Preparation time: 3 days
Difficulty: easy
Sourdough starter is used for baking bread, pastry, and desserts. Our grandmothers used the starter when baking bread long before the use of beer yeast, which, due to the quick rising process and thus shorter preparation, has quickly found its way into the pastry world.
We can simply describe the sourdough starter as fermented flour where, under ideal conditions, several types of bacteria - lactic bacteria and wild yeast that feed on sugar in the flour - develop.
Positive Effect of Baking with Sourdough
Sourdough bread belongs to fermented products, which have many positive effects on our body. This kind of bread isn't heavy for our stomach, we avoid sudden leaps of blood sugar, and the body digests it more easily thanks to long-term fermentation.
Baking with the sourdough starter has an even more important meaning for those of us who like to bake with whole grain wheat because this type of wheat contains many minerals, which are poorly absorbed into the body due to the phytic acid found in the husk. In order to neutralize the effect of phytic acid, the activation of an enzyme that degrades phytic acid and allows the absorption of nutrients is necessary. This enzyme is called phytase and is found in plants that contain phytic acid. Activation of the phytase enzyme and neutralization of phytic acid leads to lactic fermentation, i.e. fermentation, which does not occur in the production of quick-rising yeast bread.
Preparation of the sourdough starter
Ingredients:
200 g flour (any type)
200 ml water
Day 1
Mix 50 g of flour with 50 ml of water and leave it at room temperature until the following day.
Day 2
Add 50 g of flour and 50 ml of water into the starter, mix and leave at room temperature for a day again.
Day 3
You may already see bubbles in the starter on the third day. Add 100 g of flour and 100 ml of water, mix and leave at room temperature. The next day, the starter must contain clearly visible bubbles, which is a sign of fermentation caused by bacteria. This sourdough starter is now ready for further use.
Sourdough starter care
The starter is alive, and with years of maturing, it only enriches its taste and aroma. When the bacteria in the starter feed on sugars in the flour, the starter must be fed. I personally feed it once a week when I use it. Save the starter in a fridge. This will slow down the process of bacteria reproduction. You need to take it out of the fridge at least two days before using it. When the starter tempers and comes alive, feed it. The ideal ratio is to feed it with the same amount of flour and water to its weight. For example, if you have 200 g of sourdough starter, feed it with 100 g of flour and 100 ml of water. Then leave it to rest for 12-24 hours before use.
