Table of Contents
Product Overview
Product Name |
Country Sourdough |
|---|---|
Retail Price |
$10.00 |
Current Product Availability |
All brick-and-mortar locations and markets, all year |
First Product Sold |
2017 |
Main Ingredients |
Flour, Water, Harriet, Salt |
Recipe Contributors |
Jonathan Przybyl, Dave Harding |
Allergens |
Wheat, Gluten |
The Country Sourdough is Proof's best-selling product since the opening of the bakery. This artisan bread is handcrafted using high-quality, local ingredients including Type 85 flour, Stone-Milled Rouge de Bordeaux flour, Harriet, and an in-house stone-milled rye starter. Known for its rustic, hearty flavor, robust crust, and nutritional benefits, Country Sourdough is vegan-friendly, free from additives and preservatives, and packaged in eco-friendly materials.
A recent recipe refresh in July 2024 incorporated Rouge de Bordeaux flour and rye starter, enhancing its flavor, nutritional value, and commitment to community and sustainability. This change impacts several products, including the Green Olive Boule, Seeded Multigrain, and Cranberry Walnut Boule. The bread reflects Proof's dedication to using fresh, local ingredients and traditional baking techniques, ensuring a unique and wholesome product.
Product Details
Nutrition Facts
Ingredients in Order of Quantity:
- Type 85 Flour
- In-House Stone-Milled Rouge de Bordeaux Flour
- Harriet
- Rye Starter (In-House Stone Milled Rye Flour, Water)
- Salt
Product Characteristics
- Artisan Handcrafted and Cultural Heritage: Each loaf is meticulously crafted by skilled bakers, ensuring a unique, high-quality artisanal product that reflects the rich tradition of sourdough baking, connecting consumers to the history and craft of artisanal bread-making.
- Long Fermentation and Gluten Friendliness: The long fermentation process not only develops depth of flavor, but increases the bioavailability of nutrients and digestibility of the bread, making it a significantly friendlier option for those who cannot normally tolerate gluten.
- Rustic, Hearty Flavor: Offers a classic, wholesome taste that embodies the simplicity and depth of traditional sourdough.
- Fresh, Local Ingredients: We source our Rouge de Bordeaux flour from Local Arizona Farmers coalesced around Grain R&D, a Grain Cleaner attached to Sossaman Farms. We mill it fresh each day on our stone flour mill to be included in our breads.
- Robust Crust: Features a distinctively crispy and hearty crust, achieved through precise baking techniques.
- Versatile Base: Serves as an ideal foundation for a variety of dishes, from sandwiches to gourmet toasts, catering to creative culinary exploration.
- Natural Leavening: Utilizes a natural sourdough starter, Harriet, and a new Rye starter for fermentation, adding complexity and enhancing flavor and digestibility without commercial yeasts.
- Whole Grain Nutrition: Crafted with whole grain flour and stone milled flours, offering a more nutritious option packed with fiber and essential nutrients.
- Vegan Friendly: Free from animal products, making it suitable for vegans and those with certain dietary restrictions.
- No Additives or Preservatives: Contains no unnecessary additives, ensuring a clean, pure bread experience.
- Eco-Friendly Packaging: Packaged with recyclable materials to minimize waste and environmental impact.
- Community Focused: A product of a bakery that values community and customer connection, with a story behind each loaf.
July 2024 Rouge de Bordeaux Recipe Refresh
What is changing?
The recipe we use for our Country Sourdough Base is changing. Prior to this change, apart from the basics to make sourdough bread—water, salt, and Harriet—we solely used organic Type 85 flour from Central Milling as the main component.
We will continue using all these ingredients, with the addition of two new things.
Stone Ground Rouge de Bordeaux flour (RB for short): this house milled, sifted flour will make up a portion of the flour we use in our bread. The flour is sourced from a field in Queen Creek Arizona which was grown intentionally for Proof.
Rye Starter: We will now be adding a Rye Starter. Harriet will continue to be the primary starter in our breads, but this change contributes to a more complex and robust flavor in the bread. The Rye flour used in the rye starter is also stone-milled in house.
Which breads will be affected?
Our Country Sourdough is the base for a few of our breads and boules. The change in recipe will impact our Country Sourdough, Green Olive Boule, Seeded Multigrain, and Cranberry Walnut Boule.
Why are we changing our recipe?
In our artisanal pursuit of excellence, it is our mission to passionately source ingredients that are not only flavorful and complex, but also thoughtful and nutritious to our bodies, and as fresh as possible. This relentless commitment to excellence means we are regularly looking for ways to improve our operations and the ingredients we are selecting for our craft. RB has a higher protein content and higher nutritional value due to our milling and sifting process and is fresher than anything else we can source. There was nothing wrong with the flour we used before, but by including this new flour, we are increasing the nutritional value of our bread and the freshness of the ingredients included.
What does House Milled and Stone Milling mean? What are the perks?
House milled means we mill our own grain to be used in our breads. At our Shea bakery location, we have a stone flour mill that we use to accomplish this. The mill is made by New American Stone Mills out of Vermont and represents a movement towards regenerative farming and close to home sourcing. The main alternative is a steel roller mill, which is more efficient at milling grain but separates the germ and bran from the endosperm. When flour contains only the endosperm, it is considered “white flour”. When flour contains the endosperm, germ, and bran, it is considered “whole grain” or “whole wheat”. Stone milling does not separate these components of the wheat berry and does not grind the flour so finely. The resulting flour is more nutritious and has a lower glycemic index (which is an added health benefit). We then sift this flour, holding back a small portion of the germ and bran (otherwise the resulting bread loaf would be incredibly dense). This entire upgraded process allows us to include flour that was “milled yesterday, used today”.
Why Rouge de Bordeaux?
Rouge de Bordeaux is a heritage wheat that is favorable to the climate of Arizona, which allows us to contract local farmers to grow this wheat. The result is a heritage grain that is grown not 50 miles from the location where we craft our bread.
What is a heritage grain?
A heritage grain is a grain that has not been hybridized for hundreds of years. This means that the seed used now is the same seed that has been grown by humans since at least the 1700's. Hybridized grain has specifically been bred with other wheat varieties to withstand challenging climates and be favorable to farmers for yield. Commercialized/Hybridized Wheat Flour is believed to contribute to a significantly less nutritious bread, and digestion issues in many people.
Is it organic?
Rouge de Bordeaux is not certified organic. This does not mean that there are harmful farming practices or pesticides used in our flour, but rather our contracted farmers have not gone through the formal, costly process required by the FDA to be certified organic. The same farmland that this grain was grown on has been in continuous production for over 100 years, a feat that is only possible through responsible soil maintenance, minimal tilling, and minimal inputs.
What percentages are being included?
Rouge de Bordeaux flour will account for approximately 30% of the flour used. Type 85 flour will account for the other 70%.
The new Rye starter will account for approximately 28% of the starter used. Harriet will account for the other 72%.
