How to make bread with sourdough

It is increasingly common to consume bread made with sourdough. But what exactly is sourdough? Sourdough is nothing more than water and flour. A mixture that promotes the reproduction of bacteria and yeasts that are naturally found in flour or in the environment.

 When the flour is mixed with the water and allowed to stand for a while, the microorganisms begin to reproduce and feed on the sugars of that dough, that is, to ferment it. Traditionally, sourdough has been used to ferment the bread, before there was commercial yeast, which is only 150 years old. 

Sourdough yeast strains are relatively resistant to low temperatures, so they can be stored "live" by feeding them with flour and water, or, dormant at low temperatures, in the refrigerator.  Although initially, developing this culture at home can be intimidating, the truth is that, with very simple instructions, you can prepare and preserve your own sourdough to make delicious breads with it. All you need, besides water and flour, is time and patience. 

Benefits of sourdough bread

Natural yeast or sourdough gives the bread a flavour and aroma that is not achieved with commercial yeast, in addition to modifying the bread's own characteristics such as the centre, crust or food moisture.  

Breads made with sourdough maintain their properties for longer. Experts recognise that this bread retains the same quality up to two days after it is made. 

How to make sourdough

Ingredientes:

- Whole meal flour
- Water
- Glass jar

Preparation:

- Day 1 
Put 50 g of flour and 50 g of water in the glass jar. Mix well until it forms a paste. Cover with a cloth and let it stand in a warm place (ideally at 20-22º C).  To see how the dough rises, you can make a mark with a marker at the top of the mixture.

- Day 2 
When 24 hours have passed, take the top off the jar, throw away half the mixture and add another 50 g of flour and the same amount of water.  In this step you will not notice much activity, you can observe a brown liquid on the surface and in some cases small bubbles will have begun to appear.  

- Day 3
The next day, you will begin to see the dough is full of bubbles and has grown. You will notice that the dough has a characteristic smell. Discard half of the dough again and refill it with 50 g of flour and 50 g of water. Mix, cover and let stand. 

- Day 4
Repeat the same steps from days 2 and 3. 

- Day 5
Your sourdough is ready. The mixture will have increased its volume significantly. The appearance should be creamy and should have a slight acid smell. 

Some considerations:

Once this process is over, you will have another “live” sourdough, which you will have to refresh in the same way which you have done on previous days, that is to say, by throwing away half the mixture and adding the same amount of flour and water, until it is used.  Leave at room temperature.

If you are not going to use it regularly, you can keep it in the fridge where it is not necessary to redo it so frequently. Repeating the process once a week is enough. 

After five days, you now have your sourdough, but before making bread it is a good idea to grow it for at least another week before using it.

The sourdough can be frozen in portions. 

The activity of the sourdough will depend a lot on the temperature. In summer you will see how it grows very quickly while, in winter, the process is much slower.