19‘People get
into baking
bread with
an idea of what
it’s supposed
to be, but when
you lose those
expectations,
you can make a
roti or naan or
semita, and you
can appreciate
it just as much.’Choco Pan de Coco
Time: 2 hours, plus fermentationFor the levain:
2 ounces/60 grams mature sourdough
starter
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons/120 grams bread
fl our
½ cup/110 milliliters warm waterFor the fi nal dough:
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons/200 milliliters
canned coconut milk
Scant ½ cup/100 milliliters water
7 ounces/200 grams levain
(about 1 generous cup)
1¾ cups/225 grams all-purpose fl our
1⅔ cups/225 grams bread fl our
1⅔ cups/125 grams unsweetened
shredded coconut
¼ cup/25 grams Dutch process
cocoa powder
Scant ⅓ cup/50 grams bittersweet
chocolate chips2 tablespoons/30 grams softened unsalted
butter or coconut oil, plus 1 tablespoon
for greasing pan
2 tablespoons/30 grams light brown sugar
2 teaspoons/10 grams kosher salt- To build the levain, in a large bowl, mix
the mature sourdough starter, flour and water
until incorporated. Cover, and leave in a
warm place for 3-4 hours, or until doubled in
size. Use immediately, by going to Step 2,
or refrigerate the levain to use the next day. - Prepare the final dough: Combine the
coconut milk and water, and warm gently
in a pan over low heat or in the microwave
until steaming. Transfer to a large bowl, and
add 7 ounces/200 grams of levain (about
1 generous cup), along with all the remaining
dough ingredients. Using your hands,
squeeze everything together. Turn out onto
a clean work surface, and knead, using
the palm of your hand to push the dough
forward and your fingers to pull it back.
Repeat until the dough is mostly smooth.
Cover, and let ferment for 4 hours, then
refrigerate for 12 hours. - Coat a loaf tin with 1 tablespoon coconut
oil or butter, and set aside. Place the dough
on a lightly floured work surface, divide
into 6 pieces and let rest for 20-30 minutes.
Ball each piece: Flatten the dough, fold
the corners to the center and press down,
then flip the dough to reveal a smooth
surface, and tighten the dough into a ball
by tucking the edges in with your palms.
Repeat with the remaining pieces, then place
the pieces inside the tin, arranging in 2 rows
of 3. Cover, and proof until dough rises by about
a third, for 3-4 hours at room temperature. - To bake the bread, heat the oven to 375.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until lightly brown
and shiny on top, turning the pan once in the
middle of cooking. Let the bread rest in
the pan for 20 minutes, then remove from the
oven, and let cool an additional 30 minutes.
Yield: 1 (8- or 9-inch) loaf.Adapted from ‘‘New World Sourdough,’’
by Bryan Ford.wide, open crumbs and crackling edges
fetishized on Instagram. And maybe, if
I’m being honest, it’s because I didn’t
think I was allowed — sourdough, inten-
tionally or not, has an exclusive Eurocen-
tric defi nition as crusty bread built with
a starter. As a result, many of the world’s
great fermented breads, from injera to
dosa, are often left out. But Ford didn’t
wait for anyone’s permission to expand
sourdough’s defi nition.
Ford grew up in New Orleans, a child
of Honduran immigrants. Once a week,
sometimes more often, his father picked
up a bag full of pan de coco from a Hondu-
ran bodega, and Ford would grab one or
two of the dense little rolls from the bag
and run off to eat them to tide himself
over before dinner. His parents sat on
the porch to have theirs, dipping them
in coff ee, talking. Honduran pan de coco,
traditionally made with coconut milk and
some whole-wheat fl our, might be used
to soak up soup or sauce with a meal, or
eaten plain as a snack. ‘‘It’s such a beau-
tiful thing,’’ Ford said, ‘‘and for me, that
is good bread.’’
In 2018, when he was working as a
baker in Miami, he changed the way he
thought about sourdoughs, expanding
it to include fermentations from all
over the world and applying the word
to breads that had most likely benefi ted
from natural leavening in warm kitch-
ens in the past. ‘‘Before, I’d been posting
rustic loaves, baguettes, crumb shots,
all the same-looking thing,’’ Ford said.
‘‘I was getting trapped in that mentali-
ty.’’ But when his mother came to visit,
Ford baked pan de coco with a sourdough
starter instead of yeast, complicating the
bread’s fl avors and changing its texture.
He documented the process with just
as much care as he had before. ‘‘Peo-
ple saw I was proud to be Honduran.
My following grew.’’ Soon, Ford started
posting his bread recipes in English and
Spanish, fi elding questions from home
bakers all over the world about doughs
not rising properly, about caring for
a healthy starter and about the abyss
between their homemade loaves and
the ones posted by professional bakers
on Instagram.
Ford’s cookbook, ‘‘New World Sour-
dough,’’ published in June, is full of deep
expertise that answers many of these
questions, but it’s also an unusually warm,
friendly invitation to making sourdough
bread, a subgenre of the baking world
that isn’t known for being so inclusive
and approachable. In the introduction,
Ford writes that he wants bakers to
change their expectations of bread. ‘‘I
really really mean it,’’ Ford said. ‘‘People
get into baking bread with an idea of what
it’s supposed to be, but when you lose
those expectations, you can make a roti
or naan or semita, and you can appreciate
it just as much.’’
The fi rst recipe I made from the book
was a version of Ford’s pan de coco, sweet,
mottled brown with cocoa powder and
chocolate chips, the tin greased with
coconut oil. As it baked, it fi lled my kitch-
en with the rich smell of coconut. It came
out of the oven airy, pulling apart with
threads that let out puff s of steam, smear-
ing my fi ngertips with melted chocolate.
But it cooled to a more dense and whole-
some texture. I wasn’t sure if I got it right,
if my starter was in a good place when I
used it and if this bread was the way Ford
intended it to be. Had I failed? I wanted
to show him a photo of the bread, the
way it looked when it was risen, the way
it looked when I tore it open and ate it,
standing in front of the oven. But I didn’t
need to. ‘‘When someone messages me
about a failure, I’ll always ask, well did you
share it? Did you like it, did your friends
and family like it? OK, then be proud of
making delicious bread!’’