This is how bread was made.

Now if you know anything about me, you know that I tend to be a bit obsessive about honoring old ways.  It started with painting and art and has now migrated to making bread.

What I am talking about is…natural leavening…

Before the advent of commercial yeast, everyone and I mean everyone made their bread from what we today refer to as a bread starter.  A starter is a mixture of flour and water that is allowed to sit and develop wild yeasts.  It is prevailing wisdom that these wild yeasts are much healthier for you and make much different bread than a commercial yeast does.  It digests better, has a very different taste, and lasts far longer on the shelf than any bread made from commercial yeast ever will.  If you want to know more about the process, check this out.

I learned how to make this bread in Australia, while on Flinder’s Island from a very wonderful lady named Wendy.  Wendy made wonderful bread - frankly the best bread I have EVER had…EVER.  Her starter had been going for over 40 years - which is another fun fact - your starter becomes a bit like a pet.  You have to feed it every day so it thrives.  You can make your own starter and get it going pretty easily.  You begin with two glazed ceramic or glass containers.  Get half a dozen organic raisins, and put them in water for two days with 1/4 cup of organic rye flour and enough water to make a mixture like thin pancake batter.  Cover the top with cheesecloth or a clean linen towel.  After two days the mixture should be a bit bubbly and smell a bit fruity.  Stir it up and take from it a teaspoon of the mix which goes into your second container.  Discard the rest - including all of the raisins.   To your second container, add 1/4 cup of rye flour and enough water to again make that thin batter.  Repeat this process every 12 to 24 hours (take a teaspoon of the old mix, put it into a second container, add flour and water) and within a week or two, your starter will be going enough to make bread with!  Now the starter can also be kept in the refrigerator and fed weekly once it develops enough, or you can do it as they did it back when and keep it in a fairly warm place in your kitchen.

Basic Bread:

2 cups organic white flour,  1.75 cups organic whole meal flour, 1/3 cup organic rye flour, 1.5 teaspoons salt, 2.25 cups liquid (you can use water, or puree cooked sweet potato, pumpkin, or just about anything)

Add all of your starter but 1 tsp to your liquid ingredients - but one teaspoon, put that teaspoon of starter into the second container to keep it going for the next time you want to make bread.

This is going to be quite a wet mixture.  Mix it all up well and put it in a large bowl and cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap.  Put it in a warm place for at least 10 hours, or until it doubles in size.  Natural leavening can take longer.  I do it before I go to bed and leave the bowl on a heating pad set on low over night.  Punch the dough down and put into a loaf pan.  Let rise for another 2-4 hours.  Bake at 475F for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!