Sourdough- A Slice of Wellness

Happy New Year! One of my favorite things to do throughout the year is to learn something entirely new and slightly out of my comfort zone. At the end of last year I attended my first class at the LOLA center in town. I haven't had the chance to share my experience yet, so here it goes! The class I signed up for was the sourdough cinnamon roll class taught by Gabbie. She’s a home baker out of Phelps who also bakes goodies to order. Her Facebook page is “Bread by Gabbie”. I was excited about the take home cinnamon rolls for the freezer since that’s a Christmas morning tradition for my wife’s family, but I was also slightly intimidated. Making sourdough breads and baked goods has always been intriguing to me but for some reason, keeping the sourdough starter alive has always seemed like a daunting experience. I was actually gifted a sourdough starter from a patient not too long ago that has been sitting in my fridge being ignored. I thought for sure that it was toast (lol)--- good news is it’s still alive and I can actually feed it flour and water and start baking. Fun fact- sourdough bread is actually the oldest form of leavened bread. 

The cool part about the class at LOLA is that Gabbie went over how to make the cinnamon rolls (which were delicious by the way), and she also sent everyone home with some sourdough starter too. She went over the ins and outs about how to feed the starter, how often, and that if you’re not going to be baking for a while you can actually store your starter in the fridge and it will be totally okay for when you’re ready to start baking again. Gabbie definitely took a lot of the mystery out of sourdough baking. Since taking the class I’ve made a few loaves of sourdough bread to share with family and even tried out sourdough chocolate chip cookies. It’s been a fun experience so far. 

There are surprisingly quite a few health benefits to eating sourdough breads and baked goods over traditionally prepared yeast baked goods. When baking sourdough goodies you use a sourdough starter instead of yeast to make the bread rise. The starter has a bacteria called lactobacillus which forms the natural rise of the bread. Sourdough baked goods are easier to digest. The bacteria in the starter will begin to break down the starches and gluten found in the grain before it reaches your stomach. Since sourdough bread has a longer prep time this means most of the protein gluten is broken down into amino acids before you even eat it. Which also means it takes less work for your stomach to break down the bread. Sourdough also has a lower glycemic index due to the fermentation process. Sourdough is fermented in a way that depletes bad starches. This means it won’t cause your blood sugar to rise so dramatically compared to traditional white breads. Sourdough breads contain acetic acid which naturally prevents the growth of mold so the bread itself doesn’t need to contain any preservatives. As far as added nutrition goes, sourdough breads contain iron, manganese, calcium, b1, b6, b12, folate, magnesium, and vitamin e. Most of these nutrients are generally processed out of other store bought breads. 

All in all, I had a really positive experience with my first class at the LOLA center. I enjoyed the company, the education, and the baked goods. I’m also excited to continue experimenting with the endless sourdough recipes I’ve come across. If you’re interested in trying some yummy sourdough goodies, reach out to Gabbie in Phelps. She recently started making entirely gluten free sourdough bread too. ​