Sourdough Rye Bread for your Health

Sourdough Bread is not only delicious, but also highly nutritious.  

Our first sourdough rye bread attempt

According to Kitchen Stewardship, Sourdough rye bread in particular is noted scientifically to be the most nutritious of them all. 

Sourdough is a fermented food. 

Fermented foods provide the body with good intestinal flora, and aid in digestion.

This is very good news for someone who is off wheat and yeast breads.

And to top it off, sourdough rye bread is the most tasty of them all –  in my opinion.

By the way, does anybody know of a restaurant in Abbotsford, Vancouver or the lower mainland, where I can get a 100% Sourdough rye bread, sandwich?

That would more than make my day.

How does Sourdough bread  improve nutrition? By…

• pre-digesting starches, making the bread more easily digestible
• lowering insulin response/improving glucose tolerance
• protecting Vitamin B1 from the damage of the heat of baking
• breaking down gluten, which may result in a bread that gluten-sensitive people can eat
• activating phytase to hydrolyze (dissolve) the phytates, thus freeing up minerals such as:
  • zinc
  • iron
  • magnesium
  • copper
  • phosphorus

Last week, my husband and I decided to make sourdough bread.

Monday my husband started our sourdough starter.

• 1/2 cup rye flour and enough pure water to make a gooey mixture
• Mix and put it into a glass bowl
• Place it in the oven with the light on, cover  with a cloth and let sit
• Stir a couple of times a day and feed it every day by adding  1/4 cup flour and enough water to keep the same consistency – continue to let it ferment

Initially it looks like nothing is happening, but in a day or so it will start to bubble and get larger. It has now attracted natural yeast from the air and the environment. It will have a good sour smell.

Three days later our starter was bubbly and ready to use.

To keep the starter growing, add a little flour and water everyday and let sit on the counter. If you are not going to bake for a week or so, put into the fridge to slow the process down. Take out and let grow a few days before making the bread.

Here’s how we made our sourdough bread.

We took about half of the starter for the bread recipe.  Then transferred the remaining sourdough starter to a jar, and fed it once more. It will continue to grow and we will continue to feed it, until we make another loaf of bread.

The RECIPE is simple

Sourdough Rye Bread Recipe

• Put  4 cups rye flour into a bowl
• add 1/2 tsp salt and blend
• Put 1 cup pure water in a bowl and add 1/4 cup olive oil
• To liquid add 1 cup sourdough starter
• Slowly add liquid  to flour
• Add more pure water until you have a dough that you can roll and kneed.
• Place into pan
• Set oven for 400 degrees and bake for 15 minutes.
• Egg wash the crust at this time if you wish. (take an egg, blend it well and brush lightly onto the top of your loaf)
• Turn heat down to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes – 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean when you stick it into the loaf.
• Let cool for about 1/2 hour before slicing

Kneading the dough

Our first attempt was satisfactory.

Dough ready for the pan

Our 100% sourdough rye bread

Sourdough rises much slower than yeast breads. I think we should have let it rise longer. We let it rise about 3 hours. We’ll have to figure this one out.

I do like the consistency and the taste is excellent.

We forgot to add salt… but a little butter took care of that. Next time.

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