Supermarket Perimeter - July 2020 - 11

"If your bakery is set up to mix and then immediately
divide and shape, then you are not used to having
large quantities of dough bulk fermenting for hours at
a time," he said. "The long fermentation time is not as
much as a challenge as the space one needs for all of
the dough."
Fermentation times may vary from 16 to 48 hours,
Gleason said. Puratos offers Sapore and O-tentic
products based on natural fermentation techniques.
"Within our Sapore range, we have developed
stabilized ready-to-use powder and liquid sourdoughs,"
he said. "We have also extended our Sapore line to
include living sourdoughs which impart unique texture
and a high level of ﬂavor complexity."
Andrew Brimacombe, president of Puratos US, said
that instore bakeries at retail outlets could buy par-baked
sourdough products from a baker through direct-store
delivery options.
Flavor variations for sourdough bread are abundant.
"Just because something is leavened with natural
yeast does not mean that it has to be acidic and crusty,"
Eng said. "For example, traditional panettone is leavened
with natural yeast (sourdough) and is soft, delicate
and can be sweet as candy. There is no reason why
there cannot be a soft sourdough sandwich loaf in the
bread aisle."
Retailers may highlight that sourdough is not always
sour, Gleason said.
"A strong sour taste can be polarizing for some
consumers, and retailers can spike consumer interest
by showing how sourdough can develop many ﬂavor
proﬁles such as creamy, fruity, roasted and more" he
said. "Just as consumers have preferences for different
wines or cheeses, there is a sourdough bread ﬂavor for
nearly everyone."

No matter the ﬂavor or the color, making a consistent
batch time after time can be a challenge for artisan
bread like sourdough.
"Dough improvers can be used in conjunction
with different preferments such as biga, Polish, pate
fermentee and levain/sourdough," Eng said. "You can
get the advantages of the ﬂavor and texture from the
pre ferments while ensuring consistent results with the
dough improver."
Gleason said he often hears sourdough bakers talk
about how difficult it is to make the same sourdough
bread twice.
"But part of the charm of sourdough is that each
bread is unique," Gleason said. "In fact, our Taste
Tomorrow research showed that consumers are craving
personalization and unique experiences, so sourdough
plays very well to this trend.

Colorful options
Color experimentation could happen as well. Terry Howell, Suntava Purple Corn ingredient expert for Healthy
Food Ingredients, Fargo, ND, in a May 13 blog post spoke
about how he asked the HFI ingredient team to experiment with Suntava in sourdough bread.
The purple corn contains water-soluble phytonutrients called anthocyanins.
"I have not had the opportunity try a slice of purple
sourdough bread yet, but I have seen the photos which
far exceeded my expectations," he said in the blog post.
"The crust of the bread is a delicious-looking brown
while the interior is a natural deep purple color which
is shocking when your mind is telling you a sourdough
bread is brown on the outside and white on the inside."
Those who have tasted the bread said the purple
corn extract powder did nothing to alter the ﬂavor of the
sourdough bread, Mr. Howell said.

"At the ingredient level, every sourdough starter is
unique and has its own subtle characteristics that can
impact the bread-making process, which again gives an
opportunity to be unique. In particular, we see that US
consumers embrace small differences and imperfections
for artisan breads as a mark of craftsmanship. Indeed,
these traditions of uniqueness in bread-making have been
prevalent in many markets around the world, particularly
countries like France and Italy, for many years."
www.supermarketperimeter.com

Healthy Food Ingredients
has experimented with
adding Suntava, a purple
corn, to sourdough.

JULY 2020 - 11

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Supermarket Perimeter - July 2020

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