Nearly everyone at Steelworks Strength Systems knows my love of fermented foods.
From kimchi (fermented cabbage) to kefir (fermented milk drink), these types of treats have amazing health benefits. How? Our bodies, particularly our guts, are home to millions of bacteria which our bodies have evolved with for tens of thousands of years. Our gut bacteria help us gain access to more nutrients from the food we eat. They also communicate with our body’s immune system and fight to keep us protected from nasty germs.
Now you might be shocked to hear this, but I love bread. I eat bread. Not all of the time, but definitely on my rest days from training. The only problem is that I feel a little sluggish afterwards.
After watching Michael Pollan’s documentary, #Cooked, I came across a method for making bread that utilizes the power of bacteria. Traditional sourdough bread dates back thousands of years. The bread gets its tartness from the natural fermentation process of microbes mixing with wheat flour and water. Normally, we use fast acting yeast to help our bread rise and therefore be ready to bake, but this cuts out the important step of slow fermentation which allows good bacteria to fuse with the flour and water and begin to break down the wheat and allow us access to more of the food’s nutrients.
What you see in this video is me preparing my sourdough “starter”. It’s simple, but it takes a couple of days. Simply mix flour and water together and let it sit out until it starts to naturally bubble. During this time mix the starter with a fork or whisk to get air (which includes bacteria and fungi) into the dough as much as possible throughout the day. According to Pollan, the starter should be ready in 4-6 days. Once it is all bubbly, you simply add a couple of tablespoons of it to the full amount of flour and water you are using to make a loaf of bread.
This is day 2 and the starter is already starting to change in smell and consistency! Stay tuned here and follow the progress!
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