It is important that you use the same flour to resurrect and maintain your Starter that it was made from because different flours have different strains of wild yeast so introducing a new flour’s yeast may compete with the strain happily thriving in the Starter you worked so hard to make. If you decide to use a different flour, discard half of your Starter before feeding with new flour and feed it twice/week for 3 weeks before using. You can use a different flour for baking because the wild yeast in it won’t have time to compete with your Starter’s yeast.
What Makes Sourdough Bread so Unique And Healthy?
Sourdough bread is different from other bread because it uses a Slow Fermentation process from wild yeast naturally found in the flour and lacto-acid bacteria from the environment. It has been around since ancient Egypt and all bread was “Sourdough” until packaged yeast was invented in 1840.
There is an historical debate about which came first: Sourdough Bread or Beer, because they both use the same fermentation process, but the bottling of beer traps the alcohol and Carbon Dioxide inside the keg or bottle, whereas the Carbon Dioxide in the dough puffs it up making it light an airy and the alcohol evaporates.
The benefits of Slow Fermentation in bread making are 1) Gives the bread a wonderful tangy sour taste with crispy crust and chewy middle, 2) Increases the bioavailability of B Vitamins and can even increase the amount of Vitamin B12, 3) Breaks down phytic acid that inhibits absorption of minerals like Iron, and 4) Breaks down some of the gluten making it easier to digest. (Many of my gluten intolerant friends can eat my bread will no ill effects!)