JOHN COFFELTEditor

Middle Tennessee Thermography and Wellness, located on the square, hosted its fourth southern sourdough class on May 3.

Owner Brittany Keller said that the classes are being offered to give people the knowledge to take their meal planning back to basics to know what’s in the food they eat.

Baker and homestead enthusiast Melissa Whaley teaches all the bread classes. Friday night’s recipes included the southern sourdough loaf and cinnamon rolls.

“Sourdough is easy,” she said. “If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

“This gives people the chance to decide what ingredients are important to them, organic or conventional,” she said. And it’s about affordability; it’s a lot cheaper to make it at home versus going to the store and paying $6 for a loaf of bread when you can make it at home for $2.”

The southern sourdough is a hand mixed, little knead dough with an extended prooftime.

“It’s an easier sourdough to maintain,” Whaley said. It’s not as intimidating for some. It’s an easy 101 class.”

Sourdough, with a cultured starter, differs from traditional yeast breads that use instant or quick rise yeast packets. Yeast breads rise when the yeast in the dough propagate and give off CO2 require proofing, as opposed to quick breads, like their pastry cousins cakes, that use a chemical reaction for the leavening action.

Whaley said that her southern starter is much more user friendly than the San Francisco starter.

“The San Francisco is based on just flour and water. The southern sourdough is based on potato flakes, sugar and water. This sourdough doesn’t have as much of a sour taste as the San Francisco,” Whaley said.

Whaley said that the maintenance of the southern starter is much simpler, requiring feeding once a week.

The next classes will be a southern-style bagel class and an English muffins class. There may be an inclusion bread class too that teaches the proper techniques to cut cinnamon, raisins or blueberries into loaves.

Whaley said that using the started in the sourdough results in a lighter fermentation and is easier for some people to process than regular yeast bread.

Additional differences in the homemade bread is that at home bakers have greater scrutiny of what’s in their products.

Whaley said during the class that she orders olive oil through a co-op directly from Spain. She said that retail olive oil, no matter how supposedly fresh, has gone rancid before it hits the store shelves.

Another concern is soybean oil which Keller advises is often included in even organic products. She said that soy products can interfere with hormone processes in women and men. Vegetable and canola oils are considered by some to be inflammatory. Whaley avoids traditional bread flour because it’s bleached and enriched, opting instead for organic all-purpose flour or artisan flour.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.