Let’s cut to the crust.

We get asked a lot of great questions, and we love that.

So, let’s chat about it.

What’s the white stuff?

Several people have come into the Bakery at 1871 recently and asked why some sourdough loaves they’re finding other places have a white-ish crust. Especially when they see that ours are distinctively golden brown. The short answer is, it’s usually rice flour. They tend to look even more confused when we say that, because the next question is always, “is the bread made of rice flour (I thought it was wheat)?” No. When sourdough bread baking became all the rage during covid lockdowns, many people began posting pictures of highly decorated loaves all over social media. In order to highlight their decorative scoring, they dust, roll, and sometimes obliterate the bread’s crust in rice flour. Rice flour doesn’t absorb into bread dough. Even when you bake it, it just hangs out there on the surface. Which means, when the loaf rises and the decorative scoring opens up, you get a high contrast pattern. With real artistry, it’s pretty. It makes a lovely display loaf. However, for a couple of reasons, you rarely find it in bakeries. While some focus a great deal on those pretty patterns, it comes at a cost to the quality of the bread (and the taste and texture on your tongue). It’s a concession in quality that bakers and enthusiasts aren’t willing to make. Here’s why…

Scoring

Scoring provides an important purpose in bread baking. It tells the bread where to open and expand during an oven rise, so that the interior crumb is light, airy and open with proper expansion. When a loaf is excessively scored with decorative cuts, it affects how the loaf rises in the oven, and the overall quality and texture of the interior crumb.

Crust

Moreover, when a loaf is coated in any type of flour (especially one that doesn’t absorb in dough), it prevents the proper maillard reaction during baking. A rice flour coating means the crust doesn’t brown, blister, crisp and taste as well as it should. The deep, umber brown color on good bread is actually the sign of high quality, well grown and milled, nutrient and flavor rich flour.

its’ simple

We believe bread, in itself, is naturally beautiful. The deeply brown and blistering color and proper texture are only achieved with high quality flour, proper scoring, and a perfectly timed steam cook. It tells you everything you need to know about the quality of the bread at first sight.

Great, simple, honest bread doesn’t need anything else.