Börek Chronicles #2: “fat-layered phyllo" with sourdough starter and cold retarded fermentation

to be made at home and maybe help with digestion

we all have been reading about the harms of gluten for our bodies. the press, the doctors, people on IG… anyone really, they are all saying '“gluten is bad, period”. yet again there is research about how sourdough breads are good for your gut health. obviously not the ones with super processed super bleached flours. but just having organic wholewheat stone-milled etc does not help the process alone. also the long fermentation through which the gluten transforms is the key as far as my understanding.

not that I understand much. all is a confusion for me! yet I know how I feel when I eat a gluten heavy diet and how the sourdough bread does not affect me as much.

for the last several months, after our move to Thessaloniki, I retained my mental health by obsessing with how the local varieties of flour can be transformed into a fine loaf of bread, naturally leavened of course. keeping sane and busying myself during the waiting months for the renovation of our new home to finish in a small cramped apartment with a kitchen the size of 1 sink and 1 stovetop, having no horizon to look at - I know I am spoiled but after living the last 12 years always with a horizon both in Istanbul and in the Northern Aegean, I desperately need one- I have baked dozens of bread and ate at least half of them. the other half I didn’t were always intended for our neighbours and some friends.

so, these last 5 months I have been devouring naturally leavened, up to 48 hours fermented sourdough breads. at the beginning the flours were also rubbish, but in time I managed to find locally sourced organic flours and turned them into some decent loaves.