These days I do more baking than cakes, especially all kinds of sourdough breads, as people think it’s healthier than the ordinary commercial white bread. What’s the sourdough bread? – A sourdough bread recipe needs just 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt, and naturally occurring live, or wild yeast. The easy, but long process of fermenting and rising gives sourdough bread a unique texture and beautiful shape.
The starter begins by mixing flour and water and allowing it to ferment at least for 2 weeks, feeding the starter with more flour and water each day. This process lasts about two weeks until the live yeast and lactic acid bacteria in the flour have properly leavened, and then part of the starter can be added to bread dough.
How healthy is sourdough bread?
Here I got some details how healthy is sourdough bread, just for your information. According to the source USDA (US Department of Agriculture) a slice of sourdough stacks up very nicely against conventional white bread in terms of protein, vitamin and mineral content, as well as the presence of prebiotics. Here’s the nutritional breakdown for one medium slice (64g) of sourdough bread: Calories: 170; Fat: 1.5g; Saturated Fat: 0g; Carbohydrates: 33g; Sodium: 390mg; Fiber: 1g; Sugar: 3g; Protein: 7g; Calcium: 2%; Potassium: 2% DV; Iron: 15% DV…
The sourdough bread has a great source of several minerals (iron, selenium…), several B vitamins and the lactic acid bacteria produced during fermentation, it remains even during baking process and provides the benefits – safeguarding our body against illness. And one slice of sourdough has more protein than an egg…So, today I’m sharing another sourdough bread, more healthy, more nutritional – multi-seed sourdough bread!
Step 1 Preparation for the Poolish (the sponge)
- Sourdough starter 100 gr.
- Whole wheat flour 100 gr.
- Filtered or bottled water 100 gr.
Mix all together at least 10 hours before bread-making or overnight in the room temperature, we need to look after it carefully, don’t leave it over rise. As I use the whole wheat flour – rising process takes longer time (slightly over 10 hours).
Step 2 Preparation for sourdough bread
- The Sponge / Poolish 300 gr (that was prepared earlier)
- Bread flour 360 gr.
- Whole wheat four 100 gr.
- Water 230 gr.
- Vegetable oil 10 gr.
- Kosher salt 9 gr.
- Seeds and nuts 50 gr. (up to our choice)
After the first 50 minutes – we start to fold by stretching the dough, gently take one edge of the dough and fold it onto the top of the dough. Turn our bowl to the opposite side and do the same thing. Continue with the other two edges in the same way.
After we fold 4 edges, we flip the dough upside down. We leave the dough at the room temperature, cover it and wait for another 50′ for 2nd fold. We do totally four folds and the total time – around 3 hours and 20 minutes.
Mixing all ingredients —-50′ rest—-1st fold—-50′ rest—-2nd fold—-50′ rest —3rd fold —50′ rest—4th fold and cover it in seeds — refrigerator
After nearly 3 hours and 30 minutes at the room temperature, now time to cover the dough with our favorite seeds: sesame, water melon, pumpkin, sunflower, kernels, linseeds…, natural almond and dried shredded coconut. Do wet the dough a little bit so the seeds will easily stick to the dough.
Cover the proofing basket with some cloth and leave it in the refrigerator until next day or at least 10 hours before baking. Next day bake it right from the fridge, at 250°C for 35 minutes. At home I do bake my bread in Le Creuset, it helps the dough to rise beautifully. And don’t forget to slash the top with a razor or sharp knife before the oven.
The flavor, the texture is simply awesome.The crunchy from outside, especially with all roasted seeds, we can feel their fragrance…The whole bread has been sent away, right after baking, to my friend, so I couldn’t slice it, I’m sure my friend loves it.
Le petit renard 