Goal #72 Try 100 new recipes (36/100): Sour Dough Whole Wheat Bread

I never thought I would be the person who bakes bread every week. A month ago I had never baked bread before in my life (dinner rolls, yes; bread, never). In a month I have made this bread recipe 3 times! The fact that the starter (your own yeast made from wheat and water that picks up yeasty bacteria from the air) has to be used and fed once a week or it doubles in size gives me motivation.

I recently read Deep Nutrition, which puts forth the idea that plants don't want to be eaten and thus have protective measures. Wheat's protective measure is that it isn't bio-available to humans unless it is soaked for hours. So you can either sprout your grains or use sour dough like in this recipe.

Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I do know that I like the ingredient list on this puppy (no sugar, no oil), and I like the taste. Especially when it's toasted, with butter and a scrambled egg on top. Mmm! In fact, that's what I'm eating for breakfast right now. :) 

Left: happy, bubbly, ready-to-use starter. Right: "fed" starter, before mixing

Dough ready to go

Left: pre-rise. Right: after rising 10 hours

Finished product!

No knead Sourdough Bread

-makes 2 loaves

1/4 cup fed and bubbly starter

5 cups flour (whole wheat or a blend of wheat and white)

2 teaspoons sea salt

3 cups water

Mix all ingredients together, then place in greased pans and let sit for 6-12 hours, until the dough has doubled in size. 

Bake for 30 min at 425

Notes on starter:

*Dont forget to leave about a tablespoon of starter out when you mix your bread dough so that you can feed it and store it for the next batch.

*You should store your starter in the fridge until you are ready to feed it for baking, at which point you leave it out on the counter

*Never seal off your starter completely, it needs oxygen

If you want to try it, let me know and I'll share starter with you!