Starter - also known as Starter Culture, Ferment, Chef and Mother Dough. A Starter is not an artificial additive, it is a living organism. Detailed instructions need to be followed to successfully activate, feed and use Starters in bread making. With proper care and daily feeding, Starters can live forever. Brasserie Bread's Starter began its life as organic grapes, water and biodynamic flour. Our Starter is now over 12 years old and has been the soul of hundreds of thousands of sourdoughs. The Brasserie Bread Starter will continue to improve with age and refine the flavour, crumb structure, and crust of our sourdough bread.

The following process is followed to produce:
Mixing - the Starter is mixed in with organic unbleached wheat flour (Kialla, Toowoomba), spring water, salt (Murray River Salt) and malt. This mixing process is sometimes referred to as kneading. It has 3 purposes; distributing the ingredients, developing the gluten and stating the fermentation.

Fermentation - during the fermentation process the natural yeasts are activated commencing the development of the gluten, which is essential for the structure of the bread.

Proving / Retarding - this should be a long, slow process. Long Proving is where the dough is allowed to sit in a warm humid environment for many hours. Retarding is where the dough is allowed to sit for long periods of time in a cold environment (also known as long cold fermentation). Manipulating the temperature and humidity during fermentation is a skill which has a huge impact on the quality of the finished product.

Hand Moulding - shaping the bread by hand gives us total control over the unique shape and style of the finished loaves. It also gives the baker a "feeling" for the quality of the dough quality and allows the baker to control the fermentation process. This is a hands-on skill learned over many years.

Couches - once shaped the loaves are placed in linen cloths (known as Couches) to keep the shape of the freestanding loaves during proving (couche means a heavy duty layer).

Slashing - before being baked the loaves are slashed with a sharp knife or scalpel. This causes a release of gas from the bread and allows the bread to "spring" into shape during baking. Slashing also gives the loaves a unique decorative look.

Baking - most of our breads are baked directly on the hearth (stone) in a large gas fired deck oven. This ensures heat enters the bread quickly which promotes "oven spring" and a crisp crust on the bread. Convection ovens are also used to add steam during the beginning of the bake. This creates and even better oven spring and results in a caramelised shinny crust.