從麵包師的角度欣賞麵包 2 From A Baker's Perspective 2

近來在香港製作天然酵母麵包風氣漸濃，究竟何謂優質的天然酵母麵包?為何要使用天然酵母製作?甚麼是天然酵母?

Sourdough or wild yeasted bread is becoming more popular in Hong Kong. However, very few people know what exactly is sourdough, the benefits of sourdough, and how to distinguish a good quality piece of sourdough.

其實使用天然酵母製作麵包已有過百年歷史，只是其培養過程複雜，對環境及製作原材料的要求又極高，因此才被”乾酵母、鮮酵母”等取代。”乾酵母、鮮酵母”它們都是以科學方法從天然酵母中抽取出來，具有較高穩定性及較強發酵力。

Actually sourdoughs have been cultivated by human civilizations for centuries. However due to the complexity of maintaining the sourdough, necessity for high quality of flours and stringent requirements of proofing environment, sourdough was very quickly replaced by dried yeast in the early 20th century . Dried yeast consists of strains that were isolated in laboratories for their high stability and high fermentation rate and then mass multiplied to become the very product that we can conveniently pick up at supermarkets. 

生活環境的改善，使我們提高對飲食的要求。要使麵包擁有與別不同的風味，必需重新發掘在科學抽選方法中被遺下的細菌，它們對溫度、濕度特別敏感，在發酵過程中會緩慢地釋出各種有機化合物，包括酸味及香味，幫助人體更有效吸取麵包中的各種礦物質。

But as the expectations of food climb among city dwellers, as a bakery, we must re-innovate on use of sourdough so as to achieve a distinct flavor and texture in our products that other competitors can easily mimic. The fact remains that sourdough culture is fragile and easily affected by its surrounding environment but it is capable of producing a wide variety of organic compounds during fermentation. These products include organic acids that assist in our body’s absorption of minerals and uncountable compounds that account for the complex flavour profile of a high-quality sourdough bread. 

培養天然酵母的過程需要至少一星期，已後每天都要定時添加麵粉及水確保微生物的健康繁殖，一年365天重不間斷。過去自稱是用天然酵母製作的麵包多是添加極少量天然酵母，仍以乾酵母為主發酵，連基本的酸味都不具備。現在很多天然酵母麵包都具有酸味，卻缺乏香味及天然酵母麵包獨有的口感，是因為很多都是用人工添加”酸粉”的預拌粉製作，金玉其外。要真正體會天然酵母麵包的吸引力，還是需要親手製作一次，在慢長的發酵過程中，你將會得到日常忙碌的生活中所缺乏的寧靜和滿足感。

While the term 'sourdough' may sound exotic, it is really easy to cultivate your own. It takes a week to cultivate it from scratch, using just flour and water. After that, the sourdough simply requires regular feeding of flour and water to keep it alive. Despite the ease of keeping a sourdough culture, many of the commercially available sourdough breads are actually made with a high proportion of dried yeast and may not even have the slightest characteristic tang of sourdough. Even if the fake sourdough tastes sour, it may be due to the addition of 'sourdough acid powder'. To date, no enhancer is capable of replacing the complex flavor profile and textures of a 100% sourdough or levain bread. Try making your sourdough at home and you will be truly amazed by the flavor and intensity brought to the bread by the thriving cultures of microorganisms that has taken up residence in a little bowl of flour paste. 

This is simple satisfaction, a sanctuary amid our hectic lives. 

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從麵包師的覺度欣賞麵包 From a baker's perspective is series of short articles published in 經濟日報 in 2013. I have decided to publish them on this blog as it answers many questions that bread enthusiasts often have.