The basics of bread

A bread is a bread is a bread, right? Not so, says Yael Mejia who is passionate about breads in their simplest and purest forms. Like any chef worth his/her salt, she believes bread baking, like any skill, is one that is honed through practice.

A veteran food consultant from the UK, Mejia is a great proponent of food cooked slowly and with fresh, locally produced ingredients. She recreates the same magic in Dubai at Baker & Spice, Dukkan Al Manzil, Downtown Dubai, baking fresh, nutritious, wholesome and flavourful loaves.

What are artisan breads?

A return to the fundamentals of the age-old bread-making traditions, artisan bread is the simplest form of bread, made by hand using traditional recipes resulting in a crusty exterior and a flavourful loaf.

It is crafted, rather than mass produced, baked in small batches rather than on a vast assembly line, with special attention given to ingredients that are free of preservatives or chemicals.

Artisan loaves need just four ingredients - flour, water, salt and yeast. Some of the most popular types of artisan breads include focaccia, baguettes and sour dough. Other natural flavourings can also be added, such as dried fruit, nuts, herbs and olives. The artisan in the olden days would know where his ingredients came from. At Baker & Spice too, it is important for me to know where each ingredient is coming from.

The whole world is now rediscovering the pleasures and nutrition of slow cooking and artisan bread is part of this new rediscovery. There is a revival of French, Italian and American artisan bread.

How did you decide that baking breads (the artisan variety) was your true calling?

I love eating good bread. The flavour of the breads of my childhood had just disappeared and when I started dealing with bread commercially and got close to baking I wanted to recreate those flavours.

You can only achieve it by doing it the old-fashioned way.

What constitutes the heart and soul of bread baking?

Bread is one of life's staples and as such should never be thrown away or wasted. Eat it fresh, or toasted, or in soup... You could also make breadcrumbs for dessert toppings or to coat meats.

Even a generation ago, most households used to bake their own bread. There is nothing as intoxicating as the doughy aroma of fresh baked bread to set your mouth watering, nor as delicious as a slice of warm bread with butter.

Over the last 30 years or so, with the increase of convenience foods, we have come to think of bread-making as a difficult, time-consuming process, when in fact it is so easy a five-year-old child can do it. The key factor is time. Good bread baking practice requires a lot of time, apart from skills. You have to mix the dough and ingredients in the right proportions and leave it on the rack for a few hours to allow it to naturally develop. That's when the enzymes generated in it work on the flavour and texture.

The secret lies in knowing the right ratio of ingredients, the order in which they are added, the stretching and kneading of dough and then leaving the mixture to do its own thing. Along with oven temperature, extended fermentation is the key to good artisan bread. Baker & Spice leaves its bread to rise for 24 to 48 hours. The result is a pillow of dough, which is as light as a puffy cloud. For us bread is a "work in progress" - we try out different techniques and flour bases - from sour dough to soda bread, using seeds, oats and even date syrup in the recipes, or mixing half white and half wholemeal flours, but always using all natural, wholesome ingredients.

How important are spontaneity and improvisation in baking breads?

Very important. I remember there used to be a lot of entertaining centred around food in our family. My grandmother had always baked with yeast doughs. For me, the smell of home-baked cakes and biscuits is truly unforgettable. She never used written recipes and rarely cared for the way it was "supposed" to be done.

What are the artisan breads available at Baker & Spice?

The prominent ones are whole-wheat wild bread, white wheat bread with walnuts, soda bread with date syrup and oats, sour dough and spelt wheat bread. And more to come in the fullness of time - we have just produced a spectacular potato and rosemary bread, for example.