Being gluten-sensitive, I thought I was going to have to ditch wheat for the rest of my life. Then I found sourdough.
My Journey Into Sourdough
Sourdough bread has become one of the best culinary delights to hit my table and my tastebuds in many months. Especially this artisan sourdough bread with its crusty outside and soft, moist interior. There isn’t much that can beat this staff of life!
Last June I made the decision to implement the gluten-free diet. I was suffering from indigestion, bloating, and headaches almost every single day, along with the aura of nausea and brain fog. It wasn’t fun. But like life sometimes does to you, this came on me slowly and I was just putting up with it . . . not realizing how bad it was until someone caught my attention.
Ditching wheat changed all that. I felt better than I had in months. My headaches went drastically down and my gut issues resolved themselves. And I was happy enough staying away from wheat – even if it was a pain eating out at restaurants or having to explain why I was not eating someone’s lasagna. When something makes you feel gross, you lose your desire to partake of it.
But then someone suggested I try sourdough bread. Real wheat sourdough bread. They said some gluten-sensitive people can tolerate it.
Thus began my journey into sourdough.
I purchased Rose Godfrey’s book, Sourdough Simplicity. I followed her instructions for beginning my own sourdough starter and followed her recipes. Hers were simple and the bread rose overnight, which was good for my gut. I found that I needed a long-rise sourdough for my gut to handle it properly.
But my bread was lacking a certain something. I was picturing artisan style bread with its crusty exterior and moist interior. So when someone gave me a recipe for 5-day sourdough bread that was kept in the fridge and then baked in a dutch oven . . . I was all for it!
I dove right in and began making loaves. I figured that of all the recipes, this one would surely work the best since it sat and fermented the longest.
The first loaf turned out pretty good although I had a hard time getting it all baked in the middle. And I tolerated it well. But then it started to go downhill from there. I struggled with the recipe, baking loaf after loaf, and feeding some if it to my chickens. It was losing its sourdough smell and some loaves never had it at all. It didn’t seem to rise at all and I was discouraged.
Then I began to realize I wasn’t feeling good again. My gut was bloated and painful. I quit all wheat until I felt good again and decided to re-evaluate what I was doing right or wrong. Since my bread wasn’t rising, perhaps my starter wasn’t working.
So I dumped the starter down the drain and began all over. It’s actually a really fun experiment to make your own starter! I love watching how it changes. But although I followed all the instructions very carefully, I realized my starter still didn’t look like what my research said it should. It wasn’t bubbly enough. It didn’t rise and fall in my jar after feeding it.
Perhaps I needed to feed it more often? So after dumping some, and then feeding and feeding some more, I finally got the perfect starter. It was awesome!! It still gives me wonderful feelings to stick my nose into my sourdough jar.
But it has taken much trial and error.
Here are the tips I use to help keep my starter alive and healthy:
- When I am not using it for several days, I store it in my refrigerator. Just put a lid and ring on the jar and let it sit in the fridge until you need it.
- A day or two before I need to bake bread, I will take it out of the fridge and let it warm up on the counter for about 12 hours.
- Then I feed it like crazy! I put in about 1/3-1/2 cup of flour and water each into my jar and stir it well. It usually sits on the kitchen shelf with a coffee filter on top so it can catch wild yeast from the air and breathe a bit.
- This feeding needs to happen every 12 hours for a very good starter. At least for me! I know it is alive and well when it has an extreme sour smell and it bubbles up the jar after I feed it.
These pictures will show you what I mean.
You can tell that the starter rose up the jar. I’ve read it needs to double in size, but mine never has and it is producing great loaves!
This right here. This is the stuff of happiness.
Honestly, if I want to make my day brighter, I go smell my starter. Isn’t that crazy? Perhaps it’s because I know how good it is for me and that my body can actually digest it. I know how yummy it is all toasted up with butter and jam slathered on it.
If you want to make your own starter, you can use Rose Godfrey’s recipe in her book. But if your starter is not bubbling by the eighth day, I would recommend not discarding any, just simply feeding it every 12 hours. OR you can google “make sourdough starter from scratch” and you will find multiple free recipes online. Cultures for Health has a recipe for making your own starter.
Once I got my starter looking like it did above, I then began to research more recipes on sourdough bread to find the one that worked for me.
I found it.
And I was happy.
It comes from An Oregon Cottage website. However, I tweaked it a bit to make it a longer rise fermentation. I have found that my body can digest bread better with a rising period of 24 hours or longer. And this is the recipe I will share with you tomorrow.
But now for the real question . . .
So Why Can Some Gluten-Sensitive People Handle Sourdough Bread?
This is a question that needs answered. And in my layman’s terms, the best I can say is that sourdough bread sits much, much longer than your active yeast bread that goes from flour to baked bread in a matter of two or three hours. When sourdough sits longer, it has time to begin breaking down some of the gluten within the bread, making it more easily digestible for some of us. This is the way bread used to be made, back before commercial bread baking and baker’s yeast came out. Back before we all expected everything to arrive instantaneously.
There are many health benefits to sourdough bread and much more that the microbes do to this bread. But I do not feel that I have researched enough to state these benefits, except that my own experience testifies these things are true. At least thus far. I honestly am still researching and learning.
However, one thing that really interests me is that sourdough bread is lower glycemic. Article here.
You will find much more information on the benefits of sourdough for normal people and gluten-sensitive people. I will share them with you.
Excellent articles on sourdough:
Why Sourdough Bread Is One of The Healthiest Breads
Why Some Gluten-Sensitive People Can Still Eat Sourdough Bread.
Why Is It That I Can Digest Sourdough Bread and Not Commercial Bread?
Giving Up Gluten? Why You Should Say Hello To Sourdough
Sourdough breadmaking cuts gluten content in baked goods
So there you have my journey into sourdough. My husband loves this bread on his sandwiches! And my children are learning to like it as well. Especially for toast.
What I am finding is that healthy changes do not come overnight, nor do they come without work and perseverance. But they certainly come with great benefits!
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glenda1969 says
Sourdough baking has becoming a favorite of mine.Cold-fermented biscuits and cinnamon rolls are wonderful.
Kendra says
That sounds awesome!!