Ingredients.

The leaven:

• 260 g wholemeal flour.

• 380 g freshly pressed apple juice, fermented.

The bread:

• 360 g wholemeal or sifted or white flour.

• 10 g sea salt.

This is the first “sourdough” I ever made, straight from the muse. Mildly flavoured, really simple, inherently organic, a true rustic bread.

It is made by pressing or juicing apples and allowing the juice to ferment. When the ferment is active, the flour is added to form a thick batter. This activates strongly and is the “leaven” and is used to make a dough. I simply couldn’t believe this when it manifested all those years ago, and have wondered since, how many times this had been done in the past. It is clearly an alternative method of naturally fermenting a bread and developing a leaven.

On keeping this fruit ferment, and refreshing it with flour and water, it slowly morphs into an actual sourdough in that the bacterial component develops and all trace of the fruity-sweet yeasts disappear or are balanced by the development of the bacterial biome.

I had been cheffing, cooking really, in my busy groovy early 70s café, Byron Bay in the before time. The freshly pressed apple juice didn’t get drunk… it was too busy, someone had driven from Sydney just to get my black bean mud crab, how could I turn him away?

The following day during lunch service, there was the apple juice with a foaming brownish head and full of sparkling bubbles. The muse allows no escape, there was a bag of freshly ground flour nearby, and then there was a leaven and then a dough, which rose quite rapidly in the warm humid air. It was in the oven, then emerging radiant on to a cooling rack in a blur. We all stared at this glowing russet loaf in disbelief and with a good deal of reverence. Could it really be that easy?

Method

To get the best results, use organic apples as there is more flora on the skins. Semi-tart or tart apples are best as very sweet ones easily go to an acetone ferment. Cider apples are perfect if available.

Depending on the ambient conditions, the juice will ferment overnight, but may take up to 3 days to really get going. This is a variable wild yeast on bread street. Ensure to make extra juice for a taste, as it is so good when still sparkling.

As soon as the juice shows signs of fermentation - sparkles of bubbles, and a head - add the flour to form a thick batter. This will activate quickly if kept warm and will smell sweetly of yeast. Cover and keep warm until it is clearly fermenting and active. Usually 8 hours.

Add the flour and salt, mix well and knead to form a medium-soft dough, which will be more like a yeast dough than an edgy-sticky sourdough. This is because the ferment is largely yeast, just captured from the fruit, and the dough does not break down as a sourdough, because the bacterial component is missing. This also accounts for the relative sweetness of this bread, and for its lovely russet bloom. If using white flour, add a splash extra of juice.

Mix the lot together to form a soft dough and knead for 2 minutes until clear with no unmixed lumps. Cover, keep warm and proof for 2 hours. Watch it as it may be ready after 1 hour if the right microbes are in residence. It should rise well and almost double in bulk. Gently reshape by folding, and form a round. Cover and rest 5 minutes. Re-round it and shape into either a round or oblong depending on how it will be baked, as a crusty or in a tin.

The next stage is usually 2 hours but keep watch. When well-risen, bake the tin at 200oC for 45 minutes. The crusty loaf will take 25 minutes at 200oC.

Add 2 tablespoons of freshly ground cinnamon for a cinnamon-toast bread, which is especially good as this bread has a close or cakey texture, being largely yeasty rather than the more developed or ripe texture of a sourdough. The residual hints of apple meld perfectly with cinnamon, especially when toasted. The cinnamon will slow the rise by about ½ hour.