Easy 2-Ingredient Sourdough French Bread

One thing that I absolutely love having in our home is kefir. Kefir grains soaked daily and strained make a wonderful kefir milk that we can enjoy in smoothies and also to help us make soft kefir cheese.

You can also use Kefir to make sour cream, and ricotta cheese.

Related post: Why raw milk is real milk

I also know that a beautiful loaf of sourdough bread can run a pretty penny a the local store, too… thankfully, our kefir can help us make sourdough bread without the cost and the added ingredients that are often thrown into commercial bread. 

Have you ever read the label?  Commercial bread has so many fillers and gunk that is just so unnecessary.

One of the biggest reasons we incorporate kefir into our diet here at home is to help keep our gut strong. Sure, you can buy probiotics, perhaps even attempt water kefir…. but raw dairy kefir is by far one of the best ways to bulletproof your gut. It has more strains of beneficial bacteria than probiotics and water kefir combined.

Where can you Get Kefir?

We picked up our kefir at our raw milk farm here in our local area – you can check your area to see if there are any farms near to you that sell raw milk and raw milk kefir.

Related post: 8 reasons to consider drinking raw milk

Unlike processed milk, raw milk contains lactobacilli bacteria = which essentially digests lactose. Pasteurization of milk kills the harmful bacteria within the milk – it also kills the bacteria, good fats, vitamins, and enzymes that help you DIGEST the milk, hence leading to dairy intolerance.

A recent survey has shown that 80% of lactose intolerant CAN drink and digest raw milk without problems.

Why Ferment Bread?

Fermented Foods are foods that are full of probiotics – also known as good bacteria.  When your gut has the ideal balance of good and bad bacteria, your body forms the foundation for a healthy mental, emotional and physical well being.

One of the best books to reference is Nourishing Traditions – which explains the process of fermentation as lacto-fermentation. Lactic acid is a natural preservative…. that preservative prevents bacteria.  The starches and the sugars that are in sugars are converted to lactic acid by the lactic acid producing bacteria or lactobacilli.

There are many reasons to consume fermented foods – one of those reasons is to help seal that seal a leaky gut that has developed as a result of  a reliance on prescription medicine.

Prescriptions have their place, but we try very hard to avoid them completely because when you consume them, they get rid of the good and bad gut bacteria in your body. When you get rid of the good gut bacteria, a your body finds an imbalance and that leads to a host of problems such as suppressed immune system, and more.

Lets talk about this bread for a minute.

The bread is incredibly easy to make – the only thing you need is time. It’s really just very effortless. 

You combine the kefir milk with organic, all purpose unbleached flour (read why it’s important to use this type of flour back here).

You let it sit for 12-18 hours to ferment. While it sits, the starches and sugars in the bread will be converted to lactic acid by the bacteria and enzymes from the raw milk.

As it ferments, you are allowing for greater digestibility.  

Can you eat Sourdough if you are Gluten-Free?

Sourdough bread sold in stores today is largely the result of commercial yeast… which should be avoided in favor of a traditionally baked loaf.

True sourdough does not contain yeast; instead, it contains a lactobacilli starter culture, and is baked for a longer period of time to preserve the nutritional integrity of the bread.

Traditional sourdough (as in this recipe here) done through fermentation helps eliminate gluten and reduces phytic acid (which allows for greater nutrient absorption).

The answer is: most people should be able to eat traditional sourdough, to include celiacs.