Even the ancient Egyptians ate yeast-free bread in the 17th century BC. There are many ways to make sourdough bread. In ancient times, these recipes were passed down from generation to generation and each family had their own baking secret. Take and you are armed with a few simple recipes that will help you bake delicious and healthy bread.
Classic "eternal" leaven on water and flour
To prepare a classic yeast-free sourdough, you need to be patient - the process will take as long as five days. You only need two ingredients - flour and water. The success of a business largely depends on the quality of these products. You need rye flour, whole grain or peeled flour, fine grinding will ruin everything. And the water should only be "live", that is, not bottled, not distilled or boiled.
To prepare a classic sourdough, you can use ordinary tap water by passing it through a filter.
In a large (at least 2-3 liters) container, carefully stir 100 grams of flour with 150 grams of water. Cover it with a lid and leave at room temperature for one day.
All you need to do in the next four days is add 50 grams of flour and water and wait for the leaven to ripen. When the fifth day is over, the leaven will be ready and you can start making the dough.
"Modern" kefir starter culture
Strongly peroxidized kefir or yogurt is suitable for cooking. To make the product peroxide, it is enough to keep it for 2-3 days at room temperature. Then, in a large container, mix it thoroughly with rye flour to make a dough that resembles liquid sour cream in consistency. Cover the container with gauze and leave for a day.
The next day, add as much flour as you would normally in the pancake batter and mix well again. Now a few hours are enough, and the leaven will ripen for use in the dough. It will bubble up a lot and increase in volume.
The remaining kefir sourdough "falls asleep" in the refrigerator and will be well preserved. But it will need to "wake up" three days before use. To do this, every day for an hour, warm it at room temperature, feed it with kefir and flour in equal amounts. Then wait for the leaven to swell a little, and put it back in the refrigerator. On the third day, leave it on the table longer, and when it rises, stir. Do this several times. The resulting yeast-free sourdough can be divided: use one part to make bread, and put the other in the refrigerator.
Hop cone sourdough
To make this yeast-free starter, fill a glass of dry hop cones with two glasses of water. Place a saucepan with this mixture on low heat and let the water simmer for about an hour. Then leave the broth for eight hours to infuse, then strain it into a spacious glass dish.
In Russia, yeast-free bread has long been famous for its incomparable taste.
Add half a glass of flour to the finished broth, best of all with rye wallpaper, you can also wheat (but not the highest grade), as well as 1 tablespoon of sugar or honey. Mix everything thoroughly. Cover the dishes with linen or other natural fabric and put them in a warm place for a day.
During this time, your yeast-free sourdough will “grow” at least twice. She is now ready. Dough is traditionally prepared with this leaven.
Making yeast-free bread is more difficult than using yeast from the store, because the sourdough necessary for this is grown for more than one day. But here there is one pleasant moment: it is enough to successfully do it just once. Then you can continually divide the leaven: part for the dough, the other in the refrigerator for the future. You just need to "feed" her about once a week. And do not be afraid that your leaven will "over-age" and deteriorate. On the contrary, the older she is, the better.
