Sourdough might be a star carb, but watch out for the ingredients | Gabrielle Chan

At 4 a.m., as I push my evil night voice away, I began to go through the sourdough-making process.

I realize that we are well out of confinement and that the leaven has passed. But just like the Australian wheat crop expected to decline off record, the urge to cook recently took hold of me and may never let go.

Like all my past and present activities – horses and yoga among them – it shares some commonalities. You can approach these three hobbies expecting the same result day after day, but you will rarely succeed.

A horse that behaves impeccably one day may not behave the same the next, especially if you are not zen.

On the yoga mat, you can exhale the waste of the day, stand on one leg in a tree pose, as stable and straight as spotted gum. The next day, you can’t balance to save yourself.

The same goes for sourdough – a hobby I picked up 25 years after moving to a wheat farm.

Basic sourdough contains only three ingredients: flour, water and salt. As a fermented food, it requires a good starter, which is also made from flour and water.

In theory, with so few ingredients and a basic recipe, you should be able to make a decent loaf every time. LAW? Fake. The thing about sourdough baking is that the temperature, time, and flour are constantly changing.

For the average home baker, although consistency is a struggle, the variables force you to push forward, to the point that you get up to watch lovingly your fermenting bread at 1am.

Ask Kate Reid, the former Formula 1 aerospace engineer who simply set out to create the perfect croissant. She is now the queen of the near-perfect croissant, sent out daily by her Moon Bakeries.

If perfection can be the enemy of good, a recent post by UNSW dieticians Jaimee Hughes and Sara Grafenauer show most sourdoughs are not even close to sourdoughs.

Their analysis collected ingredients, nutritional information and packaging claims from a range of products across four Sydney supermarket chains (Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA) and a Baker’s Delight franchise.

It found that 83% of sourdough bread contained a range of additional ingredients not traditionally found in sourdough. These included yeast (44% of sourdough products), wheat malt flour (49%), wheat gluten (30%), emulsifiers (24%), vinegar (15%), lecithin (7%), baking powders/yeasts (6%), acidity regulators (3%), preservatives (3%), bread-making improver (3%), humectant (2%) and stabilizers (1% ).

The reason, presumably, is that sourdough is a growing market, something of a star carbohydrate among consumers, many of whom remain locked in a cycle of torment over what to eat. To Carb or Not to Carbthat is the question.

The eating public seems to love the idea of ​​old-fashioned fermented bread because of what the authors call a “health halo,” though it may not be the product they envision.

“Consumers may believe that these products are healthier, whether this can be validated by claims or other labeling information,” the authors write.

In Australia, we are not prescriptive on our sourdough. In Europe, definitions vary from country to country. Austrian and German bakers cannot use yeast in breads claiming to be sourdough. Spain requires sourdough bread to have at least 15% starter but Spanish bakers can use yeast.

Since bread is a staple in many cultures, there are various moves to create a sort of rule book. The Real Bread campaign in the UK is pushing a Honest Crust Act designed to stop fooling customers with loaves that amount to “sourfaux””, using additional additives. They also want bread “without pesticides and other agrochemicals”.

For Grafenauer though, it’s about authenticity. She hopes the research will inspire “a little more attention” to brand claims and marketing, because the big shift for consumers is where your food comes from.

So if you’re standing in the bread aisle of your local supermarket, Grafenauer’s best advice is to go for whole grains, for the higher dietary fiber, higher vegetable protein and lower salt” than either sourdough or normal yeast bread”.

“If you’re looking for sourdough because you really like that taste, flip it over and read the ingredients. If you’re legitimately looking for something that’s sourdough, you have to look to see that it’s just flour, salt, water — a clue — and sourdough or leftover sourdough,” she says. .

Personally, I’ll end up with a light dusting of Aussie wheat flour on the front, stretching and bending a big baby of dough and hoping the Aussie wheat forecast doesn’t drop too much this year.