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Experiments with Sourdough: Part One

Learning new things in the kitchen is one of my favorite pastimes. Sharing things I've made, using my hands to create and being challenged are some of the things that draw me into our little square kitchen to dink around.

One thing I've always been curious about but not made the effort to learn or make is sourdough. A crusty loaf of sourdough bread dipped in warm soup on a rainy fall day is always appealing to me. The process and time taken to make things using sourdough seems so meaningful and rich. And so, one day a couple of months ago, I did my research and made a starter. I mixed a little flour with a little water, fed it daily for a week and watched it transform into a fermented, living!, usable substance. 


In my research, I found that not only is sourdough a delicious addition to food, it has many health benefits as well! 

-Sourdough makes wheat flour more digestible: The long ferment and rising times of sourdough bread predigest the starches and breaks the gluten protein into amino acids. This makes them more digestible and much easier on your stomach. I have friends and family who cannot stomach gluten, yet can easily eat sourdough bread because of this fact. 

-As sourdough is fermenting, it produces acetic acid, which is a natural preservative and inhibits the growth of mold.

-Wild yeast and lactobacillus in the sourdough leaven prevent the effects of phytic acid by neutralizing it, thus making the many nutrients of sourdough available for our body. Phytic acid binds to nutrients, making them unavailable for our bodies. Sourdough neutralizes these effects. (This is also why it's important so soak nuts and grains before digesting.)

- Sourdough can contain folate, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin E, niacin, iron, manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, zinc and vitamins B1-B6 as well as B12. Bread that you find at teh store contains only a tiny amount of these things due to the process it is put through. 



My goal was (is) to make bread. After much research on doing bread well (none of this quick-and-easy sourdough bread stuff--I want that slow-rise crumb, crusty edges and deep flavor), I realized it is much more than just scooping a bit of my starter into a regular recipe. I still plan to make bread, but most of my days do not lend themselves to the time and thought required for such a venture. We have been traveling and hosting what feels like non-stop, so I decided to find other ways to be using my starter and learning about sourdough as it works with my daily life. 


So, I started with what I had and used sourdough in some of my typical meals. 

I tried sourdough pancakes and pizza crust! 

The pancakes were delicious. The first time I tried making them, my starter was a subtle taste. I had not fed it more than once a week. The next time I tried them, I fed my starter for 3 days straight before I made the pancakes. It was rich and active and the pancakes had a distinct sourdough taste. My family enjoyed them! The sourdough made them seem more flavorful, rich and hearty. 

Next, we made sourdough pizza! I really like this recipe. Next time, however, I would split the dough into three or four pizzas to make a very thin crust (this is just my preference). This is a recipe you start the night before, so be aware of that! 

Have you experimented with sourdough? What are your favorite things to make and eat? 

You can find all of my sourdough inspiration on my Pinterest board!

(I snapped a few quick iPhone photos of our pizza-didn't get any of the pancakes!)



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