In the last 20 years or so Sourdough Bread has become popular in the UK. Like many other fashionable trends as Sourdough became more popular more producers began to make their own versions of the original .
What is Sourdough ? Sourdough is created through a natural fermentation of flour/water / the environment it is created in . The resultant mixture is then referred to as the Starter or Leaven. This starter is then used to slowly rise a dough , without any added commercial yeast . For bread making it will work on the gluten in the flour ‘softening , ripening ‘it, resulting in the finished bread being more easily digested than most breads made with commercial yeast . This is the process we use to make our sourdough breads . It was this better digestibility of the bread that first attracted a lot of people to eat Sourdough Bread .
A more accurate description of breads made just using the Sourdough process would have been Naturally Fermented Bread, but that’s a bit of a mouthful so they remained referred to as Sourdough bread . But not all breads referred to as sourdough are made this way . Even breads made as Naturally Fermented now all have different variations , not all of which are necessary to the process but are more often following a baking fashion or market hype to sell the breads . For example : made with a 100 year old starter from france ; made over 4 days ; made with wild yeast starter gathered outside ;open crumb; increased flavour , to name but a few .
In many countries breads are made which contain a sourdough culture along with commercial yeast . The sourdough in this instance being regarded more as a flavour .In the UK some breads are offered in a similar way with added commercial yeast and called sourdough bread . These breads because of the presence of the commercial yeast will not have had the gluten ‘ripened’ and therefore remain less digestible than those made as Naturally fermented .
There is no law in the UK to define what Sourdough bread is or is not .
If one wishes to purchase Sourdough Bread for it’s health benefits like better digestibility , then one needs to check commercial yeast has not been added at any stage of the manufacturing process .Also that the bread has been made ideally from the bakery’s own sourdough starter and that the final dough rise has been for around 5-7 hours . If the bakery tells you the dough has been made one afternoon and risen overnight in a fridge , there is nothing wrong with this process but expect the finished breads to be stronger in sourdough flavor . This overnight rise is only achieving extra flavour and maybe more open crumb , it’s not really necessary to improve the digestibility . Sadly if stoneground flour was used it will likely mask the real taste of the grain from which the flour was made . ( the main gain of the overnight rise is the baker will get to sleep a bit !! )
