bake - January 2019 - 26

breads

Ancient Grain

REVIVAL

Craft bread baker Zachary Golper is wild about ancient grains.

The owner of Brooklyn, New York, favorite Bien Cuit, which means
"well done" in French, will scour the planet in search of interesting
grains that produce unique and globally inspired ﬂavors.
"Right now, I'm getting durum ﬂour from Sicily (Italy) from a
third-generation miller," says Golper, a three-time Outstanding
Baker nominee by the James Beard Foundation. "It's milled
from an ancient variety of durum. It's like a newfound love."
Filippo Drago, the miller from Sicily, supplies the durum ﬂour to
the US market through specialty ingredients importer Gustiamo
US, based in the Bronx, New York. According to Gustiamo,
Filippo Drago's Castelvetrano ﬂour is a blend of stone ground
grains, made without any part of the grain kernel removed; all
the grain's bran, germ, and endosperm is skillfully milled into

Bien Cuit's method of small batch mixing ensures bakers give

a beautiful homogeneous ﬂour. The result is a ﬂavorful ﬂour

each loaf the same level of attention that a baker would have

that produces bread and baked goods with natural ﬂavor hints

hundreds of years ago when mixing was done entirely by

of cinnamon and nutmeg.

hand. They pair this technique with slow fermentation, which
requires 16 to 68 hours for each loaf.  More control over gluten

In addition to Pane Nero, this ﬂour is well suited for pizza, biscotti

and fermentation ensures their bakers can balance acidity and

and focaccia. It can be mixed with other ﬂours to give the hearty,

maximize the taste and texture of every loaf.

lightly sweet taste of Tumminia, the name of the heirloom breed
of durum wheat. Drago is respected throughout Sicily for making

"The bakery has traditionally been at the heart of each commu-

Pane Nero di Castelvetrano according to traditions, including

nity," Golper says. "With a single oven baking for the entire

baking the bread in an oven burning 100% olive tree wood.

village, it has been a place for people to gather and connect
through a common food. We feel it is our responsibility as

Zingerman's Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is another big

artisan bakers to maintain this age-old tradition and to offer our

fan of the ﬂour, used to make its own Pane Nero. Drago is stone

own local community the best breads and pastries possible."

milling the organic durum wheat at his mill, Molini del Ponte.
"What he makes is to standard ﬂour as farmstead cheese is to

For this reason, Golper is one of the few craft bakers in America

Kraft singles. Its texture is coarse, the color is light, speckled

working in tests with Kernza grain, the perennial wheatgrass

yellow, and there's a slight sweetness to it," according to

being developed by The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas.

Zingerman's. When used in baking, like the Pane Nero bread
made by the bakers at Zingerman's, it results in a dark brown

The Perennial restaurant in San Francisco serves "warm Kernza

loaf with a dense, compact crumb.

bread" for $5 on its dinner menu, and Golper did a lot of research

continues a conversation about the importance of bakers

"I just want them to be successful," Golper continues. "This is

connecting to the land and the farmer.

how we begin to support alternative agriculture with positive

26 < JAN 2019 | bakemag.com

BIEN CUIT

for them to "ﬁgure out how to ferment it deeply. It's very dense.
"Grains are the staple of civilization," Golper says, as he
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