Microbes that we cannot see live around us. One newcomer, COVID-19, has caused all of us to huddle in our homes. This allowed me to reconnect with my sourdough starter, which consists of a combination of yeast and probiotic bacteria.
I love bread. In the world where you are often told to go light on carbs, what was once my go-to food item has become an indulgence. When I was researching healthy bread, to justify eating more of it, I found sourdough.
Only in the past hundred years has fast rising yeast and store bought bread became a norm in our lives. For thousands of years before that, making bread was a daily activity, where master artisan bread makers used what we now call the sourdough process to make bread.
The rapid rise yeast, which is used for most of the bread we eat, allowed us to make great looking bread quickly. The sourdough starter, a living culture of many microbes, requires patience to work with, and doesn’t often give as consistent a result as fast rising yeast.
A homemade sourdough bread, with its tangy flavor, along with the satisfaction of seeing it rise (when you are successful), is very gratifying. It’s also one of the healthiest bread choices you can have.
For many years, I had been nursing a sourdough starter, supposedly from a San Francisco bakery. Oftentimes, when life got busy, I neglected it in my fridge, as you only need to feed it once a week in the chilly climate. But when you let it thrive on your countertop, it comes alive with a ferocious appetite, requiring usually twice a day feedings.
During the shutdown, when all the local fine establishments were closed, I reconnected with my love for making sourdough bread, like many in the country, to satisfy my taste buds.
Making sourdough bread is simple. Feed your starter to keep it active and happy. Combine it with your dough in the evening, and an overnight rise will allow you to make a fresh loaf in the morning.
My starter loves the whole wheat flour I source from the prairies of Montana and the Dakotas. Within hours of feeding, large bubbles are created, like magic. It’s these air bubbles that will give your dough the bulk, and when healthy can double or triple your original dough size.
The special flavor that you don’t find in non- sourdough bread, comes from the bacteria that lives in the starter, symbiotic with the yeast. These organisms convert the
simple sugars and carbs in your flour into gut-friendly prebiotics, and lowers the glycemic index of the resulting bread.
Quick advice on sourdough starter
It takes time and luck to create your own reliable sourdough starter. After trying unsuccessfully several times, I found that a starter sourced from a bakery is best. You can usually request it from your local baker, or order them online.
Once you have your starter, you need to maintain it. You will need to regularly discard 1⁄2 of your starter, then add equal amounts of flour and filtered water by weight to replenish. This is best done with a digital scale and a mason jar. Filtered water is required to remove the chlorine in tap water, which inhibits the yeast and probiotics in the starter.
This process needs to be done every 12 hours if you are keeping your starter at room temperature. If you are refrigerating your starter, every 7 days is enough to keep your starter fed and happy.