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New World Sourdough: Bryan Ford’s cookbook focuses on bread from the Americas and beyond

As much as I love making sourdough bread – to the point where I keep a bread diary to note down the flours I try, protein and hydration levels, the mixing techniques I see on Instagram and YouTube, and the effects they have on my loaves – I don’t have many bread-making books on my shelves. While they have been helpful in improving my technique, the recipes they contain tend to be similar, resulting in the type of crusty, rustic loaves you find in picturesque European bakeries.

New World Sourdough (2020) is different. Its author, Bryan Ford, says he was inspired by his American roots: he was born in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in New Orleans, but his parents were born and raised in Honduras. He grew up eating his mother’s tortillas, not baguettes or pain au levain.

In the book’s introduction, Ford, whose Instagram account @artisanbryan has more than 155,000 followers, writes: “Whether you are a home baker or a professional, this is a great time to be a new world sourdough bread baker. The internet and social media, like in most industries, has made detailed information about the craft readily available. But, how much is too much? Should a brand-new baker be worried about hydration levels and crumb structures?

“I learned how to bake long before I had an Instagram or Facebook account and it was out of curiosity, pleasure, and necessity. My dad really liked cinnamon-raisin bagels from the store, so, when I was a wirro(Honduran slang for kid) I learned to make a cinnamon-raisin bread for him […]

“What is it that makes a sourdough bread distinctly a sourdough bread? At grocery stores I always find it interesting to see packaged loaves labelled ‘San Francisco’ sourdough. Most people equate the word sourdough with a certain flavour profile and appearance. Although I do enjoy a nice, crusty loaf of sour bread, I perceive sourdough as simply a means to make different kinds of bread rise in a healthier and more natural way.

“In Honduras, a traditional pan de coco was not even leavened. As the coasts were abundant with coconuts, the meat and water from the coconut were mixed with flour and water and baked in stone ovens. Before the introduction of commercial yeast, one can imagine that the beginning of wild yeast and natural leavening occurred unintentionally and instinctually in the baking process.

“If you let a flour and water mixture sit long enough, it will ferment – especially in a tropical climate. A dense loaf of pan de coco is no less ‘sourdough’ than a crunchy batard with an open, light crumb.”

Ford does go into detail about making and maintaining a sourdough starter and techniques for mixing, shaping, proofing and baking bread, and gives the usual recipes for country loaves and whole wheat bread. But the international recipes are more interesting: choco pan de coco, sourdough challah, wholegrain pineapple cream beignets, pan de café (coffee bread), Jamaican hard dough, and flour tortillas.

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