DIY Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread has been made from cultures found in tombs that date back thousands of years to ancient Egypt. That's OLD! But wild yeast from local grain and air will do the trick as well, and possibly better, than ancient sourdough strands from times and places goneby.

If we simply combine flour and water and wait, fermentation will naturally happen. That’s the message in Heike Myer’s sourdough bread class, which ran in April and will become a regular feature in June forward.

“Developing a sourdough culture is really not that hard,” says Heike of Bee Sting Bakery, which has a loyal following at the Westford Farmer's Market. “It’s actually quite simple, because airborne cultures are all around us, including in freshly ground flour. With a little water, air, and movement, they come to life.” But developing the right cultures and keeping them “happy” – well, that takes skill, and for that, a class with a master baker like Heike Myer is the way to go!

Heike brought a country-style polenta-sunflower seed bread from her bakery, which we tasted side by side with Red Hen baguette and Bread and Butter Farm rye bread. Local butter from Butterworks Farm - intensely yellow - was amazing on these breads (if you missed the recent Free Press article about Vermont butter and how bakers like Heike are extolling the virtues of it, you can read about it here: Better Butter: Vermonters Making High-End Butter, Bakers Sing Praises).

It's all about the sourdough starter: Bubbly, sweet smelling, stretchy - if it's not all of these things, it's not going to work well for baking. Heike brought an example of a fresh and active sourdough starter and one that had been neglected. Sadly, many of us were all too familiar with the look of the neglected one. But we vow to do better!

A grain grinder is a nice tool for grinding fresh, local wheat berries, especially in small amounts to feed a sourdough starter every day. This beauty was made in Austria.

Mmm.... Heike showed us how to manage the time and temperature of the dough to get a great crust on sourdough bread and loft and springiness inside. The wait to try it was almost unbearable, but the moment of slicing brought sweet satisfaction.

Watch for more sourdough bread classes with Heike, this June through December! Take a sourdough starter home to get started baking.