Martin Fjeld sourdough workshop 

We were delighted to hold a workshop with Martin Fjeld from ille brød at Grain & Hearth. The course focused on baking naturally leavened breads using heirloom and ancient grains, both at home and in a small bakery setting. Some of the topics we covered included:

• Weak vs strong fermentation

• The right use of your starter

• Different applications of different grains

• Stone ground vs roller milled flour

• High hydration

• Shaping techniques

• Bulk proof, cold proof

• Scoring

• Baking and basic sourdough science

Martin Fjeld started baking breads at home in 2012, and soon became obsessed. Together with Casper Lugg he formed the baking duo ille brød, with a mission of spreading their enthusiasm for sourdough bread baked with ancient grains. It resulted in excessive Instagram posting and a book that so far has made it to 9 countries and 6 languages. Fjeld started a tiny home based bakery in 2016, but eventually moved to a bigger location in Oslo city centre. Today, ille brød bakery provides naturally leavened bread to over 30 restaurants and shops in Oslo, and are currently working on getting their first in-house stone mill. 

Martin and I have known each other for a number of years. Martin visited my previous home-based bakery in London before opening his bakery in Oslo. We spent time talking through the intricacies of using ancient grains, baked together and shared knowledge of working from a small space and scaling and up volumes for wholesale production. I then had the pleasure of visiting his bakery in Oslo in 2018 before my wife and I opened Grain & Hearth. It was such a joy when he visited our bakery and shared his passion, which borders on obsession, of using heritage grains in naturally leavened breads.