The art of homemade sourdough: Tradition meets nutrition

Baking bread at home has become popular as a means of returning to traditional culinary practices. With growing awareness of food quality, many people prefer homemade sourdough bread. Thanks to the sourdough, rather than yeast, the bread boasts a unique taste and aroma that are absent in store-bought products. How to prepare a sourdough starter? The recipe involves only two ingredients, and the process is surprisingly straightforward.

You need very little to prepare a homemade sourdough starter—just some time and patience. Begin by gathering the basic ingredients: rye flour or spelt flour and water. The necessary tools include a one-litre jar and a wooden spoon. It's crucial that the jar is clean, ideally sterilised, to ensure the right conditions for fermentation.

Recipe for rye sourdough starter:

Ingredients:

      
• 100 grams of whole rye flour (type 2000) or 100 grams of whole spelt flour (type 2000 or 3000)
• 100 millilitres of warm water

Tools:

          
• One-litre jar (sterilised)
• Wooden spoon
• Linen cloth or cheesecloth

How to make sourdough starter:

1. Day 1: In a jar, mix 50 grams of rye or spelt flour with 50 millilitres of water until the mixture is smooth. Cover the jar with a cloth or cheesecloth and leave it at room temperature for 24 hours.
2. Day 2: Bubbles should appear on the surface. Add another 50 grams of flour and 50 millilitres of water. Mix, cover, and leave it for another day.
3. Days 3-4: Continue feeding the starter, adding the same flour and water daily. Mix well every time and cover.
4. Day 5: The sourdough starter should now be active, with numerous bubbles, and its volume should have significantly increased. You can now use the starter to bake rye bread or store it in the fridge, feeding it once a week.

Remember, a sourdough starter is a "living" culture and requires regular "feeding." If you don't use it for an extended period, always remember to add flour and water weekly.

Preparing a sourdough starter is a step towards traditional baking methods that offer health benefits and a unique taste. A sourdough starter, a mixture of flour and water, enriches the bread with probiotics through natural fermentation and reduces gluten content, making it more digestible. Baking bread at home is a return to roots and a unique opportunity to control the ingredients we consume and incorporate nutritional values that are not typically found in store-bought bread.