Sourdough Life-changing Bread

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This life changing loaf of bread is fabulous as it is.

The recipe creator Sarah Britton lets everything soak for 2-8 hours.

Sally Fallon in “ Nourishing Traditions” (one of my favorite cookbooks!!!) says that “Ideally, nuts and seeds should be soaked or partially sprouted before eaten. This is because nuts contain numerous enzyme inhibitors that can put a real strain on the digestive mechanism if consumed in excess. Nuts are easier to digest, and their nutrients more readily available if they are first soaked in salt water overnight […]”.

Therefore, once you add lactic acid fermentation of sourdough or whey to the mix, you can make this life changing bread even more healthy.

For the sourdough life changing bread version you will need about ¾ cup of an active starter. If you don’t have one yet, you can follow my fool-proof method and create your own. Furthermore, you can learn my super easy way to keep it without daily feedings or discards. I will talk about the remaining ingredients below.

Many people enjoy the life changing bread since, if you’re making it with gluten-free rolled oats, it contains no gluten. Interestingly enough, many gluten-sensitive people have no problem digesting truly fermented sourdough bread. In this recipe, we will only add ¾ cup of grain-based sourdough starter.

If you like the idea of fermenting this bread but really want to stay away from gluten, then the next version might be for you:

Now for this variation, we are simply swapping the water in the original recipe for 1 ½ cups of whey.

What’s the simplest way to make whey, you might ask? By turning regular yogurt into Greek yogurt. Simply place it into a cheese cloth and collect the whey underneath.

I often make quark from buttermilk and get a lot of whey from that. This recipe is the perfect use for that.

Psyllium husks: they are the only ingredient you cannot omit from this recipe. They are inexpensive and easily available online.

Nuts and seeds: here you have more flexibility. I like to use a mix of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and walnuts. However, you can easily tweak the amounts or types of nuts and seeds you use.

Coconut oil: the original recipe calls for this tropical oil and I actually like its taste. I bet you could use any neutral oil (such as avocado oil or ghee) and probably even butter.

Seasonings: I do like to add the salt as it really brings out all the flavors. The sweetener on the other hand I like to leave out. If you do like that hint of sweetness you could add maple syrup, honey, agave syrup, or stevia, for instance.

For this post I am using:

1. ¾ cup sunflower seeds
2. ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
3. ½ cup whole flax seeds
4. ½ cup walnuts
5. 1 ½ cups rolled oats
6. 2 TBSP chia seeds
7. 4 TBSP psyllium husks
8. 1 tsp sea salt
9. 3 TBSP melted coconut oil
10. for the sourdough version: ¾ cup of ripe sourdough starter and ½ to 1 cup of water OR
11. for the whey version: 1 ½ cups of whey

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. At this point, you can either let the dough sit covered for a bit or transfer it to the loaf pan right away. Some people like using a silicon loaf pan (which I don’t have) so I line my glass or stainless-steel loaf pans with parchment paper.

Ideally, you want to let your bread sit for at least 2 hours but longer (up to 8 hours) is better.

When ready, place the bread into a 350˚F hot oven for 20 minutes. Then, I take the bread out of the loaf pan by the parchment paper and with the parchment paper return it to the oven for another 20 minutes. You can check it for readiness now: if you gently tap the bottom with your knuckle, it should make a hollow sound. Most often, it is not quite ready so I’ll take it off the parchment paper and return it to the oven for another 10-20 minutes.

When fully baked, let it cool on a cooling rack. It is so delicious that you’ll probably want to eat it all in one sitting … However, you can slice the entire bread and freeze it, only taking out a slice at a time and thaw it in the toaster. Even though I am not a fan of plastic, I usually put it into a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator. Enjoy!!

Nourishing Traditions Cookbook: https://amzn.to/2OzZr3i

Psyllium Seeds: https://amzn.to/2OUHWKQ

Stainless steel loaf pan: https://amzn.to/38MpPOa

Parchment paper: https://amzn.to/3eJafqA

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