Now that we are in the heart of winter, warm vegetable soups and sourdough toast are two essentials for me. During the cold winter days, our bodies crave foods that are going to warm us up from the inside out and homemade soup and sourdough toast are certain to do just that.
Firstly, I just have to say I’m a huge bread lover. Honestly, I can’t get enough of it. My favourite breakfast in the morning is a glass of warm lemon water followed by plain old smashed avocado on homemade sourdough toast. So naturally, I was over the moon when I discovered the art of making my very own nutrient-dense sourdough bread.
But what exactly is sourdough? The yeast in this type of bread slowly ferments over an 8-12 hour period resulting in bread that has a deliciously complex flavour and is nutritionally better than commercial yeasted bread. The long and slow fermentation of sourdough yeasts and bacteria are said to draw out the full flavours and nutrients of the grains due to the delicious organic acids that takes about 8-12 hours to be produced by the lactic bacteria.
Some might say eight to twelve hours is too much effort to make a loaf (or two) of bread, but I start the fermentation process just before going to bed and it’s ready to work with first thing in the morning, I honestly don’t find it much of an effort, knowing how delicious the final product is going to be!
You are able to speed up the fermentation process by adding heat to the sourdough starter mixture (starter process described below) but this will result in sourdough that lacks the benefits of the lactobacterial fermentation.
Before making your first loaf of sourdough bread, you need to develop your own organic starter mixture – below, I’ve provided two recipes, one containing gluten and one without, for those with coeliac disease or sensitivities to gluten.
Creating your own Rye Starter (contains gluten)
Day 1
In a glass or plastic container, with a pop-up lid, add 100g of wholemeal rye flour and 200g of water to make a loose pancake batter. Stir or whisk well to incorporate as much oxygen as possible
With the lid closed, leave the starter to ferment in the warmest place in your house, 18-28°C.
After about 12-48 hours, have a look at your starter. It should start to show some sign of bubbles. If there are not many bubbles at this stage, don’t worry.
Day 2
After your starter shows the first sign of bubbles – throw out half of your starter
Add 50g of rye flour and 100g of water. Stir and whisk well.
With the lid closed, leave the starter to ferment in the warmest place in your house, 18-28°C.
This mixture will thin out as it is fermenting and becoming bubbly.
After about 6-12 hours, have a look at your starter. It should have some more bubbles and look either foamy or spongy, depending on how ‘wholegrain’ your wholemeal rye flour is.
For another 3-4 days repeat steps under ‘Day 2’, until your starter is full of foamy/frothy bubbles or has the consistency of a spongy mousse.
Now add 100g of rye flour and 150g of water, whisk/mix well, then leave for 6-12 hours to ferment.
Once your starter is risen and full of bubbles or spongy, your rye start is ready for use… Yay!
Creating your own Buckwheat Starter (gluten-free)
Day 1
Put a tablespoon of water kefir or milk kefir in a glass or plastic container with a pop-up lid.
Add 100g of buckwheat flour and 200g of filtered water stir and whisk well.
With the lid closed, leave the starter to ferment in the warmest place in your house (18-28°C).
This mixture is thin to start off with.
After about 6-12 hours, have a look at your starter – it will have risen. The texture will be spongy and very thick.
Leave in fridge overnight.
Day 2
Throw out half your starter
Add 50g of buckwheat flour and 100g of filtered water then stir or whisk well.
With the lid closed, leave the starter to ferment in the warmest place in your house (18-28°C).
After about 6-12 hours, have a look at your starter, it would have risen and it will be spongy and very thick.
Leave in fridge overnight.
Day 3 (6-12 hours before you want to use your starter)
Throw out half your starter
Add 200g of buckwheat flour and 400g of filtered water: stir or whisk well. The mixture will look pretty runny, don’t worry – this is how it’s supposed to look!
With the lid closed, leave the starter to ferment in the warmest place in your house (18-28°C).
After about 6-12 hours, this starter will thicken, rise and swell into a thick mousse. Your starter is now active and ready to use!
Now that you have the starter of your choice, you’re ready to bake your first sourdough loaf!
My all-time favourite sourdough recipe is from Yoke Mardem’s ‘Sourdough’ cookbook, made with spelt, rye and barley fours, it’s super tasty, nutritious and of course, has an unbelievably crunchy crust (as all sourdough should), it makes for the perfect addition to a warm mug of your choice of home-made soup. See below for the recipe.
Spelt, Rye & Barley Sourdough (makes 2 loaves)
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups of active rye starter
2 ½ cups of water
1 ½ cups of biodynamic rye flour
1 cup barley flour
4 ½ cups of spelt flour
Pinch of sea salt
Method:
1) The night before you wish to make this bread, take your starter out of the fridge and feed it with 1 cup of rye flour and 1 cup of water, mix and leave to sit on the bench overnight so it’s ‘active’ in the morning.
2) In the morning, in a bowl, mix all ingredients together and leave covered to rest for 20 minutes.
3) Knead and split mixture into two
4) Place mixtures into two separate bread or rectangle cake tins greased with olive oil.
5) Let the mixture rest in these tins for 5-6 hours somewhere fairly warm (but not too hot, for example I place mine on the kitchen bench where the sun shines through, if they start get too warm I move them out of the sun for a while).
6) Once the mixture has risen, cook in a preheated oven on fan bake at 200°C for 10 minutes, then change the temperature to 180°C for 40-50 minutes, you may have to cover loaves with foil once the tops looked cooked. A good trick to check if the bread is cooked through is to tap on top of the loaf, if it sounds hollow, it’s cooked through.
7) Take bread out of tins and let cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing. Store in an airtight container for up to a week, in the fridge, or it also freezes beautifully for several months.
8) Serves beautifully with soup.
My favourite gluten free sourdough bread is the buckwheat, linseed and caraway seed bread, again, out of Yoke Mardewi’s ‘Sourdough’ cook book. See below for this de-lish recipe!
Buckwheat Sorghum Bread (makes 1 loaf)
Ingredients:
450g active buckwheat starter
2 egg whites
200g potato flour (lightens the texture)
3 tablespoons linseeds, ground
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon caraway powder (more or less, depending on your taste buds!)
Method:
1) The night before you wish to make this bread, feed your gluten free starter with 200g buckwheat flour and 400g of water, mix together and leave covered on the bench overnight, so it’s ‘active’ in the morning.
2) In the morning, add the wet and dry ingredients together.
3) Using an electric whisk or hand beater, whisk the ingredients together until they are mixed well and fluffy (about 2 -3 minutes)
4) Rest the mixture in a covered bowl for 30 minutes. If mixture is too thick (thicker than a pancake batter consistency) then mix some water through the mixture.
5) Pour mixture into bread tin greased in olive oil, cover and let rise somewhere warm for 3-4 hours, or longer until risen).
6) Preheat oven to 200°C, bake for 10 minutes then reduce oven to 180°C for a further 1 hour and 15 minutes. If you’re not sure whether the loaf is cooked through, turn oven off and let sit for another 20-30 minutes.
7) Take bread out of tin and let it cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing.
8) Suitable for freezing and keeps well for a couple of months this way!
9) Serves beautifully with soup.
So there you have it, two delicious sourdough bread recipes to get you started! Remember to either feed your starter once per week with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of rye flour (for the rye starter), 1 cup of buckwheat flour and 2 cups of water (for the gluten-free buckwheat starter) or ideally, activate your starter once per week and make a loaf or two!
For more delicious sourdough recipes check out Yoke Mardewi’s selection of ‘Sourdough’ cook books available online or in hard copy in most book stores.
Until next time,
Bec x
The Organic Nutritionist 