Sourdough

Heading into another new year, but this time with a toddler who is eating anything and everything, plus the cost of living on the constant rise, I decided to start making more food from scratch. Starting with sourdough bread!

I personally love sourdough as I’m not someone who can tolerate a lot of gluten containing foods. Due to the fermentation process involved in making sourdough, the gluten proteins get broken down which make it easier to digest. This does not by any means make the bread gluten free, so it wouldn’t be suitable for someone with Coeliacs Disease, however it can lighten the load on your gut a little.

In addition to this, making the bread at home allows me to control what goes in it. No preservatives, no fillers, just sourdough starter, water, flour and salt.

So what’s a sourdough starter? Basically, its a symbiotic culture of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. When ‘fed’ water and flour, this culture ferments the carbohydrates which results in a incredibly bubbly ‘active’ starter. It’s when the starter is at this ‘active’ stage that it gets used to make bread. Once the culture has finished digesting the carbohydrates, the bubbles dissipate and you’re left with a runny batter-like starter which needs to be fed again before you can make more bread. That’s a brief rundown anyway, but it covers what I wish I was told at the start!

What happens when you underestimate how active your starter really is!

Now, I know what you’re thinking, that sounds like a bit of work right? Well, yep. It took me a couple weeks of practice to get in the flow of feeding and using my starter, but now that I understand the process, I make a couple of loaves each week (sometimes extra for friends) and I can work the process into our daily routine.

Instead of paying $7+ for a loaf of sourdough, would you consider learning to make your own?