San Francisco Sourdough Bread
A rustic loaf with a golden crust and airy crumb, tangy from long sourdough fermentation. The bread that structures an entire Bay Area meal.
A rustic loaf with a golden crust and airy crumb, tangy from long sourdough fermentation. The bread that structures an entire Bay Area meal.
Sourdough is pure patience — you feed a living culture and let it do its work overnight. I've always liked that: you set the right conditions and the system develops on its own. Here in the Bay, the sourdough has a taste you can't find anywhere else, a little tangy, very distinctive. Slice it thick, put an avocado on it, and you've got a whole meal.
- •Natural sourdough starter — a good bowlful (fermentation, acidity)
- •Wheat flour — several cups (base)
- •Water — as needed for dough (hydration)
- •Salt — a spoonful (seasoning, structure)
San Francisco Sourdough Bread
A rustic loaf with a golden crust and airy crumb, tangy from long sourdough fermentation. The bread that structures an entire Bay Area meal.
Why this dish? Sourdough is the emblematic bread of the San Francisco Bay Area, fermented with a unique local wild starter. A bread that keeps, is shared, and sliced to accompany soups and salads, it's the staple food of a California cook. For Goldberg, based in Palo Alto, it's the bread of the neighboring terroir.
Sourdough is pure patience — you feed a living culture and let it do its work overnight. I've always liked that: you set the right conditions and the system develops on its own. Here in the Bay, the sourdough has a taste you can't find anywhere else, a little tangy, very distinctive. Slice it thick, put an avocado on it, and you've got a whole meal.
Ingredients (period version)
- Natural sourdough starter — a good bowlful (fermentation, acidity)
- Wheat flour — several cups (base)
- Water — as needed for dough (hydration)
- Salt — a spoonful (seasoning, structure)
Ingredients
- Active sourdough starter (fed the day before) — 100 g (fermentation, acidity)
- Bread flour (T65) — 500 g (base)
- Warm water — 350 ml (hydration)
- Salt — 10 g (seasoning, structure)
Method
- Mix flour and water, let rest 30 minutes (autolyse).
- Add starter and salt, knead until smooth and elastic.
- Bulk ferment 4-6 hours at room temperature, with folds every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours.
- Shape into a round, place in a floured banneton, and cold ferment overnight.
- Preheat oven to 250 °C (480 °F) with a Dutch oven. Score the dough, bake covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 20-25 minutes until deep golden.
- Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
How it was made : San Francisco sourdough was introduced by Gold Rush bakers in the 19th century; its unique wild flora (including a bacterium named after the city) gives it its characteristic tang. Before industrial yeast, all bread was made this way, with a starter maintained from batch to batch.
The contemporary twist : Score the crust with a geometric grid pattern — a nod to the pixels of the Alto's bitmap screen before baking.
Adele Goldberg · Charactorium