ELEVEN specialises in sourdough bread, made purely with natural yeasts developed in slow fermentation.
Jonathan Leslie came to natural leaven baking in 2007, starting the dedicated sourdough bakery ELEVEN the following year which went on to supply outlets including Paxton & Whitfield, Harvest, and Green Rocket Café in Bath.
As with all good food, quality of the ingredients is important. ELEVEN uses only organic flours from Shipton Mill, balancing taste, texture and nutrition in the selection and combination of flours.
Mixing is done in a restored Artofex diving arm mixer which mimics the action of hand kneading, gently stretching and folding rather than the twisting action of spiral mixing which can tear and heat up the dough, compromising the eventual texture of the bread.
The bread is baked a masonry oven with an eight inch thick dome and hearth to store heat. This yields long wave heat which penetrates the loaf better than the shortwave heat of convection ovens, giving sustained heat throughout the baking cycle resulting in better crumb and crust.
The best sourdoughs are made in small quantities from quality ingredients and long controlled fermentation where every stage of making from refreshing the leavens through cooling the baked loaves is done in a way that releases the energy and taste in grains to best effect. Time is so important that it might almost be called the fourth ingredient. As the dough ferments nutrients are released and gluten is broken down, becoming digestible. Long fermentation is essential for flavour and nutrition. Which is why ELEVEN invests in 40 hour cold fermentation of the entire dough (not just the starter) to hold the rise back while allowing full development. We've found that this makes the best sourdough.
