Skip to content

Bake sheet Wednesday night into ThursdayWed night into Thu Ovens on 3:00 Page 1 of 1

Dark crust. Open crumb.

Sourdough from Goodwood, baked to a posted time every morning and darker than most. This one’s yours: score it with the blade, bake it till the ear opens along your line, then cut it and look at the middle.

A dark-crusted sourdough batard with one long score burst open into a raised ear The same loaf cut in half, its crumb open and glossy in the middle and tight under the crust
scored along its length, baked dark
drag across it, or 1 · 2 · 3drag along it
or Enter
or C

croissants and morning buns out at 7:20croissants out 7:20

3:00 pm

It starts the afternoon before, with a jar.

Every loaf starts here, with the levain: flour and water we feed every day and never let run out. At three we feed it one part old to five of flour and five of water, keep it at 25 degrees, and wait. It’s ready when it’s domed and smells like yoghurt, about three hours on a mild day, less in February.

The levain on this afternoon’s sheet
LevainFeedTempReady
Fed at three 1 : 5 : 5old, flour, water 2625°C About 3 h, domed, smells like yoghurt
The levain jar: a rubber band marks where it sat at three, and by six it has doubled and domed.
3:00, the band6:00, domed

5:30 pm

Flour, water, salt. Then a lot of waiting.

The mix is the short part. White flour milled from South Australian wheat, with a fifth wholemeal so the loaf tastes of something. Water at 78 per cent, a little held back and added once the dough has pulled together. The levain goes in, then the salt, after the dough’s had half an hour to itself. Twenty minutes of work. The next day and a half does the rest.

Tonight’s mix, one batch
DoughBaker’s %Tonight
White flour8032.0 kg
Wholemeal208.0 kg
Water7831.2 kg
Levain187.2 kg
Salt after 30 min2.20.88 kg
Total198.279.28 kg
Dough temp25°C, checked

= 88 batards at 900 g

6:00–10:30 pm

Four folds, then a tight skin.

For the first few hours we leave it in the tub and fold it every forty minutes: wet hands, lift, stretch, fold over, turn. Bulk’s done when it’s risen by about half and wobbles when you nudge the tub. Then we divide it, round it, let it rest half an hour and shape it, tight skin and soft middle, into linen-lined baskets.

Floured hands tightening the skin of a batard on a timber bench at night
bench two, 10:10 pm

Folds, every forty minutes

  1. 6:40
  2. 7:20
  3. 8:00
  4. 8:40
  5. up by half, wobbles

Divide, shape, into the cold

  1. 9:30divide
  2. 10:00shape
  3. 10:30into the cold

10:30 pm

Cut one open and read the night in it.

The crumb is where it shows. Big, uneven, glossy holes in the middle; a finer, tighter crumb under the crust, where the heat set it first. Wetter dough opens more and is harder to shape. A slow night in the cool room opens it too: the yeast slows right down, the bacteria keep working, and the bread gets its tang and a thin, crackly crust. Tonight’s loaves go in as last night’s come out. The rye is the exception: it proofs warm for three hours and bakes last.

78%
29 h
A batard cut in half, its crumb open and glossy in the middle and tight under the crust
A crumb drawn for this page from the two numbers you set.Open in the middle, tight under the crust.

open in the middle, tight under the crust.

Biggest hole about 17 mm; the slice is about a third air. Drawn at 78% water and 29 hours in the cold.

3:00 am

Out of the oven, in this order.

Ovens on at three. The first loaves go into the deck at 250 degrees with steam for twelve minutes, then we vent it, drop to 225 and let them colour. They’re done when the crust is well past golden and they crackle as they cool. We bake them darker than most people expect. That’s where the flavour is.

The posted bake, Wednesday to Sunday

  1. 4:30Wholesale loaves, out the back door
  2. 6:30Country batard
  3. 6:50Seeded batard
  4. 7:00Doors open
  5. 7:20Butter croissants, morning buns and cardamom knots
  6. 7:40Dark rye tins on the shelf once cooled, about nine
  7. 8:30Spelt and wholemeal
  8. 9:15Fruit and walnut
  9. 10:30Second country batard
A deck oven open before dawn, a peel drawing out four dark batards in a plume of steam
deck two, 4:05 am

Bake it darker than you think.

7:00 am

What’s on the shelf, and when it goes.

Here’s what’s on the shelf most mornings, and roughly when it goes. The rye goes first. Most days the shelf is bare by one, and we close when it is.

Timber shelves of batards, rye tins and seeded loaves in early sun, a tray of croissants and cardamom knots below

Today’s shelf open one for its note

  • Country batard

    The one you scored up top: white flour with a fifth wholemeal, a slow night in the cold, baked dark.

    scored like yours

    Flour
    White and 20% wholemeal
    Water
    78%
    Hours in the cold
    29
    Out at
    6:30 and 10:30
    Usually gone by
    About one

  • Seeded batard

    The seeds soak overnight, so they don’t pull water out of the dough, and the crust comes out nutty and loud.

    Flour
    White, with sunflower, pepita, linseed and sesame
    Water
    80%
    Hours in the cold
    29
    Out at
    6:50
    Usually gone by
    About noon

  • Dark rye tin

    Dense, dark and a little sour. It has to cool before we can cut it. Slice it thin, and wait a day if you can.

    Flour
    Wholemeal rye, on a rye levain
    Water
    85%
    Hours in the cold
    None. It proofs warm, 3 hours
    Out at
    7:40, on the shelf about nine
    Usually gone by
    About ten

  • Spelt and wholemeal

    Half spelt, so it’s softer and a little sweet. It takes less water and a shorter night in the cold.

    Flour
    Half spelt, half wholemeal and white
    Water
    75%
    Hours in the cold
    20
    Out at
    8:30
    Usually gone by
    About noon

  • Fruit and walnut

    The sultanas soak in warm water first so they stay plump, and the walnuts go in roasted.

    Flour
    White with a little wholemeal, sultanas and walnuts
    Water
    74%
    Hours in the cold
    20
    Out at
    9:15
    Usually gone by
    About noon

  • Butter croissant

    Raised with the same levain, so there’s a little tang under all that butter. Eat it warm if you can.

    Flour
    White, folded with cultured butter
    Water
    About 55%, part milk
    Hours in the cold
    Overnight, then a warm proof
    Out at
    7:20
    Usually gone by
    About nine

  • Morning bun

    Croissant dough rolled up with cinnamon sugar and orange zest, then tossed in more sugar while it’s hot.

    Flour
    Croissant dough, cinnamon sugar, orange zest
    Water
    About 55%, part milk
    Hours in the cold
    Overnight, then a warm proof
    Out at
    7:20
    Usually gone by
    About half past nine

  • Cardamom knot

    A soft butter dough, twisted and knotted round cardamom sugar. We crack the pods the afternoon before.

    Flour
    White, with butter and cardamom sugar
    Water
    About 60%, part milk
    Hours in the cold
    Overnight, then a warm proof
    Out at
    7:20
    Usually gone by
    About ten

No glazes, no custards. Butter, flour, sugar, spice.

4:45 am, the van

At your back door before you open.

We also bake for a handful of cafes and grocers in the inner south. Their loaves come out first, at half past four, go into crates while they’re still warm, and the van’s at their back door before six, before anyone’s turned the lights on. If you’d like bread on a standing order, tell us when you open and what you’d want each morning.

Their nightIllustrative

Two standing orders, illustrative
WhoOpensDropped
A cafe7:005:30
A grocer8:005:50
Crates of bagged loaves by an open van door in the blue before dawn
the first drop, 5:30 am

Ask about a standing order

fill it in like a docket

we drop off before this

What you are
Which mornings
What you’d want

sliced? a particular shape?