By JORDANA DE VALLE
In the picturesque seaside town of Flinders, bakers David Allen and Margaret Carey are keeping alive the original and slow process of baking bread in a Scotch oven. Home to a delicious range of authentic sourdough breads, Flinders Sourdough is much more than a charming boutique bakery. This photo essay explores the hard work and passion involved in making some of the most divine bread in the country.
1 – Flinders Sourdough bakery on the Mornington Peninsula is home to some of the finest bread in the country. It is also one of the few bakeries that still engages with the art of traditional breadmaking.
2 – Baker Natasha Strong lifts a 20kg bag of certified organic flour into the classic 1940s large-scale mixer. A sourdough leaven of fermented rye flour and water is also added to the mix. This leaven helps break down the natural sugars and gluten bonds in the flour to produce a low GI loaf. The fermentation of the leaven can take anywhere from eight to 11 hours.
3 – Natasha cuts the dough out of the mixer. On a regular day the dough will fill 15 tubs.
Photo 4 – Owner David Allen collects red gum wood for the original cast iron Scotch oven. David and his partner Margaret Carey searched all over Australia to find this particular oven to bake their bread.
5 – David prepares the oven, which is usually kept at 350C. On summer days the heat in the small bakery can be unbearable.
6 – David cuts and weighs the dough in preparation for the shaping. Every loaf is weighed precisely. The heaviest loaf weighs 2kg.
7 - The dough is shaped for an organic fig and apricot loaf. Dough is shaped to remove air pockets and produce a well-textured finished loaf. Shaping the entire dough mix can take up to three hours.
8- Natasha places the dough on a sheet of linen. Long pieces of linen are used to hold the shape of the Vienna or "golden slipper" loaf.
9 – A loaf of bread called a big boule is removed from the Scotch oven using a handmade wooden paddle called a peel. The oven is very dark so a light is used to assist with this process.
10 – Made using only using only organic and biodynamic ingredients, the loaves contain simply flour, water and salt. Flinders Sourdough is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9am-4pm. David and Margaret also enjoy taking their bread to the public at farmers' markets across the Mornington Peninsula.
