas  
[2:12] we don't want to knock it out. So we gently shape 
it, round it up. We then put that shaped dough  
[2:16] floured into baskets. That helps to create 
the crust around the outside of the bread,  
[2:21] holding it together and it allows it to 
rise within the basket so we keep the shape.  
[2:25] The proteins are trapping the gas and create 
those big holes synonymous with sourdough. We  
[2:31] then turn it out onto wooden peels, score it, and 
then load it straight onto the stone in the oven.  
[2:37] Sourdough has something in it that normal 
bread doesn't have and that's a lot of time  
[2:40] in its production, which makes it more 
digestible, it gives it more flavour,  
[2:44] more texture, you can squash it flat, it will 
bounce back. It gives it a better crust as well.  
[2:49] Flavour is the biggest thing though, it 
completely changes the flavour of the bread.