I had never heard of a boule before spotting this new sourdough on the shelves at Trader Joe's. Here's Wikipedia's helpful information:
Boule, from the French for "ball", is a traditional shape of French bread, resembling a squashed ball. It is a rustic loaf shape that can be made of any type of flour. A boule can be leavened with commercial yeast, chemical leavening, or even wild yeast sourdough. The name of this bread is the reason a bread baker is referred to as a "boulanger" in French, and a bread bakery a "boulangerie."This is decent sourdough bread. It's perhaps somewhat lacking in the distinctive sourdough bite, but, as if in compensation, it has a superior crust--thick and chewy, with an attractive glaze.
Its main downside for me is the shape of the slices. They just vary too much from one end of the loaf to the middle and then to the other end. Two slices of toast from the middle can be twice as much bread as two slices from near an end. I consider this unacceptable.
Will I buy it again?
No.
Sourdough is always sold in this shape, we always bought some from a san francisco bakery that delivered a few times a week to our town and always in this shape. (And yes significantly better flavor and texture than TJs version ) If baked in a loaf pan for uniformity you can't get that great crust all the way around
ReplyDeleteCenter slices just get cut in half for toasting or sandwiches.
Ttrockwood
I know it's traditional, but it still irks me. My favorite sourdough is from Atlanta Bread Company, and they manage to make it approximate a "normal" loaf of sandwich bread.
ReplyDeleteOooh you're lucky to have found a good source of sourdough! Sullivan st bakery here makes a good loaf (boule shaped) but it's out of my way and something silly like $7 so i just don't have sourdough as often as i would like to ;(
DeleteTtrockwood