Haven’t made a Sourdough loaf for over two months; my starter has been languishing, forgotten, at the back of the fridge. Took it out on Thursday morning, poured off the hooch (the brown liquid that forms) and transferred around 50g of what was left into a clean Kilner Jar and fed it with 100g flour, 100ml of water at 28°. 4 hours later, I repeated the 100g flour 100ml water and by bedtime Thursday had an almost full jar of fresh, revitalised starter.
Friday lunchtime I boosted the starter with another 50g flour, 50ml water and at 4pm I started the whole process to make the loaf. The recipe I use takes 6 hours before the dough is placed in a Banneton for its final prove. As I wanted to bake it first thing today, Saturday, it spent the night proving in the fridge.
Tastes as good as it looks.
Thank you for your views, comments and favs on yesterday’s offering. Much appreciated.
Is it difficult to get the starter going? I have often wondered about giving this a try but it always sounded very complicated. Your bread looks fantastic!
@casablanca No, not really - I did it when we (UK) first went into lockdown in May and you couldn’t get bread or yeast anywhere.
To start from scratch, get a Kilner jar, remove the rubber seal, put 50g of strong bread flour and 50ml of water at around 28° and stir. Leave it 24 hours on your kitchen counter. Next day, it will have risen a bit and you’ll see bubbles as it’s beginning to ferment. Feed it 50g flour, 50ml water and leave another 24 hours. It will be fermenting more, more bubbles. Add another 50g flour 50ml water and by day 4 you should have a fresh, bubbling Sourdough starter.
Recipes are all over the internet for Sourdough - I follow this one with a few changes that I’ve played with since first lockdown.
@casablanca You’re very welcome. Something quite magical making your own ‘yeast’ and using it to bake a loaf of bread (that said, my first couple of attempts could have easily been used as a house brick)
@phil_sandford Hi Phil I finally have a Kilner glass too, thanks for the link. I do have a question if I may? When you have your starter in the jar, do you close it tightly? The recipe for a starter that I have says to loosely cover with a cloth or clear foil! I would appreciate some advice from a professional sourdough bread baker :-)
To start from scratch, get a Kilner jar, remove the rubber seal, put 50g of strong bread flour and 50ml of water at around 28° and stir. Leave it 24 hours on your kitchen counter. Next day, it will have risen a bit and you’ll see bubbles as it’s beginning to ferment. Feed it 50g flour, 50ml water and leave another 24 hours. It will be fermenting more, more bubbles. Add another 50g flour 50ml water and by day 4 you should have a fresh, bubbling Sourdough starter.
Recipes are all over the internet for Sourdough - I follow this one with a few changes that I’ve played with since first lockdown.
https://youtu.be/4SnaYYXam_E
When not using the starter, store it in the fridge and ‘feed it’ every couple of weeks (unlike me)
Good luck if you have a go.
Kilner Square Glass Clip Top Jar with Airtight Rubber Seal, Transparent https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009L5XW32/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_7OqUFbJ03VM92
Take the rubber seal (mine is bright orange) out of the lid and close it with the metal clasp - that way it's closed, but it's not sealed.