Simple Whole Grain Sourdough Bread Recipe
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Sourdough bread benefits
Switching to a sourdough bread is one of the healthiest choices we can make regarding our diet. Sourdough is the bread of ancient times, people have been eating it for thousands of years and receiving its benefits.
When I talk about sourdough bread, I am talking about whole wheat, or other whole grain bread, not sourdough made with bleached white flour.
Regular bread is leavened using traditional baker's yeast, saccharomyces cerevisiae, which does not bring our bodies same benefits as sourdough bread does. Sourdough bread on the other hand, has a wide range of different beneficial bacteria and yeasts which leaven the bread and pre-digest gluten, making it easier for the digestive system to process gluten and to make sure it will not "leak-out" into the blood stream undigested, causing gluten allergy. Nutrients such as magnesium, zinc and iron in naturally fermented, sourdough breads are more bio-available for our bodies, than these same nutrients in regular breads.
Sourdough starter is what is used to produce a sourdough bread. Starter contains live beneficial bacteria and yeasts. Starter will need to be purchased in the beginning, then the same starter can be reused indefinitely, all you will need to do to keep it alive, is to store it in the fridge and add a little bit of water and flour to it once in a while. I had my sourdough starter for about 4 years now.
Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Starter
Before making this sourdough bread recipe, please take your starter out of the fridge, measure 2 cups and leave it on the kitchen counter to get activated, for about an hour. Make sure you left starter for the next batch, and added 2 cups of non-chlorinated water and 2 cups of whole grain flour to it, and put it back in to the fridge. Always keep your starter in the glass jar, not plastic or metal.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of liquid sourdough starter
- 1.5 Tbs of liquid honey
- 1 tsp of sea salt
- 1/2 cup of warm soy milk (or regular milk)
- 2 Tbs of grape seed oil or light olive oil
- 3 cups of whole wheat flour
- 1 egg yolk (to spread on top of the bread before baking)
Instructions:
1. Mix together sourdough starter, honey, salt, oil and warm milk.
2. Mix together flour and the sourdough mixture .
3. Kneed well, until everything is completely mixed.
4. Spray oil onto a glass bowl, place sourdough in it and lightly cover with cling plastic wrap, make sure wrap will not touch the dough when it will rise. Leave it to rise for at least 6 hours, I leave it overnight, I found this to be the best way to do it. I make the dough before going to bed and leave it to rise until the morning.
5. After 6-10 hours, lightly kneed the dough again, to help release the gas bubbles which were formed in the dough and to "feed" the active components of the dough.
6. Place into the greased loaf pan, spread egg yolk over the to of the bread, this will give your bread very beautiful top crust.
7. Leave sourdough to rise for the last time, in the warm place, until it doubles in size, about an hour.
8. Bake for 35 minutes at 370 F.
Enjoy your tasty bread and it's health benefits!
