My Sourdough Bread Adventure

My Sourdough

My mom baked bread (yeast bread) ever since I can remember and she always included me in the process. From the time I was old enough to see over the counter I helped with making many different kinds of breads including challah, bagels, dinner rolls and wholewheat loaves. Mom keeps a sourdough starter in the fridge which we often use to flavor doughs or make cake batter more moist. I love baking. I’m grateful for this experience.

Discovering Sourdough

I found there are two types of bread baking: dry yeast and sourdough leaven. Baking with store bought dry yeast is easier because the rise is predictable. The living organism is handled in a factory somewhere. However true sourdough (without added yeast) has been a completely differently experience for me. It’s up to me—the baker, the artist—to interact with the living aspects of the leaven which makes the bread rise. True sourdough, without yeast, is so volatile and ever-changing.

Before I started making sourdough bread, I found myself losing interest in bread in general. The bread I used to like had begun to taste boring and made me feel lethargic after eating it. As fate would have it, when Covid-19 hit town, all the bread yeast disappeared from the grocery stores. So, I decided I would hack making genuine sourdough bread.

Mom had often said that baking at this altitude is tricky and that many recipes just don’t work here. She was right. It took me several weeks of adjusting rising timelines, salt amounts and different types of flour until I pulled the perfect loaf out of the oven. I have never been as excited as I was the first time I lifted the lid of the dutch oven to see a well-risen loaf of bread with a beautiful sourdough crust. I could never have anticipated the experience of falling in love with bread all over again.

The thing that makes genuine sourdough bread better than other breads is the fermentation process. Sourdough leaven is what makes the bread rise. It is a carefully-kept, daily-fed, flour and water mixture that develops a complex culture of natural yeasts and bacteria called lactobacilli. This naturally occurring process is found in other foods like kombucha, vinegar, pickles, cheese and yogurt and is now understood to be a necessary component of healthy digestion and nutrient uptake.

The Pursuit of Quality

I’m a strong believer in knowing where my food comes from. It is important to me that the ingredients I use come from healthy pesticide-free sources, even if they are not “certified organic.” My wheat flour comes from NAPI (Navajo Pride Flour). I use purified reverse osmosis water and pure sea salt. The sesame seeds are from an organic source.

Labor of Love

It takes a full 24 hours to make a great loaf of bread, but the work is not labor intensive. Recently I moved my bakery to a kitchen that is exclusively set aside for this purpose. I hope to add other products to my bake list soon, like cookies and buttermilk buns. But sourdough will always be my own personal favorite. :)

My Sourdough Bread Adventure

The Geeky Fermentation Stuffs

Phytic Acid prevents nutrient uptake

Phytase Enzyme facilitates and breaks down phytic acid allowing nutrient uptake

The leaven in sourdough fermentation introduces an enzyme known as Phytase. This enzyme is used for breaking down something in grains and legumes called Phytic Acid. Phytic acid is known for depleting the human body of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron in your digestive tract. This is because it has strong binding properties (as it’s purpose in seeds is to store phosphorous for the initial germination). Ruminant animals (cows, sheep, goats) have the enzyme phytase in their digestive tract naturally enabling them to digest phytic acids without the aid of pre-fermentation. Because of this, the phytic acid in grains does not deplete ruminant animal’s minerals as it does in humans. Monogastric animals’ (humans, pigs, bears) digestive tracks lack the enzyme phytase. The fermentation process in sourdough bread activates the yeasts and introduces the enzyme phytase which begins breaking down the phytic acids before you ever eat it!

Phytic acid also inhibits enzymes in the digestive tract that are necessary for breaking down gluten and sugars. This is why some people experience digestive problems after eating wheat products.

So, should we just all stop eating bread? Not at all, and here’s why: Sourdough bread ends the story differently. Sourdough leaven is a changing growing culture of many different strains of yeast that naturally live on the surface of fruits and grains and a symbiotic bacteria of lactobacilli (the bacteria culture found in yogurt). This culture breaks down the phytic acid and restructures the starches and proteins, releasing those bound micronutrients your body needs that would otherwise have been discarded with the phytic acid that your body couldn’t digest. The phytase in the leaven strains found in sourdough use the carbohydrates to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. Ethanol is further used by the bacteria cultures, which in turn produce lactic acid. The off gassing carbon dioxide becomes trapped in the stretchy dough. This is where the rise comes from. The acidity created by the lactobacilli is good for the yeast but inhospitable to other organisms.

The restructuring process also breaks down sucrose and lowers the bread’s glycemic index by almost 20 points. The presence of fiber and the breakdown of sugars greatly reduces blood sugar spikes. The result is the satisfied feeling of having eaten something you both needed and enjoyed.

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