by Catherine Haug, May 29, 2011
(photo by C. Haug)
This is just a short synopsis; you can find more detail in the complete, printable Gathering Summary: Sourdough, a Panel Presentation. See also related posts and handouts:
Cat's First Sourdough Loaf
- The Importance of Grinding Your Own Flour
- The Problem with Unfermented Grains
- ‘Sourdough’ Pie Crust
- Cat’s Sourdough Learnings or ‘how not to get a too-sour bread’
- Alternative Sourdough Starters
- The EssentiaList: Sourdough (pdf handout)
- The EssentiaList: Sourdough Recipes (pdf handout)
Presentation Topics
Panel members Veronica (Ronny) Honthaas, Kathie Lapcevic and Fran Wade led discussion on the following topics:
- History and health benefits of sourdough
- About sourdough starter
- How to make sourdough starter
- Forming bread – Ronny’s demonstration
- Resources & references
After Ronny mixed up a loaf ready for its first rise, audience members put their names in Cat’s hat, for the winner to take home the dough to bake bread. Jean H. reports it was delicious.
Stephanie made a delicious Chocolate Sourdough Cake for dessert, served with dark chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. This had everyone asking for the recipe. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to share that recipe because it is protected by copyright. You could buy the book: Wild Sourdough, the Natural Way to Bake, by Yoke Mardewi, New Holland Publishing; see Amazon for more.
In the mean time, one member of our community, Sherry T., found a recipe for Sourdough Chocolate Cake on the King Arthur Flour website. This is not the same as the one made by Stephanie, but as Sherry reports:
“The cake turned out really good – very moist and cake-like, not as dense and loaf-like as the one served at the gathering”
Sources
Grain mills
- Pleasant Hill Grain: Nutrimill; Family Grain Mill (Messerschmidt); Country Living Mill
- Country Living Grain Mills (countrylivinggrainmills.com); Motorizing a Country Living Mill
- Messerschmidt Grain Mill with Kitchen Aid Attachment: at Everything Kitchens
- Lehman’s: Grain Mills and Roller/Flaker Mills
Grains
- Prairie Heritage Farm and Prairie Heritage Farm CSA Programs
- Wheat Montana has both Organic and regular wheat berries as well asOrganic and regular pre-ground wheat flour; also some other grain berries/groats including Organic Kamut & spelt; non-organic oat groats and spelt berries
- Montana Milling offers similar grains and flours as Wheat Montana
Sourdough info and recipes
- Wild Sourdough, the Natural Way to Bake, by Yoke Mardewi, New Holland Publishing
- Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz
- Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig
- The Bread Bakers Forum: What is Sourdough
- Wikipedia on Sourdough
- Gnowfglins.com: Sourdough. Not Just for Bread (Sourdough e-course)
- For the Love of Sourdough: Starting a Sourdough Adventure (good discourse on health benefits, plus a list of recipes to try)
- SourdoughHome.com; see also their Sourdough Starter Primer and their Recipes
- Frazgo Feasting blog: Hooch, and Keeping your Sourdough Starter Alive has good explanation of how to feed the starter to make a sponge prior to forming bread.
ESP articles and handouts
- Complete Gathering Summary: Sourdough, a Panel Presentation (printable pdf)
- The EssentiaList: Sourdough, an overview (pdf)
- The EssentiaList: Sourdough recipes (pdf) contributed by our panel
- Alternative Sourdough Starters (gluten free, etc.)
- ‘Sourdough’ Pie Crust (a photo-essay) and rhubarb custard pie filling
- The Importance of Grinding your own Flour
- The Problem of Unfermented Grains
Hi there, my mom and I attended the sourdough gathering…would love to have the recipe for the chocolate cake. Also, I did get the 404 message a couple of times when I clicked on links!
[Cat’s note: This comment transferred from the gathering notice to the gathering summary, so the notice could be deleted.]
Sherry,
The recipe for the chocolate cake is from a cookbook and covered by copyright. Stephanie is seeking permission from the author for us to share the recipe, but we cannot share it until that permission is granted. You could, however, purchase the book: “Wild Sourdough, the natural way to bake” by Yoke Mardewi, New Holland Publishing. See Amazon for more about this book.
Regarding the 404 message: I need to know which links (url) give this error in order to fix the link. I will update our homepage to include this need. Thanks.
[Cat’s note: this comment has been transferred from the gathering notice to the gathering summary, so the notice could be deleted.]
I made Fran’s Sourdough Applesauce Cake, modifying it to be a rhubarb coffee cake as follows:
I added about 1 cup rhubarb, 1/4 cup honey, some chinese 5 spice, and ground flax and sesame seeds.
It is very good. In fact, we have eaten 3/4 of it already. It’s spicy – wanted to make sure the sourdough sourness couldnt be detected otherwise I would be eating it all myself. It has a nice texture. Could have added more rhubarb as its taste doesnt come thru much.
This sourdough is kinda fun. Thanks for putting those recipes on the ESP site (but I wish I could print out each one individually).
Hi there, my mom and I attended the sourdough gathering…would love to have the recipe for the chocolate cake Also, I did get the 404 message a couple of times when I clicked on links!
[…] (one of the presenters at the Sourdough gathering) and I have been conversing about my experimentation with my new sourdough starter, for making […]
… trouble is, there is no data available showing how long and with which cultures you must sour the grains to rid them of all the gluten, wga, anti-nutrients, phytic acid, and so on.
a better choice is simply to not eat bread – radical i know…..
Ravi,
If indeed you want to avoid any amount of all those things, you are right. But then you would also have to avoid all fruit and vegetable foods as they all have anti-nutrients, especially in the seeds, to protect the seeds from birds. Consider that many leafy green veggies have oxalic acid or other anti-nutrients that block mineral absorption, especially when eaten raw. And you’d have to avoid animal products, too, as they also have anti-nutrients. We’d have to give up food altogether…and then where would we be?
We must consider that we are only scraping the surface of what can be known about the nutrients, anti-nuturients, and energy of living foods.
I think the better approach is moderation in all things, and to do the best you can to ensure the food you do eat is prepared in the most healthful way it can be.
Sourdough breads do have many wonderful health-promoting qualities, including vitamins, enzymes and probiotics – yes, I do believe these survive the baking process, especially in the interior of the loaf. But these things are lost in unfermented grain breads.
Cat
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