Katy McGuinness: Flour power and the rise of the artisan baker in Dublin (2024)

The industrial loaf is the asbestos of our era. It may be a bold statement, but I don’t believe it’s even bread,” says Eoin Cluskey, founder of Bread 41, an organic bakery that opened last week on Dublin’s Pearse Street. “It has 34 ingredients, whereas traditional bread has just three — flour, water and salt. People say they can’t eat gluten, that it makes them bloat and causes digestive upset, but usually it’s industrial bread they can’t eat. They try our bread, and they have no problems.”

Cluskey would say that, of course. He’s a small-scale organic baker who cut his teeth in trendy, middle-class artisanal bakeries and high-end restaurants, and his handmade loaves take between 19 and 22 hours from start to finish.

The world of dietetics, however, appears to agree with him — at least partially.

“I have certainly heard stories about people who find themselves better able to digest the freshly baked traditional baguette that they eat on holiday in France than they can more ‘commercial’ bread, but whether the research is there to support that is another matter,” says Aveen Bannon, a consultant dietician.

According to Bannon, the science behind how we digest bread, and which loaves we should opt for, is more complex than any modern David versus Goliath hang-ups we may have about the nature of mass production. “A large percentage of the population can eat any kind of bread and suffer no ill-effects at all, so it’s not correct to make a blanket statement that ‘bread is bad for you’.”

What isn’t in doubt is that a copious quantity of good bacteria in the gut is considered beneficial to both mental and physical health, hence the modern-day popularity of fermented foods such as kimchi, kombucha and kefir. Allergies and intolerances also play a part in how we experience breads, industrial or otherwise.

“Some people have a sensitivity to fructan, a fermentable carbohydrate [FODMAP] which is naturally present in wheat and can cause wind and bloating. Those people can eat spelt bread, because even though it contains gluten, it doesn’t contain fructan.

If someone is suffering from IBS or other digestive issues, the way to find out what they are intolerant of is to put them on the low-FODMAP diet for a couple of months, and then challenge them by reintroducing the excluded foods. Sometimes it can be a question of finding someone’s tolerance level. Maybe they can have toast for breakfast, but not a sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner as well,” she says.

Negativity about mass-produced bread, such as that expressed by Cluskey and many other advocates of small scale bakeries, isn’t all rooted in paranoia, however. Much — but not all — of it is in the fine print on the back of the packet.

Since 1961, the vast majority of the bread available in supermarkets (even from those in-house supermarket bakeries with their intoxicating aromas) has been made using the Chorleywood Bread Process. Previously, most bread was fermented (allowed to rise) overnight, but high-speed mixers and a plethora of “improvers” (processing aids which don’t have to be identified on the label) have allowed softer, longer-lasting white bread that can be produced much faster. Critics refer to this as industrial bread.

Among the 30 or so ingredients in an average loaf of industrial bread are additions such as hard fats, which improve loaf volume, crumb softness and shelf life, and L-ascorbic acid (E300) which acts as an oxidant, helping to retain gas in the dough, which makes the loaf rise more and look bigger. Often, chlorine dioxide gas is used to make flour whiter and is used as an improver, a substitute for the natural ageing of flour.

A reducing agent, L-cysteine hydrochloride (E920) creates stretchier doughs for burger buns and French-style baguettes, and can be derived from animal hair and feathers. Soya flour also has a bleaching effect on flour and assists the machine-workability of dough by enabling more water to be added, hence increasing the volume and softness of bread.

Then there are emulsifiers, used in bread improvers to control the size of gas bubbles, and enable the dough to grow bigger and make the crumb softer. Emulsifiers slow down the rate at which the bread goes stale. Preservatives do this, too — calcium propionate, for example, is widely used to prolong shelf life. When you compare this list to the three ingredients used by Cluskey and his ilk, it’s fairly damning.

The public has cottoned on to the use of additives and improvers in bread, and tastes have begun to turn towards handmade, properly fermented sourdoughs and other “healthy” breads, such as those produced by Cluskey, and a range of other small Irish bakeries like Firehouse, Sceal and Riot Rye.

The supermarkets, wise to any growing trend, responded en masse by stocking varieties of so-called “sourdough” bread. However, not all is as it seems. “Every supermarket has a ‘sourdough’ these days,” says Cluskey. “But it’s not true sourdough. It’s got additives and preservatives, and raising agents, with just a sprinkle of ‘sourdough’ powder. The word ‘sourdough’ has been devalued. Nobody is telling manufacturers they can’t call it that. The lack of regulation in food labelling is killing real bakers and it’s misleading for consumers. As far as I’m concerned, it’s us against some of the supermarkets and producers of pseudo sourdough, rather than us against other small bakeries.”

For this reason, sourdough is not a word that will be prominent in the Bread 41 lexicon. This is despite the fact that Cluskey’s loaves are the real deal: traditional, long-fermented, and authentic breads and sourdoughs. In fact, the sourdough starter culture is the cornerstone of the entire bakery.

With the new Pearse Street premises secured, Cluskey’s first task was to build one from scratch, using a process in which an equal quantity of flour and water are allowed to interact with bacteria that live in the air.

“I spent months building the starter at home before bringing it into this big room,” says Cluskey, pointing at the vaulted ceiling of the enormous bakery space, which he has saved from dereliction. “It was a big worry, trying to keep it alive. It took me and Ruth [Sutton, one of the baking team] 11 weeks to figure out what we were doing wrong, and finally get it right.”

When Cluskey can source organic Irish grain, he mills it into flour on the premises, on a shiny new stone mill he imported from the New American Stone Mills in Vermont, designed to use every bit of the grain, with nothing taken out. If not, he buys in organic flour, preferably Irish.

To make the bread, the bakers first weigh out the flour, combine it with water and the sourdough culture, and leave it to “relax” for an hour and a half, giving the water and natural sugars time to react in a process called autolysing.

Next, salt is added to bring out flavour. Everything is then mixed together for six minutes, after which the dough is left to relax at room temperature for up to five and a half hours. The bakers shape the dough into proving baskets, known as bannetons, and leave the loaves to “do their thing” in a refrigerated room for another long stretch, sometimes overnight.

“The key is time and long fermentation,” he says. “If you hurry the process, the dough — and consequently the bread — becomes tough,” says Cluskey. “So we bring the loaves out of refrigeration and leave them to become ambient before putting them into the oven. Each loaf takes between 19 and 22 hours from start to finish. The longer the ferment, the better the bacteria contained in the bread.”

Rather than offering a vast range of breads, the bakery will offer just three. Initially, there will be a seven-seed blend made with 100% wholegrain flour; Cluskey’s take on a malted loaf; and a dark and earthy all-rye bread. The plan is to rotate one of the breads monthly, to allow for seasonal variations.

Ultimately Cluskey hopes he can help change the way Irish people consume bread.

“I’m trying to teach people to eat bread fresh today and toast it tomorrow. As a nation we love toast, and I love toast myself, but when you sit down and chew on a piece of fresh crusty bread, your taste buds come alive. If you have good, crusty bread and good butter, you don’t need much else.”

Finally, consultant dietician Bannon, warns about the balance required when switching breads, or reducing bread, in one’s diet.

“We have to look at the whole picture. Fortified bread is a hugely important source of calcium in the diets of many children, so if they are cutting down on bread you need to be sure they are getting their calcium somewhere else.

“And if someone switches from eating wholemeal brown bread to sourdough, which tends to be white, they are getting less fibre and need to replace it elsewhere.”

She adds: “Bread is a minefield. It’s not intrinsically bad for you, but what you put on bread may be bad for you, and too much bread may be bad for you. Generally, I recommend that adults have two slices of wholegrain, high-fibre bread a day, unless they are very active, in which case they might have more.”

Learn how to do it yourself

This month is Sourdough September, and a number of Real Bread Ireland members will be giving away free sourdough starter to anyone who wants to try their hand at making their own. You’ll find a list of those bakers, and bread-making tutorials, on realbreadireland.org.

This coming Wednesday, September 12, the Conrad hotel in Dublin and its bread supplier, the Bretzel Bakery, is hosting two sourdough classes, with the aim of encouraging more people to buy genuine sourdough loaves or to make their own sourdough bread at home. The classes will be led by master baker Fabrice from the Bretzel Bakery, and participants will receive a sample of bread as well as their own sourdough starter, plus refreshments and a voucher for a complimentary buffet breakfast for two at the Coburg. Tickets are €12, with places limited to just 40 per session. Pre-booking is essential. For more information, search for ‘Sourdough September’ at eventbrite.ie.

What is real bread and where can you buy it?

Real Bread Ireland is a national network of real bread bakers. The organisation defines real bread as follows: “Real bread, in its purest form, is made without the use of processing aids or any other artificial additive. Real bread is simply flour, water and fermentation (either by adding yeast or using natural fermentation). Sometimes salt is added. Other natural additions include nuts, seeds, herbs, butter, egg or milk.

“Real bread is made without flour improvers, dough conditioners, preservatives, chemical leavening (baking powder, bicarbonate of soda), any other artificial additive or pre-mixed ingredients.”

To find your nearest real bread baker, see realbreadireland.org

Read all about it

The Sourdough School: The Ground-breaking Guide to Making Gut-friendly Bread by Vanessa Kimbell (easons.com, €28) Kimbell runs a bread-making school in Northamptonshire.

Baking School: The Bread Ahead Cookbook by Matthew Jones, Justin Gellatly and Louise Gellatly (easons.com, €35) The ex-St John baker shares his knowledge.

Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Prueitt (easons.com, €34.95) The Tartine bakery is the home of sourdough in San Francisco.