Nov 03
Lucy
  3 Comments

RIP wee bubbly

I attended a natural breadmaking workshop today, run by the lovely Paola and Cristina from www.twomamas.com

They were just wonderful – they explained everything so clearly and I now understand what I have been doing wrong with my sourdough attempts. Turns out that using flours that don’t have much gluten in them isn’t really the best idea if you want your loaves to actually rise, which explains the series of flat loaves that came out of my oven.

I learned that I should be using strong white flour, but that I will probably be able to digest it OK as the yeasts pretty much eat the gluten. To test this theory I stuffed myself with the lovely loaves they’d made earlier and am happy to report that all is well in the state of Denmark (and by Denmark I mean my tummy.) But if I wanted to, I could use a half  and half mix with a low gluten or gluten-free flour and that should turn out fine too.  So I’ll do some experimenting with that.

I also learned that natural yeast bread (which is their name for sourdough) helps nutrition because the yeasts pre-digest the starches which makes the bread more digestible, and well as dissolving the phytates, which frees up minerals such as zinc, iron, magnesium, copper and phosphorus.

The Two Mamas’ natural yeast was developed using the Italian recipe for Pasta Madre and is different from the sourdough used in Northern Europe as it is created from white flour rather than wholemeal or dark rye, and it does not have a sour taste. This is very good news as it can be used for brioche and other sweet breads. Game on!

I was given a new starter, and advised that the time has come to say bye bye to wee bubbly – apparently starter is not supposed to smell like cheese. They also recommend storing new wee bubbly in a sealed container (which is different to eveything else I’ve read) to stop any nasties getting in. It just shows that you can’t always learn everything from the internet – sometimes  a bit of face to face with an expert just can’t be beaten.

I’m a bit gutted about poor wee bubbly as I’d nurtured him from just a baby and he was doing so well up until recently, but am delighted to have a strong and fresh starter to play with, and a whole heap of new ideas and recipes to try.

To my friends out there that ate some of my sourdough banana bread – I’m so sorry….

Kidding! I made that batch before the bubbly went bad #gladIdidn’tpoisonmypals

 

Posted in: Baking, Blog, Just blogs, Uncategorized
  • http://twitter.com/theglowcafe enlightened eating

    Very interesting indeed. We were walking home from the shops yesterday saying the way they make bread today generally is not good for you as we recently discovered Village Bakery gluten free organic. Have you tried it yet? Best to go with a meal we think to add oomph and chew. Wish we were not other end of the country as sounds like a great course but I’d be worried about giving it my coeliac hubby though. And you are so funny too – Denmark? Would love to know how that came about. Happy eating and happy tummy.

    • http://www.foodthatdoesnthurt.com Lucy

      Hi there. I totally agree – very strong wheat and yeast is used nowadays to cut down the time the bread takes to rise, but as you say, that means it’s really not good for you. It’s difficult to digest and also doesn’t give enough time for the goodness to develop. I’m not tried Village Bakery – I’ve actually not seen it up here in Glasgow but I’ll see if I can’t hunt some down, as it sounds lovely. Thanks! And yes, I’m not sure if coeliacs would be able to deal with wheat sourdough – I’m not coeliac myself so I couldn’t say for sure, but I’ve been chowing down on sourdough all weekend I’ve not even had any bloating, so it’s looking good so far. Re the Denmark thing – that’s me just being silly – it’s a reference to a quote from Macbeth – ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ – it’s just something that’s always stuck in my head since school!

    • http://www.foodthatdoesnthurt.com/ Lucy Black

      Hi there. I totally agree – very strong wheat and yeast is used nowadays
      to cut down the time the bread takes to rise, but as you say, that
      means it’s really not good for you. It’s difficult to digest and also
      doesn’t give enough time for the goodness to develop. I’m not tried
      Village Bakery – I’ve actually not seen it up here in Glasgow but I’ll
      see if I can’t hunt some down, as it sounds lovely. Thanks! And yes, I’m
      not sure if coeliacs would be able to deal with wheat sourdough – I’m
      not coeliac myself so I couldn’t say for sure, but I’ve been chowing
      down on sourdough all weekend I’ve not even had any bloating, so it’s
      looking good so far. Re the Denmark thing – that’s me just being silly –
      it’s a reference to a quote from Macbeth – ‘something is rotten in the
      state of Denmark’ – it’s just something that’s always stuck in my head
      since school!

Plugin from the creators of Brindes Personalizados :: More at Plulz Wordpress Plugins