Motherdough Family

Motherdough started in June 2020, during COVID level 5 lockdown.

At the time, people across the world turned to baking bread. In South Africa it was no different, and Alfonsina was sent to thousands of homes to help bakers in their bread quest. 

Fast forward to 2023.

We started to notice a change in our community and  business as life slowly returned to normal after the pandemic. People had less time to bake. It also didn't help that Eskom challenges continued to get worse. Of course, baking with natural fermentation requires dedication (and electricity) and many people have just not been able to keep it up. Motherdough started to become unsustainable. We had added challenges with another community selling our intellectual property without permission, and supply issues with certain products.

We evaluated introducing a subscription model - like most of the sourdough best support communities across the world - but we opted to change our direction more dramatically for the sustainability of the business. 

As our online business changed, we noticed more and more demand for the baked product, to the extent that we ultimately built a natural fermentation bakery in Franschhoek, where we employ 12 people. We have a retail outlet, and we supply a small number of hospitality customers.

What this means practically:

  1. The website has been revamped in line with our new focus. 
  2. A new Franschhoek course programme has been released, with only 6 workstations per class. The pricing reflects the knowledge, depth and quality of the content we share in all our courses.
  3. We will continue with the baking steels and locally produced tools. 
  4. We no longer sell our culture. We are also no longer able to provide replacement cultures.
  5. We have discontinued ingredient product lines and most of the 3rd party products. The exception to this is our collaboration with Ooni as an official pizza school. Gideon Milling white bread flour is more readily available and is our recommendation for feeding.
  6. Our recipes have been removed from the public domain. If you need a recipe, please get in touch and we will assist you after verifying your customer status. care@motherdough.co.za

We appreciate the support of each and every one of the nearly 7000 people who have purchased from us. Without you, Motherdough never would have become what it is today - we really do appreciate the support we have received. 

We are committed to working hard to bring real bread and a healthier approach to baking to the fore. We are looking forward to expanding organically as the business grows. We hope to welcome you to our store the next time you are in the area.