Recently I watched a short show based on a book called Cooked on Netflix. Its basically a movie broken into four parts, or episodes. Rather than just talking about food, it talks a lot about the culture of food and how crucial it is to our lives. Each part is based on different aspects of the world of cooking better known as the four elements; fire, water, air, and earth. The main topic of the air section was about bread and baking bread. In a sense, when you really think about it, bread making is a magical process. The episode showed me how it is literally turning a little food into a lot of food. I also learned that because the store bought bread we know and eat today has so many ingredients and doesn’t even use natural yeast, that it may be the cause of gluten intolerance. It is when you use that natural yeast that gluten can be properly broken down and you can finally receive all the true nutrients within a small wheat grass.
Before watching this show, I had no knowledge about bread or the true fermenting process that goes behind it. I became so inspired and decided I would try making my own homemade bread. I intend on making the simplest, most boring sourdough bread by only using water, flour, and salt. and honestly it will probably taste horrible at first. In fact, even if it is a great loaf of bread, our bodies are so used to that processed store bought stuff we call bread that it I know it won’t taste amazing for a long time. But I am now determined to make it good; to let my body get used to what true bread taste like. Wheat holds all the nutrients in it that you need to survive. So in reality, this whole idea that eating bread is all carbs and makes you get that stomach we all don’t want is all because of what our manufacturing society has turned bread into. So I’ve decided to share with you my journey to bread making! I will continue to update this post to share with you my bread making process.
Like I tell myself before each big hobby decision I make, I am choosing to pick this up, and it is okay if I want to put it down, but that doesn’t mean I will drop it forever.
So let’s begin!
Day one:
Today I began to make the “starter” for my bread. Instead of using a dry yeast, I’ve decided to make my own natural yeast. In order to do this, you have to combine water and flower together and then add more and more each day for five days in order to feed the yeast you are cultivating. I personally thought it was so funny having to “feed” my started every day, but it actually is a living thing. And as long as you feed it once a week, it will last forever and you never have to start one again.
Anyway, they say that you might not see bubbles forming in your yeast on day one, but I saw a few here and there starting to form! I never knew having a pile of flower water goo could be so exciting. Although it will take at least 5 days for me to even begin to think about actually making a loaf of bread, I have to start somewhere.
Scarlett Stanhope 