Can you believe we are in the first week of march?! I can’t either. Time is going so fast. We are still waiting on our formal orders for our move this summer, a big transition we are really looking forward to! Kansas has been okay, but we are excited about the next adventure! As we wait out our time here, I continue to master my new hobby of getting started with sourdough baking. It’s been a journey, to say the least! Many of you have followed along on all my ups and downs on my Instagram stories, and every time I share a recipe, I get tons of questions about it.
While I am no pro, I thought I’d share a few insights on getting started with sourdough
The Love-Hate Relationship on Getting Started With Sourdough:
- Homemade Adventures: I’ve been on a mission to make more foods from scratch, and sourdough seemed like the perfect addition.
- Learning Curve: Let me tell you, there’s been quite the learning curve. It’s like a puzzle figuring out the right starter conditions, temperature, water quality, and humidity.
- Time Investment: Sourdough doesn’t play around when it comes to time. It takes patience and dedication. Get distracted and forget to feed your starter one night? You won’t have bread for two more days. It’s a process.
- Delicious Rewards: But when you finally pull that loaf out of the oven—wow, it’s delicious. There’s something special about serving homemade bread to your loved ones.
Health Benefits of Sourdough:
- There is no yeast in sourdough, it rises from the natural fermentation you help conduct. In that process, the fermentation produces prebiotics, the bacteria that help support your gut and digestion.
- While it’s not gluten free, the fermentation breaks down the gluten (proteins) in the dough. Many people tolerate sourdough better, and find it easier to digest because of the significantly lower gluten levels. Since it’s not 100% gluten free, if you have celiac disease, a gluten sensitivity, or allergy, I would NOT advise you to try sourdough.
- Sourdough has a slightly lower glycemic index (a measurement of how fast a food will impact your blood sugar) as compared to white bread. Meaning it shouldn’t impact your blood sugars as much as white bread.
- Anytime we can control the ingredients in an item, the healthier it will be!
So, while the sourdough process might drive me a little crazy sometimes, I can’t deny the satisfaction of creating something tasty and wholesome for my family!
Recipes for Getting Started with Sourdough:
Here are a few of my favorite recipes and sites I’ve learned from so far:
- Basic Sourdough Bread: This blog post and recipe on Clever Carrot is a great intro to getting your starter ready and making a basic sourdough loaf.
- Sourdough Bagels: My absolute favorite from Little Spoon Farm!
- Discard Waffles: I adjust this recipe from Pantry Mama slightly to make it dairy free (using avocado oil instead of butter and almond milk instead of milk), but we double/triple this recipe regularly and it’s a staple breakfast here.
- Discard Banana Bread: I cut the sugar in half for this recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafeand it still was amazing and a huge hit for the entire family!