Bread excites me! From its formulation to the feel of the dough, from fermentation of the grain to how the bread crackles once it comes out of the oven, and of course, how it tastes and feels in my mouth. I can keep thinking, writing, and formulating about bread endlessly. It’s like my safe, comforting place…So, when I had an opportunity to talk about our True North Bread here, you can imagine how I felt. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet though (with just enough acidity!) to get us all excited about this bread.
True North comes with a lot of flavor (and a great texture). Yes, it’s true, all of our breads come with a lot of flavor. So, what makes this one stand out? We combine stone-ground hard red spring wheat flour with our decades old, reliable sourdough starter and let wild fermentation run its course until the dough hits our hearth-deck ovens several hours later. While this kind of fermentation is known to bring out complex flavors, as it does in many of the other naturally-leavened breads we make, it’s also the specific organic, high-extraction wheat flour in this bread that takes those flavors to the next level.
Wheat Berry Anatomy and Milling 101
We have covered this before—simplifying the biology, a wheat berry is made up of three main components: namely the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. A big part of the flavor that a wheat berry can offer comes from the oily germ and mineral-loaded bran. Endosperm is the sweeter starch that is the energy source for the growth of the wheat berry and us, bread lovers; it also provides structure to bread with its gluten-forming proteins.
One can mill wheat flour using roller-milling, where most of the bran and the germ are essentially peeled off from the wheat berry and sifted out, and then the remaining endosperm is ground into fine ‘white flour’ (e.g., bread flour, all-purpose flour). The other main method of milling is stone-milling, where all of the three components of the wheat berry are smashed together between heavy stones, allowing the goodness of the germ and the bran to infuse into the starchy endosperm. What comes out of the mill is true whole grain flour. When a small portion of the bran and germ from this whole grain flour is sifted out, the result is a high-extraction flour, carrying the hue and the flavors of the wheat it’s milled from but behaving more like a sifted, all-purpose flour. It’s the best of both worlds really.
High-extraction flour for the win!
And it is this type of flour that our True North Bread is made of! Specifically, 80% of the kernel weight remains after some coarse bran and germ are removed by sifting. If you are into baking and looking for flavor without compromising texture (even enhancing it!), then a stone-ground high-extraction flour is where it’s at. True North exemplifies this. Sourdough fermentation only amplifies the effect. When you taste the bread, flavors abound—sweetness of the grain with some warm spice, toasted wheat, and even a hint of milk chocolate; and a bit of sour to pop all those flavors. Your body also gets the nutritional benefits of the vitamins, minerals, and oils that come with stone-ground, high-extraction flour.
What about the texture? Stone-ground, high-extraction and whole grain flours, due to the presence of some bran (i.e. fiber) and germ, absorb and hence need more water than roller-milled white flours to achieve the right consistency in the making of bread dough. The resulting bread, when made properly, holds onto moisture relatively well, extending the shelf life of the bread, making the crumb feel a bit more moist and tender. The crust also gets softer and in my opinion a bit easier to slice the day after the bake.
Rebuilding the local grain economy
True North checks the mark for full flavor as we prize here at Zingerman’s. Where it also shines is the fact that it showcases how we’re helping to rebuild the local grain economy (*by local, we mean Michigan and its neighboring states). In fact, the name “True North” is a tribute to that… As we explained at great length in another blog piece, we have been intentional about working with local flours from the early days of the bakery. Along that journey, you may recall the West Wind bread, which featured stone-ground, high-extraction flour from West Wind Milling in Linden, Michigan. This bread was in the style of what you are eating today with True North. A simple but delicious, naturally-leavened bread highlighting the terroir of the wheat.
Due to various reasons, we eventually switched to a similar stone-ground flour from our miller friend, Bill Koucky, in the Leelanau Peninsula. Farmers in the area grew hard red spring wheat which Bill milled for us on his stonemill in Traverse City. That’s why we chose the name True North, in honor of where it was grown and milled. Bill’s mill has since closed and we switched to another local flour from Janie’s Mill in Illinois, but since the name True North was well established, we left it. Today, we feel great about working with Janie’s Mill as they have been true pioneers in encouraging cultivation of locally grown organic grains and milling them into flavorful flours for professional and homebakers alike. With True North, you partake in our winding, fun, and important story about rebuilding a local grain economy. Fewer food miles, healthier ecosystems, more gains for local farmers and more flavorful bread for us all!
True North has been in my daily bread rotation. Its aroma is comforting. I would like to think that – in a bit of a romantic way – it’s what sourdough bread might have been like back in the day when people had their wheat ground into flour at the local stone-mill with some sifting to remove impurities. It sustained, and must have had a taste of where it was grown. It was the tradition of bringing wheat from the farm to the table. And we continue that tradition with renewed passion and hopefully constantly improving collective knowledge as today’s farmers, millers, and bakers.
How to enjoy True North Bread
So, what to do with this bread? As our in-house historian Lee Vedder joyfully put it: “The tasty possibilities for enjoying True North are endless. Toasted up, it’s a fantastic accompaniment to poached or scrambled eggs. Spread with some butter and fruit preserves or even peanut butter, it’s the perfect companion to your morning coffee. It also makes an excellent grilled cheese, tuna, or BLT sandwich. It’s a very good dinner bread especially with meat dishes.”
P.S. Have a craving for the round-shaped, naturally-leavened Pain de Montagne bread that we used to make? The bread head in me can tell you that Pain de Montagne was formulated very similar to True North with the same sourdough starter. It also used a high-extraction flour (which was called germ-restored flour back in the day) which wasn’t necessarily local or maybe as fresh (but it was the best we could find back then). So, look no further and ask for a loaf of True North, because it is just a newer and a more local version of that bread.
Hungry for more?
Do you already like True North Bread? Are you ready to take your taste buds on an even more diverse journey of flavors? Country Miche is another naturally-leavened bread that we make, using mostly the same high-extraction flour as True North but with the addition of some stone-ground whole grain rye, spelt, and buckwheat flours. Available fresh on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays after 5:00 pm.
Originally from the island of Cyprus, Hazim decided to immerse himself in the world of bread baking and all foods fully flavorful after a career in environmental engineering. He joined the Bakehouse team in 2016 with a focus on bread quality and innovation. You may find him at the bench with his baker friends rolling Farm dough, milling flours on our stone mills, teaching a Naturally Leavened Bread class at BAKE!, tasting breads, loudly (he calls it "passionately") elaborating on the benefits of whole-grain flours or temperature for sourdough baking, or stopping in his tracks to think about the next possible bread or improvement. Science is dear to him, and he loves windsurfing!! He was recently featured on Rise Up! The Baker Podcast with Mark Dyck talking about getting his start in baking, the tension of leaping into a new career, and working on a team where he can be his whole self.
