Pete and I were in Melbourne for less than forty-eight hours, but during that time we ate some truly amazing food.
Of course, it helps to have a friend like Davey who sent us an email with recommended dining venues before we even touched down. One of his suggestions was Cumulus Inc, a fantastic restaurant within easy walking distance of our hotel.
Every dish we ate there was noteworthy, but the true star of the show for me was their white house bread, a flavoursome chewy sourdough with a lightly salted crust.
I was inspired to attempt something similar at home. Here’s the recipe I came up with – it’s a variation on Joanna’s white toast bread, adapted to sourdough and baked in a gerry-rigged pullman tin. The quantities below make a single long loaf, although my photos show a double batch…
- 200g active sourdough starter ( 166% hydration, ie. fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup flour)
- 350g bakers/bread flour
- 175g semola rimacinata di grano duro (remilled semolina flour)
- 175g Italian 00 flour
- 375g water
- 15g extra virgin olive oil
- 12g fine sea salt
- 10g brown sugar
- Maldon sea salt, for the pan
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together to form a shaggy dough, then allow to rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
2. Give the dough a quick knead in the bowl, then cover again and allow to prove until roughly doubled in size. Prepare a long loaf tin by spraying with vegetable oil (I use canola) and sprinkling a generous pinch of crushed Maldon salt all over the sides and base. My tin was 28cm x 11½cm (11″ x 4½”). Preheat the oven to 220C (430F) with fan.
3. Scrape the proved dough onto a lightly oiled surface and shape it into a loaf. Place the dough seamside down into the prepared tin – it should fill the tin to about halfway. Cover with cling film and allow to prove until the tin is approximately three-quarters full. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a little more crushed Maldon salt.
4. Spray a long flat pan with oil and place it over the top of the loaf tin. I used a biscotti pan. As the lid didn’t lock into place like a real pullman tin would have, I weighted it down with a cast iron griddle.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 210C (410F) with fan and bake the bread, complete with lid and weight, for 40 minutes. After the initial baking time, remove the pan from the oven. Uncover it, tip the loaf out, and check for doneness by tapping on the base of the bread to see if it sounds hollow. Return the loaf in its pan minus the lid for a further 10 minutes or more if necessary. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Note: If you’d like to try this recipe using a starter at 100% hydration (ie. fed with equal quantities by weight of flour and water), reduce the bakers flour to 325g and increase the water to 400g.
The finished loaf had a fine, tender crumb with a few small holes. It held its shape well when sliced…
The entire crust was covered with a light dusting of sea salt…
This perfect sandwich bread is reminiscent of the bread we had at Cumulus Inc., but quite different in flavour and texture. Nevertheless, it’s a happy reminder of the lovely meal we had there, and a great addition to our baking repertoire!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Celia, this is just the perfect loaf for my Pete – he would enjoy it hot from the oven with lashings of butter.
Now if I were just able to make it for him – maybe one day I will be as advanced a bread baker as yourself.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, thank you, but I don’t think of myself as advanced! But I am getting a better feel for what might work and what won’t – I guess that’s what experience gives us! :)
That looks a very professional loaf of bread, Celia. Lovely!
Thanks Suelle! It was nice to get a really good crust on a sandwich loaf – we haven’t made anything in a tin for ages!
That looks wonderful. My sister’s wine is available at Cumulus. I haven’t eaten there, but I would love to go.
Deb, Cumulus Inc was just such a fun place to dine, and the food was great to boot. We had an amazing starter of buffalo haloumi on minted broadbeans, fantastic combination of flavours…
Awesome! This is a great and very interesting bread and sounds so tasty. It also looks perfectly light. I just want to make toast out of it, no offence :D. I love toast.
FF, thank you, but it wasn’t light, it’s actually quite a dense sourdough, which is what I was after. It has been perfect toast, and I’ve bought bacon so was can make bacon sarnies with it as well this weekend! :)
That bread looks delicious and worthy of any restaurant!
Sue, you’re kind, thank you! :)
How nice that would that be still warm….yumm…Salt is very underated!
Becca, the salt on the outside is surprisingly (or maybe not that surprisingly) very moreish. It’s a really nice bread to eat with just butter, which is something we don’t do often – most of our bread is ciabatta style these days, and we dip it in olive oil. This makes for a nice change!
I love a salty crust!
These are absolutely beautiful.
I’m going to make some!
Heidi, please make a loaf, I think you’d love it! I’ve been experimenting as well with using different flours, and I think it would work quite well with all sorts. Jo’s original recipe used straight bakers flour.
That bread looks so good!
Christine, thank you! It was fun to make something different! :)
Love the idea of sprinkling salt onto the crust – inspired! I love the amazing golden colour of your crust and the fabulous texture too – I wouldn’t have guessed it was sourdough without you saying but I suppose that’s to do with the restricted pullman tins?
C, I think the colour is also coming from the oil sprayed on the walls of the pans – we don’t often bake in pans, but this has certainly inspired us to do so more often. The pullman tin (or our version thereof) restricts the rise, which I think affects the finished crumb – it’s denser and closer than a loaf which could rise freely. I like the difference!
Mmm good choice re Cumulus Inc.! I didn’t actually try this bread but thanks to you I can without hopping on a plane ;)
Oooh, I don’t know how you resisted, Lorraine! The bread was fabulous – both the white loaf they made inhouse and the grain sourdough they brought in!
Celia you had me at salt-crust. Oh how I love salt. I bet this tastes delicious warm with just butter. Yum!
Claire, that’s exactly right, warm with butter was how was ate some of it! The rest has been sliced up and frozen for toasting!
I love the dusting of salt. Would be fab with some nutella for the salty sweet
Nic, now there’s a good idea! I was thinking peanut butter myself…
Gosh, I’m so envious of people like you and Joanna – your bread-making skills are superb. That first picture is so mouthwatering and those tins look really well-used. Yum.
Mariana, you’re very kind, but I know you’re a wonderful baker! The tins were well used a long time ago, this is the first time I’ve pulled them out in ages. :)
Thanks for the linky ! I think that is a very enterprising pullman technique you’ve got going there – Salt crust bread sounds delicious and I can see the golden hue of the rimacinata coming through in the crumb, beautiful :)
Thanks for the inspiration dearheart The sem flour is such a pleasure to work with, isn’t it!
Ah Cumulus Inc is one of my favourite places to eat in Melbourne. Did you have breakfast there or lunch (both really good)? Last time I was there they had this wine on the counter in a big glass beaker type of thing – looking like a science experiment. It was preservative free or something, can’t remember. Tasted pretty good and certainly a good talking point!
Don’t remember having the bread there. Sounds really nice to have a salty crust but not so salty inside.
We had lunch there and it was great! I can’t believe you and Lorraine eating there and not trying the bread, it was amazing! And you know how fussy I am about bread! :)
I am making this when i get home, it looks very good! c
Thanks C, hope you enjoy it! :)
What a great idea – one I hadn’t thought of, but would make the bread a bit special.
Also thanks for the recommendation. We have friends who asked for a really good restaurant in Melbourne & I was going to suggest Cumulus – now you’ve confirmed that for me.
Amanda, I think there’s a lot of scope to do something really pretty with special salts – I’m going to try with my black salt, and I think the pink salt would be really pretty too! Cumulus is grand, but you can’t book – best warn your friends!
You are one heck of a baker. This loaf is just perfect and I like the salt.
This makes me hungry just looking at the picture.
Norma, Tania, thank you both! :)
I always use only sea salt in my home made breads & yours look wonderful & ooh so tasty too!
Pretty impressive first attempt I must say – well done!
Sophie, David, thank you! :) I was pretty happy with it!