Our Bread-making process
Raw materials and ingredients
All our ingredients result from organic agriculture.
All the flours produced by the Pichard Mill, 04350 Malijai, FRANCE, Tel: + 33 (0)4.92.34.01.04, one of the rare French mills to produce exclusively organic flours.
All the other ingredients are delivered by the S.E.N.F.A.S, company of organic product trade, 30340 St Privat des VIEUX, FRANCE, Tel: + 33 (0)4.66.54.33.50.
The work of the doughs
All our fermentations are carried out on natural leaven, without any yeast addition.
Ferment activity of the lactic type is privileged compared to acetic fermentations, by the choice of the leaven and through the control of temperature and hydratation conditions of the doughs.
Thanks to the specific techniques that we have worked out, we turn into bread doughs which are for some hydrated up to 100%: 1 kilo of flour for 1 kilo of water!
The flavours are then soft and very powerful (aromas of honey, hazel nuts...) and acidity is perfectly controlled.
The smoothness and the softness of our breads is exceptional.
Long and regular fermentations are the rule:
- The developments and refreshings of the leavens last 36 hours.
- The bread-making process lasts 7 to 8 hours.
- The fermentations in masses (lumps from 15 to 20 kilos) are systematic.
These working methods guarantee the flavours and exceptional conservation properties of the bread.
We make a point of preserving these traditional methods to keep high standard quality, though in many bakeries-even in organic ones- working with much faster fermentations (frequently 4 hours) on warmer and less hydrated doughs (60% to 70% of hydratation) is widely spreading in order to gain time.
Unfortunately those speedy methods lead to rather flimsy and flavourless breads with a short-lasting taste and poor conservation properties. Moreover those breads have a regular and excessive tendency to crumble.
The bread
In order to preserve all the qualities and the flexibility of the doughs which are of a great brittleness, we privilege a very soft work and limit degasification and manipulations which are excessive in the usual manufacturing methods .
Consequently most of our breads are of variable weight and require to be weighed at the time of the sale.
Only our moulded bread range can be sold at « piece-rates ».
The alveolar system of the by-weight breads is « open and of irregular aspect », that of the moulded breads is much finer, the cells are more numerous and of small size : it is a bread which is perfectly appropriate for toasts and slices of bread.
The conservation of our breads is excellent: the breads are consumable during one whole week.
What's more, the « once-a-week » customers highly appreciate the fact that the qualities of our breads unaltered by deep-freezing conservation.
