The Rise of Sourdough Bread Baking as an Art Form
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog, today's post is all about sourdough art baking. I want to introduce you to a form of art that you might not be accustomed to. But in case you have, please feel free to write it in the comment section below.
I find that many people have been fascinated by these amazing pictures, other than wanting to learn how to bake sourdough for the sole reason of eating well-made homemade bread.
They could be looking as simple as this from @cooktherapy where you can see an amazing "ëar" and a marvellous pattern of leafy drawings on the side.
Even if this pattern seems easy at times, it actually requires great patience and a steady hand. It might have taken this baker a few attempts before being able of designing such a perfect and light carved pattern.
We can't not mention artists like this, @hung-ariankitchen who are actually using a great loaf of bread as if it was a canvas. Inspiring and creative, isn't it?
I guess this can be a form of art, and can be considered like painting and the one above more like sculpting or shaping.
Either way, these bakers are really taking this world to another dimension, they are taking bread to a more "instagrammable" place where people can show their own talents and craftsmanship.
Then we have marvellous ladies like Bel of @artisanbreadmamma who are actually using a more geometrical form of art, made of lines, that thanks to the contrast with the white flour, in most cases rice flour, gives you these amazing eye-pleasing patterns, aren't they very calming and cute?
Bel is an inspiration because she not only started baking during the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia but also started learning how to design on top of them, resulting in one of the fastest-growing pages in the sourdough art niche. She matches great picture and understanding of the Instagram platform, with a very visible visual (sorry for the repetition of words) merchandise expertise and none the less, amazing storytelling, every post is written with care, with interest and she definitely makes you feel at home with her.
Last but not least is @sourdougharts, Cathi is another example of dedication, to the craft of baking in general, she comes from a generational baking background, where her family used to own a major big wholesale bakery in, Canada.
Now she leaves in wonderful Vancouver, one city I would like to visit one day.
I had the opportunity to speak to Cathi in late 2019 just before the pandemic actually took over the whole entire world, she was one of the first guests to make their appearance on my HNK podcast.
She inspired me for her very sweet way of approaching things but she also showed great understanding and expertise in the all-around baking realm.
I was impressed with her diamond art pieces, it always looks geometrically perfect, and we know how difficult is to predict the bread expansion especially when baking with the sourdough method.
She has always been very consistent with her crafting, She is definitely the example that says that practice makes it perfect.
But how do all of these patterns get made?
Well, to begin with, we need a very stiff dough,
some bakers put it in the freezer 15 minutes just before baking to have a firmer surface to carve. It is also important to keep in consideration that bread for an art piece, cannot be too wet, so the hydration, considering a dough with high gluten content, should not be over 65%.
Said that, given that we have a beautiful firm loaf of bread, we now step into the sculpting mode, and most of the bakers use tools called blades. Very sharp blades.
A very sharp small knife does the trick pretty well, but if you are on the verge of wanting to improve your scoring game, well, you can definitely chase other tools and equipment such as scoring razor blades, cotton strings, and stencils.
You might find some options on Amazon as well if you can't wait too long. (If you are as impatient as me).
There are also some good cheap options on amazon as you might imagine. The world is your host in that case.
If instead, you think you would like to go a bit crazy and to spend a bit more and get yourself an early Christmas present, my suggestion is to get yourself either a breadllama or a wiremonkey
This wonderful design offers a very safe piece of equipment with a blade holder and a base to hold the blade handle safely.
Safety is very important when handling such a sharp blade.
Another great brand that is doing an amazing job, is WireMonkey.
This company has entered the market a few years back with a tool that resembled more a whale (Tyler told me about it when we recorded our first podcast episode) and then Tyler decided to shift onto a fancier and more reliable round device. Soon after that, they won a great part of the market shares in this niche simply through their customers. Tyler remembers how cool was that customers basically were posting pictures of their artistic bread with the Wiremonkey tools in it. I had the honour to speak to Tyler on my podcast about it, and you can listen to the episode right here. Definitely a tool to consider for your scoring crafts.
Now towards the end make sure you go and have a look at all these channels because they are very interesting and you might get inspiration and a lot of knowledge. Support them, like them and follow them for not losing any of their new introductions.
Don't stop there, don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list to never lose any recipe or other blog's posts. Comment and don't feel shy to press the heart button.
With Love Giuseppe ciao ciao.
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