Bread has taken on a villainous reputation lately, and it's only slightly deserved. The carb police tell everyone that bread is evil and you should stay away, and we've all been told that if we ever do eat bread we should eat wheat bread, right? Well, the great hero of the bread world turns out to be good old sourdough.
The whole idea behind sourdough - real sourdough bread, at least - is that you use a starter that not only gives the bread its flavor but acts as the yeast as well. Starters gather natural yeast and bacteria from the air, so you don't actually add ANY yeast to the dough (or sugar, since you don't have to feed your artificial yeast). This is what people did for centuries before baker's yeast was invented. The downside to this system is it takes time - time to get your starter going, and then when you use it in dough, you have to let it sit for at least 12 hours to rise (THAT'S why the Jews didn't have time to let it rise before they left Egypt...). The upside, however, is that this allows the wheat to ferment properly, rather than in a fast forwarded system. The result? Sourdough is the easiest bread to digest, and results in the smallest increase in glycemic index. Much smaller than wheat bread, actually. And it has a much smaller chance of eliciting allergic reactions. People with food allergies - even gluten allergies - tend to be fine with sourdough. It turns out the "processing" in our bread comes not just from the flours, but from the high speed yeast.
Not that I'll never eat that bread again. I just try to have sourdough on hand as my go-to bread.
So I've been baking a lot lately. The trouble, however, is you need a good, living, active starter, which I don't have, because I've been lazy. If you don't get a good starter, then your bread will never rise. I've made a lot of flat bread lately. This website has a thorough explanation of how to make a starter - it's a multi-day process, and I'd like to believe once I'm settled in a new apartment I'll give it a try. You can also buy starters, which seems much more reasonable. Like borrowing someone's pet instead of creating and nurturing your own. I guess in that case you could just go buy some sourdough - but a lot of commercial bakeries don't have 12 hours for their bread to rise, so they just add baker's yeast. Everyone should try baking their own - if for no other reason, there's really nothing like homemade bread right out of the oven.
Here's a recipe I like. He mixes the flour manually; I sure like the dough hook on my kitchenaid.
Ingredients for two loaves:
1/4 cup starter
1 cup Whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups White bread flour
2 1/2 cups water
2 tsp Salt
Start by measuring the starter you'll need. Whisk the starter before measuring it, so you'll be measuring starter, not bubbles. Then whisk in the water, the whole wheat flour, and then the salt. Set aside the whisk, and get a wooden spoon. Add the white bread flour a cup at a time, stirring as you go. After a while, the dough will become too stiff to stir. At that point, pour it out onto your kneading surface. Make sure you have floured your work surface before you turn the bread out, and flour your hands before you start kneading. Knead the dough 15 to 20 minutes, or until it is resilient, springy, and passes the windowpane test.
Once the bread is kneaded, let it rest for 30 minutes. Then form the bread into baguettes, boules, or pan loaves. Cover the loaves and let them rise at room temperature until doubled in size, probably about 12 to 15 hours.
Once the loaves have doubled in size, it's time to preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the oven is at the right temperature - I use a thermometer to be SURE the oven is at the right temperature - slash the loaves with a razor blade, slide them into the oven, and put some water into a pan at the bottom of the oven. Allow to bake 45 minutes, or until the inside of the bread reaches 190 F. (Note - my kitchen is at 7,703 feet above sea level, which changes how bread bakes. At sea level, you may want to shoot for 205 F or so.)
Remove from oven, and let cool on wire racks before slicing - if your family will let you.
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