Love Bread And Find Time To Make It Yourself - Recipe

Tell us more about yourself, what connects you to bread, let's "convince" people, why are you the best person who can tell us about bread?

Hello and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your attention!

My name is Mariana Belichovska and I have been in love with making yeast bread for five years.

My story is interesting because of the way I discovered this great passion of mine and the special place it took in my life.

In 2016, just when I was at the beginning and discovering this wonderful and different world of yeast, it so happened that I entered a competition for the most creative organic bread, organized by the Belgian company "Le Pain Quotidien" in Brussels, where I live. I participated with my own recipe for bread with yeast, Bulgarian wine Mavrud and fresh herbs, which brought me victory, despite the great competition of experienced non-professional bakers.

The competition was organized to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the company, which is a leader in organic restaurants and bakeries in Belgium.

The first part of the prize included bread - Winner to be offered one weekend in all over 200 bakeries in Belgium, and the second part was a trip to New York for two and participation in a master class at the company's central bakery in Manhattan.

And since this happened at the very beginning of my sourdough bread business, I dare say that it predetermined my path and gave a new direction to my life.

Since when do you make bread and how do you light it on yeast bread?

I believe that everything comes when a person is ready for it, ie when the time has come for it to happen. At the beginning of my activity I had not yet seen this, but over time I discovered that there is nothing accidental in the illusion of the random nature of things.

For me, it all happened at this time in my life, when it was time to open the next door. Now I accept things as fateful, but then I didn't think so.

One day I just started looking for information about yeast and how to make bread with it, for no particular reason. True, I didn't like the bread in the store next to us, but I often kneaded with yeast, so we always had a better alternative at home. I delved into the internet and found it challenging to try and surprise my family with something so different and so I got excited.

Ignition was like a launch into space, like love at first sight that gives you no peace and haunts your thoughts day and night, like a sudden storm on a clear day, like magic that takes you to another planet and you forget everything, filled with peace and love ...

Yes, that's exactly what I was feeling at the time, and that pushed me to keep looking and experimenting in this complex and unfamiliar subject.

Have you ever wondered what the health benefits of sourdough bread are and why it is preferable to store-bought or yeast bread?

Of course I was interested. And that was one of the main reasons I started making this bread for my family on a regular basis. I had read that it was useful, but how, why, with what - the information I got then was quite scarce. Now this issue has been studied in much more detail and anyone who is interested can get more information. In the following lines, I will list just some of the main benefits that I hope will make people think and look at sourdough bread as something really useful, not just modern. Because it is really different and has many advantages and zero harms, if of course it is done correctly.

Regular consumption of sourdough bread can completely change the intestinal flora in the human stomach. Myth is that probiotic yeast bacteria die at high temperatures during baking and bread becomes dead matter. On the contrary! Some of them die, but most of them remain and settle in humans, as well as yeast bacteria after eating yeast bread. However, with the difference that during the long period of fermentation, yeast bacteria have done a very complex job with the dough and transformed it into an extremely useful product, in fact, in my opinion, it is harmless even for people with gluten intolerance. They break the long gluten chains, which makes gluten easily digestible by the body without causing negative sensations such as pain, bloating and irritation in the stomach and intestines.

Yeast bread is also useful for people with diabetes, helping to regulate their blood sugar levels, as it is absorbed much more slowly by the body. And this in turn prevents a sharp rise in blood sugar levels after consumption.

Purely physically, sourdough bread has a very different structure from yeast bread, which is why some people find its taste strange. It is a little tougher, with a slight characteristic humidity and density, which makes it somewhat difficult for modern man, accustomed to chewing his food well. That's why I often describe him as "chewing." Yes, this bread teaches us to eat more slowly and chew, which prevents us from consuming excess amounts in one meal.

Last but not least, if we make our own bread at home, we will save a lot of additives, preservatives, flavorings and various improvers that modern industry has created and generously invest in the name of rapid mass production of fluffy and seemingly tasty bread. There are many tricks that deceive people in the market, but this is another topic of conversation.

Finally, I will mention the pleasure of creating something as tasty, useful and wonderful as sourdough bread. I assure you, it is unearthly! Its aroma is incomparable, its warmth attracts people like a magnet, and its taste delivers indescribable emotion and true pleasure.

This bread humbles the person who makes it. It gives him peace and wisdom, lands him and helps him look at the world with different eyes.

To me, he is like Nirvana.

Okay, let's get started. Explain step by step how to get yeast and how to know that it is ready for use?

In order to get yeast, we need clean and good products, if possible with proven organic origin, appropriate temperature and patience. But before embarking on this adventure, it is good to gather a little more information about what yeast is, how to store it and how best to take care of it and its health. Unfortunately, it is not possible to explain everything in a few lines with the necessary details and subtleties.

In the blog, which I have been writing for almost 4 years, I have dedicated two publications on the topic, accompanied by photos of the processes, for the convenience of readers. Anyone who is interested can read more in detail here:   and then boldly embark on this challenge.

And for those who are not interested in such detail, I will mention briefly that yeast is a product obtained as a result of fermentation process by mixing flour with liquid (usually water) under certain conditions.

Both fruits and cereals are covered with microorganisms that are responsible for this process and under certain conditions it occurs completely naturally.

Needed: water, flour, heat and ... time.

Therefore, when you decide to make your own yeast at home, you will need all these elements and conditions to get a good result.

For this purpose, mix equal amounts of flour and water, taking half of the total amount over a period of time (usually 8-10 hours) in order not to produce a large, unnecessary and unhealthy mixture and re-feed with equal amounts of both. All this is repeated for about a week to ten days, after which the yeast should be ready.

In general, this is the mechanism of its creation.

The easiest way to make yeast with wholemeal rye flour, but also the easiest way to fool yourself that it is ready to use. Rye flour ferments violently and creates the illusion that the yeast is ripe and strong enough to work. It takes at least 5-7 days of regular care to get young yeast or about 10-14 to turn it into a mature and stable culture.

Let's move on, how to make bread and what are the other steps to have a beautiful, tasty and healthy bread?

When we start learning to make sourdough bread, it is advisable to use only our hands. This will help us feel the dough, get to know it and get used to its behavior and texture.

Each step is important if it is done well and carefully, so I always recommend working with concentration and if possible to record the details on the go.

And most importantly: do not blindly follow the recipe you are working on. It is only a guide to the quantities that someone has combined in a certain way with certain products under certain conditions. Certainly yours are different because your yeast is different, as is its behavior, and it even depends on altitude, humidity, temperature and many other factors. Use the recipe only as a frame and make your own unique bread on it.

In order to be useful and nutritious, it is necessary to observe several conditions: to use clean products with guaranteed quality, clean water, good, healthy and active yeast and not to hurry, but to give enough time for bacteria to grow well, to finish their complex and responsible work to give the necessary volume, taste and usefulness of bread. This usually takes a minimum of 16 to 18 hours, but can take much longer, depending on the goal we have set and the results we want to achieve.

(Read the recipe Mariana shared with us.)

* Important!

Try not to eat fresh bread, as the processes in it are far from over. Allow it to "rest" and ripen at least 6 hours before eating, and for dark bread at least 12 hours.

I assure you that old bread is many times tastier and healthier than fresh bread!

To open its aromas, you can warm your slice in a toaster before consumption and you will enjoy a real charm.

Do you have a favorite bread?

Every bread is my favorite, because I approach each one individually. I know its history, I know how I conceived, kneaded, raised, shaped, decorated and how much emotion I put into it ... My attitude is like a mother to a child ... Each bread has its own character and has its own and unique vision ( as long as you have eyes to see and realize this). After baking I like to look at my pastries and enjoy their beauty ...

Do you want to say something else to our readers that I forgot to ask you?

I want to tell people not to give up bread, because it's fashionable now. Bread really brings together and unites the family, people of different religions and races and is able to positively influence the character of man and his thoughts.

People, love bread and find time to make it yourself without unnecessary excuses for time and hectic life. In this breathless daily life we ​​need more meditation, self-knowledge and humility and it is he who can help us - the Bread.

You feel love in every line, right? You can follow Mariyana's bread on Facebook for even more inspiration!