Wholehearted Homestead presents our favorite Sourdough Bread recipe and Sourdough starter care. We did try lots of different recipes and techniques to be able to say this is our favorite recipe. Sourdough bread is said to be a more easily digestible bread for those sensitive to to gluten products. This holds true for me, I do find this bread easier to digest than supermarket varieties, this is not scientifically proven so for respect for those with gluten sensitivity I am attaching a link from the Beyond Celiac website . I reviewed this info and seems to offer sound advise on baking your own gluten free Sourdough Bread

At our Wholehearted Homestead we love to eat home made, fresh baked, sourdough bread. We try to limit processed foods and other low energy foods. Leaning towards more fresh fruits and vegetables whole grains and beans. Sourdough bread is our favorite bread and we are happy to share our recipe with our Monica Lee Wellness/Wholehearted Homestead online family.

Wholehearted Sourdough Starter directions:

What you will need to start:

-pint sized mason jar with lid,

-cloth cover,

-50 grams spring water or tap water let to sit overnight

-50 grams of unbleached flour

-50 grams of starter

Once you receive your starter you will want to feed it right away. For the initial feeding transfer the starter to a pint sized jar add starter, flour and water and mix completely so all four is moistened, cover opening of jar with this cheese cloth or any cut up thin cloth and secure with metal ring from lid. Let sit in warm/room temperature space overnight. Starter should double in size and then start to deflate in jar. This is expected. For the second and subsequent feedings remove half of the starter from the jar and either gift this extra starter to a friend or throw out (I will post more on what to do with left over starter in future blogs). The formula is to add equal parts water and flour to the amount of starter on hand 1:1:1. this process activates the starter for bread making. I do this for about 3-4 days in a row to get the starter in an active state and ready to become bread.

The other starter state is relatively dormant I call it sleeping starter and how I store sleeping starter when I am not planning on making bread for a while (week or so). To let the starter sleep I put the starter jar in the fridge with the complete cover on it not just the open cloth cover and feed it the same way , using same proportions of flour and water but only once or twice a week, I don’t recommend going longer than 7 days without feeding because I have lost starter that way.

A few tidbits about Sourdough bread making that have proven to be important in making successful sourdough are as follows:

-Use spring water or tap water that has set out overnight, Sitting the water at room air overnight will allow some harmful chemicals in tap water to dissipate. I have a spring water cooler that delivers hot and cold water so I mix to make warm water for feeding the starter

-Use organic unbleached flour if using white flour, I have tried using various types of wheat flour but our family likes the white version best so that is what we make. Unbleached because the bleach will interfere with the natural yeast growth. Organic because we love organic.

-Measuring by grams is ridiculously important. I am NOT a detail oriented person. I don’t usually measure things, love, peace, let it be, no worries, Ill just wing it is more my style, lol. But for this bread, if I want it to cooperate I have to play by its rules, unwavering submission to the sourdough law. Get a kitchen scale.

- I swear by my cast iron dutch oven as sourdough bread baking necessity. The bread will still come out awesome in any covered pan set up but for that most awesomest loaf I recommend the cast iron dutch oven

-Lastly, my loves, take a deep breath, let your shoulders drop down from around your ears, let the corners of your mouth turn up into a smile. Take another deep breath and exhale slowly , slower, even slower….. gaze into the eyes of someone you love or picture the face of your love for a moment. Now you are ready, infuse your bread with this energy and it will be fabulous, the best bread you have ever tasted.

Wholehearted Homestead Sourdough Bread Recipe

in large bowl mix

100 g Wholehearted Homestead Sourdough starter

100 grams of warm water

100 grams of flour

mix thoroughly and set in warm spot covered for about 2 hours or until this super starter gets nice and bubbly you will know,

then add:

200 grams water

300 grams of flour

mix and let sit for 1 hour

Then add 2 teaspoons of salt to 200 grams of warm water to dissolve mix this into dough, then add 300 grams of flour and mix completely let sit for half hour

Now every half hour for about 5-6 times lightly kneed dough in bowl with stretch and pull method releasing one side of the dough from the side of the bowl and pulling it up gently and folding it in on top of itself, rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat on each side of the dough then let sit for half hour covered in warm spot

After the last kneading session heavily flour a clean dry resting bowl for the dough. They sell specific resting bowls for sourdough that has ridges that give the finished product its signature look but honestly you can use and floured bowl. I give the dough one final pulling to shape it into a tight ball and place it in the floured resting bowl. Flour it more than you think is necessary you can’t over flour here. Flour the top of the dough too and lightly cover with kitchen towel and let rest in fridge overnight.

The next morning take dough out of fridge, place both lid dutch oven base and lid or whatever pan you are going to use for baking in oven and set oven to 450 degrees. Heating up pans help make crispy crunchy crust. After about half hour of preheating remove base pan dust with cornmeal or flour and turn dough onto pan. Make a couple thin superficial cross marks on top of dough to help release steam from dough while cooking and create cool markings on final loaf, sometimes I slice my initial or a big X. They sell special sourdough razor devices for this but a sharp kitchen knife works fine too. Before placing in oven cover with either preheated top of dutch oven, or if you are not using the dutch oven an aluminum foil tent can work leave about double the space of the dough to account for the bread rising in your tent. Let cook a half hour remove pan from oven, uncover and place loaf back in oven at 450 for another 10 minutes this will help crisp up the top of the loaf.

After 40-45 minutes of cooking remove loaf from pan and set on wire rack to cool, best not to cut into it until it is totally cooled. The bread needs this time to continue to cook, resist the temptation to cut into the bread too early or you will end up with a sticky, unappetizing loaf. So resist the temptation my loves.

We hope you enjoy this humbly shared gift. We love feedback, comments and pictures. Please feel free to respond with any questions we are happy to respond.