Wild Sourdough Starter

Since the beginning of our marriage (a whole year and a bit ago!) my husband Lenny and I have talked about baking our own bread. We wanted bread without all the preservatives and additives present in commercial bread. I always felt slightly ill and bloated after eating grocery store-bought bread, and multiple attempts to avoid eating bread, although they never lasted long, would always make me feel generally better in health. I'd feel less tired, more vibrant. 

Despite all the talk, though, we really had no idea how to go about making bread that could claim to be truly healthier for us. Questions rose in our minds about what it meant to break away from commercial bread. 

Gluten intolerance seems a big deal today, too. Supermarkets are full of gluten-free choices. Maybe I was gluten intolerant? My brother went gluten-free and lost scads of weight. He seemed to gain a new glow of health with his new diet. For me, however, the idea of going gluten-free was a horrifying one. I didn't want to have to pay that much attention to labels on my loaves. I felt a bit rebellious about it, really. I loved bread! I didn't want to give it up for an uber-expensive substitute. 

After reading several online articles and a couple of books here and there about the subject, Lenny and I decided to start our very own sourdough starter that we could use to rise our bread with. The idea behind this decision is that we would be baking bread that contained wild yeast, with good probiotic bacteria. The hoped-for result? That I might finally eat bread that didn't make me feel sick. 

A sourdough starter uses wild yeast that lives around us and it is healthier than commercial starters, even though it rises bread in double or triple the time. The thing about wild sourdough starters, is that they don't contain only yeast, (which is the problem with dried active yeast bought from the supermarket) but also bacteria, notably lactobacilli, which play an important role in "predigesting" grain. The lactic acid in the lactobacilli break down the phytic acid that protects the grain. Interestingly, the lactic acid also accounts for the sour taste of sourdough. 

Commercially baked bread mostly uses yeast that is pure, without the symbiotic relationship with "good" bacteria like lactobacilli, which means ultimately the grains have not been properly broken down - at least, not as well as they could be. The phytic acid that protects them is left largely intact. Due to the demands of fast mass production, commercial bread is also not proofed for as long as it should be to allow the grains to be broken down as much as possible. Proofing is part of the fermentation process, with the yeast leavening the bread, allowing it to rise. A longer proofing period allows the yeast and bacterial microorganisms to break down phytic acid, releasing the nutrients of grains. Starches and complex carbohydrates are broken down into simpler sugars.  The gluten protein is also broken down into simpler amino acids. (Good news for those with gluten intolerance: gliadin, which is what they react to, is broken down by the lactobacilli). 

With all this new knowledge about wild sourdough starters, Lenny and I decided to bake our own bread using our very own starter. It is possible to make one from scratch with flour and water, but we wanted to be sure that we got the very best quality, fully organic starter we could. We ended up purchasing this one from Trade Me:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/home-living/food-beverage/baking-ingredients/auction-829382341.htm

This is what the starter kit looked like when opened. We will be using rye flour and filtered water to revitalise it, and then we'll be all set to start making our own bread!

Stay tuned for further posts on this new venture! Exciting stuff!