13/04/2020
When I realised I could not buy any yeast (thanks to some people who have gone crazy in the Covd-19 crisis and emptied all shelves - leaving nothing for others) I thought of the mature sourdough starter that I had neglected for a while in the fridge.
I remembered my uncle's war stories. He was in captivity in Russia. When they discovered he was a baker, they ask him to make the famous German Bread. He had nothing to start with. No yeast - but they said, he better make them some bread if he wanted to survive gracefully (no pressure). He found some dried-out pans with remainders of dough (not a great start) but he managed to use this to create delicious sour dough bread. So, the Russians let him bake and left him in peace :) He was oof the hook and managed to safely return to Germany after the war. What a story!
This shows how powerful sour dough can be! He could have started from scratch but the sour dough needs to mature for some years before it is really as active and delicious (my experience at least).
Anyway. I found most recipes with sourdough very complicated. I didn't want to spend a week making bread. Nor did I want to become a professional baker - I have a job already and I just want nice bread ;)
So, I experimented with the starter and with the process of making bread and here we are. Dennis' (my name) sourdough starter is now very powerful. I have looked after it for almost 10 years now. With this very active starter, you can have a bread ready in about 24 hours. It is super simple to do and you will have a nice healthy bread - guaranteed ;)
This is a very healthy starter for a very healthy bread. The starter is just organic wholegrain rye flour and filtered water. Nothing else (apart from the active wild yeast of course). You can easily make a 100% wholegrain sourdough bread with this starter. it is strong enough and the dough will rise.
Help people to overcome the shortage of yeast :) You can easily multiply and share the starter. I invite you to experiment too. Share your story. I cannot wait to hear what you tried. Failures welcome - best is to learn from the mistakes of others ;)
