旅者●话: Artisan Bread ~ Tommy Le Baker

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Artisan Bread ~ Tommy Le Baker

I love bread. I have read a lot of articles regarding this bakery.

Tommy Le Baker is specialized in sourdough pre-ferments and long fermentation process to nurture the taste and to achieve full nutrition potential of bread using what the nature has provided to his baker. Tommy initially study Linguistics in France. It is dramatic when he step himself into baking industry when he was facing economic crisis upon his graduation from Linguistics. He starts his first love of baking in France and made himself a certified baker. Finally, he choose to open his bakery in a place which is not much crowds. I can consider this bakery as a hidden germ in town.

From him, I learned what is sourdough. Sourdough bread is leavened by natural fermentation. Unlike, those commercial breads that we are having are fermented by baker yeast. So, why sourdough? Sourdough takes longer period in the baking process compared to commercial yeast. During this period, yeast will help to pre-digest the flour and nutritional properties of bread changed. And, sourdough normally relates to glycemic index. Glycemic index (GI) is a measure of how quickly blood sugar levels changed. Low-GI food is preferable because it will release glucose slowly and steadily.

There are two types of natural leaven bread available in his bakery all time. Pain de Campagne au Levain (Country Sourdough) and Pain de Paysan au Levain (Farmer Sourdough). For those whom seek for chewy and sour in taste should go for Country sourdough. The texture of Country sourdough is compact and sourer compare to Farmer sourdough.

Pain Paysan (Farmer Sourdough)