Sourdough 101 & Baking With Whole Grains

This class will taught by renowned baker and owner of Borealis Breads, Jim Amaral! Jim with demonstrate the basics of sourdough baking, including how to create and maintain your own starters, how to hand mix, knead, stretch, proof and shape your sourdough bread and how to use the autolyse process and extended fermentations to enhance the quality of your bread. We will also discuss baker’s percentages and how to use them to easily create your own bread formulas. We will explore different baking options such as baking in a loaf pan on a stone or in a Dutch oven and will cover the three types of heat at play in the bread baking process. In addition we will talk about the importance of ingredient selection and show you how to incorporate whole grains such as rye, oats and corn into your sourdough loaf.

Made possible thanks to the generous sponsorhsip of Maine Grains.

Jim is the founder and owner of Borealis Breads, the iconic artisan bakery here in Maine. He was the first major producer of artisan bread in the state after a long hiatus. He has been a leader in the return to local whole grain flour and has “voted with his feet” and incorporated these flours into his product line. He has been a longtime supporter of MGA and a frequent presenter at the Kneading Conference on a wide range of topics. To develop the use of local grains further, he participated in a major baking test of flours produced from grains grown on experimental plots in northern New England. He was also part of the team that developed the standardized baking procedures used.