How to Make Your Own Sourdough 

You are likely familiar with sourdough bread and its deliciously decadent “sour” taste. Bakeries often consider it an artisan or specialty bread and the chemistry required to make sourdough has perhaps lead you to believe that it is too difficult to make at home. Catching and cultivating air born wild yeast does not sound like it would be easy but it is actually quite simple to do. You can cultivate and keep your own sourdough starter for a variety of baking projects and enjoy the taste of gourmet sourdough in the comfort of your own home. It also has added benefits you may not have considered. Sourdough tastes great and it has some health benefits that make it a preferred ingredient for baking.

Sourdough is considered by traditional foods enthusiasts to be a healthier way to consume grains. Traditional diets often include fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi and fermented dairy such as kefir and yogurt. Sourdough is a fermentation process for grains. You may find that grains do not agree with you or someone in your family. Perhaps they are allergic to certain grains or have a gluten intolerance. Or you might even have or know someone with an auto-immune disease linked to grain consumption, like Celiac disease.

Grains are hard to digest, they are oft times nutritionally deficient due to factory processing, they are low in healthy fats, they contain phytic acid that can cause dental decay, and they have antinutrients that can leach nutrients from our food and create allergies and sensitivities. But how can fermenting our grains help with this? The sourdough process breaks down the antinutrients and phytic acid in the grains and renders them much easier to digest. It also enables our bodies to extract the nutritional elements it requires for optimum health. Using sourdough in our baking is not only a healthier way to eat grains it is a tastier way too!

How to Make Your Own Sourdough

Sourdough is made by letting a flour/water mixture sit on a countertop were it will interact with air born wild yeast and ferment or sour. The initial consistency is much like pancake batter and the process usually takes 4-5 days.

You need minimal equipment to make your own sourdough starter, just flour, water, and a canning jar. Mix 1 cup of high quality, whole grain flour with ½ cup lukewarm water. Let it sit for 24 hours. Soon you should start to see signs of life indicated by tiny bubbles. Feed your starter daily by adding a ½ cup of flour and a ¼ cup of lukewarm water. Use a spatula to scrape flour off the sides of the jar periodically. Do this for 4 more days and then you can start to remove some, as needed, for baking. Leave at least a ½ cup in the jar to keep your starter growing. Feed every day or several times a week if you plan to bake often. If you don’t plan on doing any baking you can put your starter jar in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Your sourdough will ferment quickly when house temperatures are warm and slower if they are cold.

Now that you know how to make your own sourdough enjoy making your own artisan breads as well as sourdough pancakes, waffles, muffins, tortillas, or even pizza.