Distinct’s Ultimate Health & Conditioning

Bread has been called the Staff of Life, and rightly so. It is so simple, yet hardly a food more satisfying can be found. If you haven’t read the article about soaking grains, then I suggest you do so now so you will understand why I’m focusing on sourdough breads today.

I think the best thing about a sourdough is the fact that it doesn’t require the adding of yeast. In making this variety of bread, the baker can raise it naturally with it’s own yeast as our forefathers did for thousands of years before us. To accomplish sour leavening, you first require a ’starter’, as it is called. This is basically fermentation, which as you have read in the soaking grains article, releases the nutrients in the grain and destroys the anti-nutrients which would otherwise limit our ability to digest and absorb this most delicious foodstuff. That’s why sourdough breads such as Rye are my favorite breads! The stuff you buy at the store can be just as good and nutritious as home-baked bread, you just need to look for a few things before buying it. These things are: the lack of enriched/white flour and preservatives (quality breads use whole grains!); the lack of sugar, corn syrup and other useless sweeteners (quality breads which have been sweetened should typically contain molasses or honey); and generally you should purchase orgainic, naturally produced breads. Nothing tastes better than real bread from a bakery or your own oven. Mass produced breads are made quickly with various ‘cheats’ that accelerate the breadmaking process. This may not always be harmful, but it certainly isn’t optimal and shows a lack of care on the part of the manufacturer, and a certain level of impatience on the part of the educated consumer. Having patience with food preparation shows that you care enough about yourself to take the time and care to do things right, such as preparing oatmeal instead of microwaving a packet of instant-crap.

If you’re like me, and you enjoy the feeling of doing things yourself, then here’s a simple beginner’s method to create a delicious whole-grain sourdough bread!
First, we need to create the ’starter’, which is simply a mixture of flour and water. It is naturally filled with beneficial bacteria and yeast. It’s actually alive, and kept that way in your fridge. Many bakers have been using pieces of their original starter for years! Here’s how we’ll go about it:

• Select an appropriate container for your starter! This is very important to me for some reason. Glass is optimal. Metal can be reactive and may ruin your starter, which is why you should also use wooden utensils with it as well. Try to avoid plastic if you can. Your container must have a lid, although a plate or something over the top will suffice. This will be ‘living’ in your fridge for as long as you keep baking your own bread, so choose something that fits well and doesn’t take up all of your shelf space.
• Get yourself some stone-ground whole wheat flour. Mix a cup of this with a cup of water, then put it into your container without the lid, use a towel or cloth instead. People that use crappy ingredients such as white flour need to add yeast to ‘boost’ the process. This is not necessary, and is considered a hack way of getting by. Your starter will make it’s own yeast, which is a single-cell fungus that breaks down the starches in wheat flour, forming sugar (no, not the kind that makes you fat). When the yeast works on the starch and sugar molecules, it gives off carbon dioxide gas and alcohol, just like in beer making. Yeast is what makes the bread rise; without it, bread would be considered unleavened, or flat like a cracker or pita. Use quality ingredients! Keep your starter in a warm area (room temp, around 70 degrees works well) I keep mine on the counter. Simple. Try not to keep it above 90 degrees, or you will kill it!
• Feed your starter every day when you get up or get home from work, whatever works best for you. The way you do this is to first throw half of it away (yes, you read that right) and then you add a half cup of flour and half cup of water. You do this every 24 hours and anywhere from a few days to a week (sometimes less, sometimes more) you should start getting lots of bubbles in your mixture. You’ll also notice it smells like sour beer – don’t panic – that’s a good thing and means it’s working! After this stage just put it in the fridge with your lid on it. I don’t clamp down my lid, but leave a bit of a slit so air can enter and leave the container. If you’re using a plate for a lid, just move it to the side a bit. If you’re using a mayo jar, just poke a hole in the cap. Now you only need to feed your starter once a week or week and a half.You may notice that as time goes by, your starter sometimes acquires a brown, watery liquid on the top that smells like beer. Well, this is just a fermented solution which is nothing to worry about. Yes, it’s alcoholic but NO, do not drink it! You can stir it back into the mixture or pour it out, doesn’t matter which. It’s harmless.

The reason you don’t end up with a moldy mess, or a bowl full of harmful bacteria is because the starches in grains are hard for other bacteria to deal with, which something like the sugars in a glass of apple juice are easily digested. Yeast (which is bacteria) produces special enzymes which can easily handle these starches, and it also produces alcohol and lactic acid which kills off other bacteria. In short, soaking your grains or making sourdough starter will NOT get you ill.

Once you have your starter, you aren’t limited to certain kinds of bread. You can make any kind of sourdough bread your little heart desires: Rye, wheat, whatever. Most recipes call for ‘proofing’ your starter. To do this you make a ’sponge’ or ‘poolish’ out of it by taking a portion of your starter out of the fridge and feeding it for a day or two on the counter until you get a bubbly, foamy ‘proof’ that the yeast are in fact alive and well. Here’s an easy recipe for you:

Take your starter out of the fridge and put it in another, preferably glass, container. If you wanted to keep this starter alive for future use, simply double the ingredients in the steps above for creating it in the first place. Add a cup of warm water and a cup of flour to your starter. When it starts to get a froth and smells funky, it’s ready. Keep it out longer if you want more intense flavor in your final product. Everyone’s starter is going to take a different amount of time to proof. There’s just so many variables. Some proof in an hour, some proof in a day. I find the best thing to do is to put it out at least 8 hours before you plan to bake, just so you don’t wake up or come home from work surprised that your planned baking session is ruined because your starter is not yet ready!

Here’s what you need to make the actual bread, it’s simple and should suit you fine until you’re ready to experiment:

• 1 cup of ‘proofed’ starter
• 2 1/8 cups of fine-ground, unbleached whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (theoretically better than table salt)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or butter. I prefer butter, olive oil makes a moister final product and keeps longer though.
• If you want sweeter bread, add 1 TABLEspoon of honey or molasses.

I find it easier to put everything save for the flour into a bowl, mix it together, and then add the flour one cup at a time. Once you’ve made sure everything is THOROUGHLY mixed, plop it onto a floured surface (a large cutting board works well and is easy to clean up). Knead it well until it passes what bakers call the ‘windowpane test’. Basically, you break off a piece of dough about the size of a walnut and pull it from all sides to form a thin sheet that light can pass through. It ought not tear or separate. Obviously, it’s not going to be paper thin and you wont be able to see things through it, but it should “light up” when you hold it to a window or lamp. It should take about 10 minutes of kneading to pass the test, longer if you’ve doubled the recipe. Sometimes I cheat by putting my dough into my breadmaker and setting it for a 15 minute “knead only” cycle. The dough should soak up flour from the surface you’re kneading on until it gets a lot less sticky. If need be, add more flour sparingly. You don’t want a big clump of dough that doesn’t adhere to itself and which falls apart.

Let your dough rise in a warm place, like a bowl covered with a towel. If you did it like I sometimes do with the breadmachine on the dough cycle, let it rise in the machine. It should pretty much double in size by the time it’s done. Once you can make a shallow dent into the top of your dough and it doesn’t spring back, it has risen. Knead it a bit more and put it on a baking sheet. You can lightly grease it, but I’m experimenting with putting it on the sheet lightly sprinkled with ground oatmeal. Some use cornmeal, which I prefer not to. You can even be creative and traditionally ’slash’ the top of the bread with a knife.

Put it into the oven at 350 degrees WITHOUT preheating it. Check it after 30-45 minutes. If it’s quite brown, reduce the temp to 325. If it’s pale or light brown, jump it to 375. Remember which temp worked best for you for your next loaf. It’s often pretty experimental, and nothing with cooking is EVER set in stone, so to speak. After another 15 minutes, check it to see if it’s done. An easy way is to lift it from the sheet and stick a thermometer in the bottom. It ought to be done when it reaches 190-200 degrees F inside. If it’s done, set it somewhere to cool.

As you can see, bread can take time to make, so if you’re pressed for time I suggest you do it with a breadmaker or on a weekend. Either way, it’s easy and really freakin’ fun to do! . There are TONS of breadmaker sourdough recipes on the internet and in bookstores. Bread making is one of the oldest culinary arts, and it’s truly rewarding both nutritionally and mentally. Breaking a fresh loaf, watching it steam and spreading some butter on it… damn, I wish I had one right here! There’s NOTHING like fresh bread to brighten my day, especially in the Autumn and Winter months!

I hope this helps you select better bread in the future, Enjoy!