My Natural Yeast Troubles

I haven't always loved to cook, but when we got married, I began (out of necessity, since we like to eat healthy and didn't have tons of money) to cook more. I'd helped my mom in the kitchen for years, because she was an amazing cook, but I was never interested in doing more than grating the cheese or browning the hamburger.

As I've learned more, I have found I actually really love to cook. One of my favorite things to do is take something delicious and make it as healthy as it can be.

A few years ago, Ben's mom got into natural yeast bread. You grow a start, a mixture of flour and water that attracts the wild yeast in the air, and use that to raise your bread. It takes a lot longer, at least six hours (for bread, usually longer), but the flour soaking in the start makes it a lot healthier. The bacteria in the start feed off the flour and sugars in the dough, beginning the digestion process and breaking down the wheat particles in a way that makes it easier to digest. The bacteria in the natural yeast also lines your intestinal tract in a way that helps your body digest other food more quickly as well, and balances out the yeast and bacteria in your body.

It's still bread, but it's basically the healthiest way we've found to make bread.

Ben's mom can make all sorts of things with it--bread, pancakes, waffles, cookies, crackers. I've tried a few of these and they've worked, but I'm still learning. It's honestly a pretty steep learning curve.

I think the main thing is that I am still learning how to feed my starter. Because it's yeast, it's alive, and to keep it healthy, you need to feed it water and flour at least every four days. You need to get it a good, thick consistency and use spring water. I'm still working on that, but I think once I get spring water, it'll work a lot better.

The bread is also the trickiest recipe, probably, because it's so important to get the dough the right consistency to make sure it raises right. I also had a trouble with the pancake recipe when I tried it, but I think that was due to my starter. I hope.

It's really fun to learn to cook in healthy ways like this. Ben and I love to eat healthy, but we also still love to have our treats and favorite foods. I love that we can find ways to still enjoy our favorite things in a healthier way.