Sourdough Bread!

There is some joy in the kitchen because I am so excited that I have made my very own loaves of sourdough bread!!! Oh the feeling. And they were edible too which is also important ;) It is such an exciting step for me because I have been wanting to try baking my own sourdough bread and get a sourdough starter going for ages.. I wasn't sure if I would succeed. I have seen so many other real foodies on their blogs talk about how the make their own sourdough and have seen all these yummy recipes you can make with excess sourdough starter. I kept imagining freshly baked bread coming out from oven.. mmm.

Real sourdough bread (not the wannabe ones you probably find in most shops) is a traditional way of baking bread. Today in this 'I want it now' culture I feel we have swapped traditional nourishing ways of preparing food with quick alternatives which are no where near as good for our bodies. Commercial yeast, refined flours, rancid vegetable oils and lots of preservatives are basically what breads today are made from. Sourdough bread only needs water, flour, some starter and sea salt. Here is a lovely blog were you can see some of the benefits of why to eat sourdough:)
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/03/05/food-for-thought-health-benefits-of-sourdough/

The first step was to get a sourdough starter going. I tried this in the summer time and got one going after my third try with some rye flour. I was squealing with joy when I noticed after a few days the starter had doubled in size and was nice and bubbly! You see to make a starter you mix flour and water together and feed it a mixture like this every day and after a while it should start to bubble because of the wild yeasts and bacteria. I'm not sure how the chemistry of this all works but anyways this is how a sourdough starter is formed and you use some in the bread to make it rise and sour the bread. How cool is that!  Well my first starter lasted a week and ended up dying and I couldn't get another one going since. I wasn't sure if the temperature in my kitchen was not right of the flour I was using wasn't fresh enough. But recently I decided not to give up and and tried again and this time added a tablespoon of milk kefir whey to the mixture. I had read in places that this helped get the yeasts and bacteria in the starter going. And it worked!! This starter I have now  is made from wholemeal spelt flour. I have some in a little jar and feed it every day the same amount of flour and water that is in it. After a few days as it grows I have enough to make some bread and then save a little to start the process over again.

I can't wait to to dive into the world of making sourdough bread and learn how to become a real bread master haha. I use this seriously easy recipe from my Nourishing Traditions book which is essentially a no knead method and doesn't take much time at all. I do my work then leave the bread to do it's magic.