Kim Shorts: Sweet on sourdough

Learning something new, or finding a new hobby, can be good for your brain and general self wellness. If you’re lucky, it can also be good for your stomach.

So it was, when I discovered how to make sourdough from my older and, I should add, wiser sister, Susan Oxley in Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.).

Since then, my gut has never been happier!

Three years ago, she E-mailed me a sourdough recipe. If you remember, during the COVID-19 pandemic, bread-making at home became all the rage. You couldn’t find a bread machine no matter how slow the bread rose!

After a few failed attempts at making the sourdough, I had to meet with her over Facebook to get tips on how to make my dough better and improve my process. I hate to admit this when it concerns my sister, but Susan is an expert at home-baking and especially bread-making.

To be totally honest, I was also using store-bought yeast at the time since I did not know how to make the “starter.”

A year later, Susan came for a visit and arrived from P.E.I. with starter in hand that she made while visiting other family in Ontario. That starter did not last long as I used it up. I was intimidated by it and did not know how to keep it going. (Yes, I was lazy and didn’t bother researching how to make starter.) I quickly reverted back to the store-purchased yeast.



I got pretty good at the bread-making but was not baking it regularly much to my husband’s chagrin. I had other stuff to keep me busy … like writing, I told him.

I’ve also noticed that the sourdough store-sold starter package has become hard to find. Since then, I’ve taken to making regular bread and cheese loaves every now and then, but we were missing that great flavour that comes with sourdough.

The good news for Jim is that I am back making sourdough with a vengeance.

Last month, I attended a packed sourdough-making class in Ripley, hosted by Certified Master Food Preserver Chef Connor Flynn. Boy, did I learn a few tricks! He and his team were great at answering all our questions during class, and even a day later, when I endeavoured to make one of their more complicated sourdough recipes right out of the gate.

My first attempt failed as I learned that the dough needed to stay in my oven longer as it was not hot enough to cook the bread. The bread was thick and chewy in the middle. My second try was much better and it tasted great.

Making the starter was not as tough as I thought it would be. As the chef reminded us, if you’re making bread regularly, then you have to treat your starter like a pet. He suggested that you also give it a name.

I also made my first Leaven that helps give the bread a stronger sour flavour, among other things. Leaven helps the dough rise through fermentation that produces carbon dioxide gas. The gas in the dough creates bubbles which, in turn, create the air bubbles in the bread.

For added flavour, I mixed in about one-sixth of a portion of locally-milled wheat flour along with the white regular flour.



My research found that there are several health benefits of sourdough bread. Firstly, it is definitely good for your gut. The fermentation process for sourdough leads to an increased number of prebiotic- and probiotic-like properties, which help improve gut health. If you add whole grains, which are higher in fibre than processed grains, it gives additional gut-friendly benefits.

Sourdough is different than traditional bread because it is made by fermenting flour and water rather than adding yeast to create a leaven. When you add whole grain flour, it packs great nutrients, including healthy carbohydrates, protein, fibre, iron and vitamins, such as folic acid.

Eating sourdough may help improve the digestion of gluten, positively affect the amount of sugar in your blood, and it may contribute and promote healthy aging. I say may since the research on this last part is all over the place.

The real reason I am sweet on sourdough is because there’s no sugar additives in the bread.

I am making sourdough bread twice a week. Our guts have never been so happy and feeling full, thanks to Chewbacca, my starter!