Simple Steps to Healthy Living: Sourdough

A year ago this month, our family embarked on a real foods, traditional foods, Nourishing Traditions, Weston A Price Foundation way of eating. One of the first things we tried was sourdough. I got so excited about the idea of making homemade bread, chips, cookies, pancakes, waffles, you name it, with sourdough. Sourdough not only makes whatever you're eating more nutritious, it also breaks down the enzyme inhibitors found in whole grains that make our digestion more difficult.

this is your  goal! 

It's actually much easier than it might sound. Here's all you need:

flour

chlorine-free water

Again, for a girl who gets discouraged if there are more than 5-6 ingredients, this is right up my alley! And this is SIMPLE STEPS, right? :)  The goal is to get bubbles. Once you have bubbles, you know your starter is alive and that's the best feeling! I must confess, for the first month I had the starter, I think I was a bit more obsessed with it than I was my own children. I called it my 4th kid and I fed it with such love and excitement! Thankfully (especially for my family) my craziness with the starter has definitely settled down, but I still am so thankful for the nutrition and versatility my sourdough provides!

To get your own starter going, take 1/4 cup non-chlorinated water (if you live in the city like I do and know for sure you have chlorine in your water, place a jar of water on the counter for 24 hours and the chlorine will evaporate) and 3/8 cup flour. I use whole wheat (red or white) flour and if it's not organic, I make sure its non GMO.

Put the flour in a 2 cup canning or glass jar (glass peanut butter jars are a great option) and add the water. Stir vigorously for maybe 30 seconds and scrape down the sides (this is to prevent molding on the sides) and cover. You want to make sure you cover with a breathable material such as a paper towel or coffee filter so that the bacteria in the air can get that yeast growing.

Make sure your stirring is vigorous. This will get the air pockets in the mixture which will in turn assist in the souring process. You should start to see a bubble here and there within the first few hours or so...but if you don't see any, don't despair. It could take a little tender loving care to get going. If you tend to obsess like I do, you might want to begin your starter at night so that you don't check it every 15 minutes like I did! :) Hopefully you'll wake up the next morning to some bubbles!

Every 12 hours, you need to feed your starter. Remove half of the mixture and add another 1/4 cup water and 3/8 cup flour. Stir vigorously, scrape down the sides and cover. In 12 hours, repeat.

For the first couple of feedings, everywhere I read, it was recommended to toss the starter you remove. I did that for the first 3 days and then I was ready to make something. I started with sourdough pancakes. What a fun treat!

When you start to cook/bake with your starter, just make sure you feed the starter enough within the previous 12 hours to take out what the recipe calls for and leave enough starter to continue to feed and use.

See? That wasn't hard at all! Good luck! ;)


I'd love to hear if you try it and if you have success or failure!! 


And be sure to link up to my Simple Steps to Healthy Living Linky Party tomorrow!