Hello! It has been a long time! I want to give you a brief post on sourdough to share the method that I use and easy recipes that I make and have turned out well. If you are intimidated by sourdough and discard and finding time to do it all, this post is for you. If you struggle with digestion and have been wanting to try making sourdough for that reason, this post is also for you. This post isn’t about attaining the perfect rise, or making a beautiful product, but optimal digestion for health purposes as well as making it happen!
WHY SOURDOUGH?
Souring flours breaks them down to make them more easily digestible. For this reason, if you are making sourdough for the purpose of health, you should choose recipes that are fully fermented. Sourdough has gained much popularity which is great…BUT I encourage you to learn to discern if you are doing it for your health. Some things are labeled sourdough that are just sourdough flavored and not fully fermented. Some are partially fermented, then add in flour at the end that are not given enough time to fully ferment. Our world can be so confusing…so, I am here trying to help you know what to look for and also give you recipes that I have personally used which are fully fermented.
FLOURS
This is the other issue. Flours matter if you are doing this for your health. Any flour fermented is better than not…BUT, bleached flour is not as healthy if you are wanting to avoid synthetic chemical processing of your food. Organic is important if you are trying to avoid synthetic pesticides and herbicides in your food. Another thing to think about is genetic modification as well as selective breeding to the point of making flours with such high amounts of gluten, etc, that it is an issue to digest. For these reasons I use organic, whole ground spelt flour. I have used einkorn a long time ago and would also recommend that. I will be trying it again soon.
METHOD
I use a method which is easier and less maintenance than some. I use a starter which is really a dough kept in the fridge. It requires a little more forethought but has no waste, no discard, and is just so much easier for me. The method is from Elliott Homestead.
HOW TO START
Here is the recipe I use. You first make a dough. You can make it yourself or find a friend that has some already started to get 10 grams from. I am sure someone sells it too. I might consider doing that later if someone needs a spelt starter. Feel free to comment and I will consider cost. Otherwise you can go to Elliott Homestead’s website to find how to start it from scratch. We are not affiliated.
This is what your fridge dough starter will look like.
You take a hunk of this, 30 grams to be exact (I am doubling mine here) and put it in a bowl.
Next you clear your scale and add your water, then roughly mix with a fork.
After breaking up the starter into the water, clear your scale and add your flour. I use spelt for all my recipes currently. If you use a different flour, yours may look different.
Mix well and place in a jar. For a double Levain, I use a quart wide mouth canning jar. Whatever you use should be double the size of the levain for rising space.
For the recipe above, the “fridge dough starter” as I call it, will make 2 and 2/3rds of levain and leave 10 grams for refreshing your dough that resides in the fridge. So after I do the first double batch, I mix the 2/3rds recipe and place in a wide mouth pint canning jar.
This is all 3 of those things. You can see how different the starter dough looks. It is much thicker which is the beauty behind this method. The density slows down the fermentation process. Aka…you are less likely to ruin it 😉 I have left it from 1-3 weeks and it has been fine to use. I typically use it once a week. Sometimes a couple times a week. Sometimes I don’t get to it for two or three weeks. And it still works! No “feeding” because it is so dense and kept cool in the fridge. This is my experience with whole ground spelt. Yours may be different if you are using a different flour.
Here are a couple of close ups of the starter dough that lives in the fridge. All of the jars pictured will stay out at room temperature until poofed. They will double in size and be bubbly and active. A general timeframe might be half a day after starting them as I did here. Then, the dough will go back to live in the fridge until it is needed again. The levain, you will use at that point.
TRUSTED RECIPES
I am not affiliated with this site but want to share what has worked. What I love about these recipes, is the ease of them. I particularly love the overnight recipes and will post links here for those. These recipes are from Little Spoon Farm.
I make a double batch at least, cook, cool, slice and freeze. My family can then pull out a bagel whenever they like for toasting.
I make a triple batch of dough, cook each crust on a cast iron skillet, cool and freeze. These fit beautifully in a gallon bag. Depending on how thick you like your crust, you can fit two sometimes back to back. We can easily pop out a crust, let it thaw a few minutes, top, and broil for a quick meal. I do this one overnight too despite the recipe directions. It works great.
I make these for special occasions only but you could try making and freezing before the final rise. Then let fully thaw, and rise before baking.
I make these, cool, slice, and freeze.
BATCH COOKING
I try to make at least bread & pizza crusts once a week. I often also either make English muffins or bagels too. I usually make 3 loaves of bread, a triple batch of pizza dough. A double batch of bagels, etc. This allows all at once, stocks the freezer for a while. When we run out or get low, I make more. It keeps everything fresh without having to make multiple times a week which I do not care to do. The recipes I shared all can be started in the evening and made the next morning. It makes it so much easier!
I like to use batter bowls for my bread. I am searching for a new bread recipe which is why I didn’t post the one I currently use here. But here is a picture of what the bread dough looks like when folded. I use the steel bowls pictured below for pizza dough (biggest for triple batch), English muffins( middle sized) and bagels (big or middle for double or triple batch). They fit bigger batches nicely and the smaller one works for bread too.
I buy my spelt flour and others at Azure Standard. I am a new drop coordinator and am very excited about the company! We are switching most of our groceries over to them! More to follow on that soon!
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I hope this gives you an easier method that can work for you! I don’t recommend starting with batch cooking until you have done each recipe once first. Enjoy all the delicious things! Isn’t food beautiful!
