WELCOME TO SOURJOE

Tech, Tech, Dough: Bridging the Gap

Here at SOURJOE, we aim to combine the old practice of home-baking sourdough with the convenience and accessibility that new technology provides.

This is Aaron, by the way. I'm the 'son' of this father/son venture. We'll both be contributing to this blog, but for now I'd like to say, on behalf of the both of us, thank you for being here!

We've spent a lot of time developing SOURJOE and we're constantly improving upon it, and now that it's finally available for people to sign up, we want to tell you all about it.

Flour, Water, Time

One of the most amazing things about sourdough is how simple it is, especially since it doesn't always feel that way! You have flour, just add water and in a little time BAM! You've got a sourdough starter. All the yeasts and bacteria on the flour, on our hands, and in the air battle for the little jar of food you've left out for them, and in the end the conditions are just right for all the microbes we want.Of course, the microscopic world is immense, so there is a variety of things that can happen in unfavourable conditions.

That's why, in addition to a lot of information in our Reference sections, we've built a "Basic Starter from Scratch" recipe so that even if you've never mixed flour and water together, you can follow along step-by-step, at your pace, and build your very own sourdough starter. Don't forget to name it!

Calculate the Nutrition of your Bread

Carbs, gluten, and ultimately 'bread' have been demonized one way or another in health watch circles, but what they often neglect to mention is the difference between bread that comes from a home oven versus a plastic bag. At home, we make our sourdough bread out of three simple ingredients: flour, water, and salt. Plastic bag bread can have up to thirty different ingredients in it: stabilizers, preservatives, colourants, flavour enhancers, etc. Not to mention they aren't slow fermented like sourdough, which means you're missing out on a ton of micronutrients, and it'll be harder for your system to digest since the gluten structure hasn't had time to break down properly since they use commercial yeast, and don't even get us started on steel-roller bleached shelf-stable flour! Despite what it seems like, I'm not going to get into it here. However, there will be a blog post very soon all about it, so stay tuned for that!

This is why one of the features we were adamant on having was a nutrition calculator. It's amazing the variation in nutrition just between different flours, not to mention all the things you can add to a loaf of bread. In our recipes but also in the recipes that you build, we calculate the nutrition right down to the slice so you can know exactly what you're eating, giving you yet another reason to love sourdough.

Step-by-Step Instructions and GIFs

Does it drive you crazy when you're trying to learn something from a video and they just move too fast or cut away? It drives us up the wall.

What about recipe blogs? I have found so many great recipes online this way but getting to the recipe at the bottom and the page actually staying there seems to be just too much to ask. Pop-ups, page jerking up and down to accommodate a new banner ad or pop-out video ad. WHY!? I just wanted to make macarons!!

And recipe books - bless their hearts - are gorgeous and have tons of great information, but just the sheer function of a paper book means you and I are going on a choose-your-own-adventure, jumping forward and backward to different 'master method's or 'see page 167 for filling recipe's. How many bookmarks and dog ears can one book take?

One of our favourite features of this app is that you control the pace of the recipe.

You take your time, reread the instructions on each step, watch the repeating GIF over and over until you know you've got it, and then you decide when it's time to move on to the next step. Need a reminder of the ingredients? It's a scroll away. What's the next step again? Preview next step. On a 'dough resting' step and want to read more about Spelt flour? Go for it!

The timers will let you know when you need to return to the recipe.

Just the Start

Those are just a couple of our favourite features of the app, and this is just the beginning of this blog. We'll be adding new articles pretty regularly discussing everything from different tips and tricks, the science and history of sourdough, as well as updates and new features on SOURJOE.

In the meantime, sign up for our FREE 14-day trial and try it out for yourself!