Recipe Sourdough Starter

[Elawin]

Ingredients:

Day 1:

50 g wholegrain rye flour
50 g cold water

Days 2, 3, 4, and 5:

1 tbsp wholegrain rye flour
1 tbsp cold water

Method:

1. On day 1, just mix the flour and water together. Cover with a tea towel and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
2. Each consecutive day, add 1 tbsp of flour and 1 tbsp of water to your existing starter, and mix. By day 5 it should be nice and lively, with some bubbling and a slightly alcoholic aroma.
3. Store in the fridge in an airtight container and use at least once a fortnight. Before use, feed with 75 g rye flour and 75 g water (or whatever volume your recipe requires) and leave at room temperature for 8 hours.

Stiff Starter

Feed your rye starter a good 8 hours before you make this, so that it is nice and lively.

Ingredients:

85 g strong white bread flour
43 g water
42 g rye starter (see above)

Method:

1. Put the flour, water and starter into a bowl and mix until combined.
2. Cover with cling film or a shower cap and leave at room temperature for 8-14 hours.

Notes:

1. You can use any flour to make a starter, but we recommend using a wholegrain rye flour (and we use this in our production bakery). Rye starters tend to be a bit heartier and more resilient than their white counterparts.
2. It should take about 6 days to create a healthy, bubbly starter. By this point, your starter should have a honeycomb pattern of bubbles in it and a slightly alcoholic aroma.
3. During these first 6 days (when you’re feeding and growing your starter), it should be kept loosely covered at room temperature.
4. If you’re not baking with your starter straight away, put it into the fridge, with the lid of the container firmly fastened. If you’re not baking regularly with your starter, you’ll need to give it a feed (50 g of flour and 50 g of water) every 2 weeks.
5. If you are going on holiday for more than 2 weeks, you can freeze your starter. Once you are ready to use it again, allow it to defrost at room temperature, and feed it daily (50 g of flour and 50 g of water) until it’s back to its bubbly self (this may take a few days).
6. If a liquid appears on top of the starter, don’t worry – it’s harmless and is referred to as ‘hooch’, which is naturally occurring alcohol. It’s basically your starter saying ‘I am hungry’ and ‘FEED ME’ The hooch can either be poured off or mixed back into your starter – we are ‘hooch in’ at Bread Ahead.
7. If your starter begins to smell like dirty nappies, or the result of a night on the Brussels sprouts, it’s time to throw it away and start again. Simply give it a stir (it will probably have a sizeable layer of hooch on it by this point in time), then transfer 50 g to a new container (discard the rest) and feed it daily with 50 g of water and 50 g of flour until it’s bubbly and ready for use.
8. Once you decide you’re going to bake a loaf of bread, you’ll need to feed your starter 8-12 hours before you bake (if you’re using a wholegrain starter you’ll need to feed it at least 8 hours before; if you’re using a white starter, you’ll need to feed it at least 12 hours before). Take a look at your recipe, and if it calls for 150 g of starter, feed your starter with 75 g of flour and 75 g of water so that the total volume of added ingredients is 150 g. then leave your starter out at room temperature, covered loosely, until you’re ready to use it.

Recipes and notes from: Baking School: The Bread Ahead Cookbook by Matthew Jones, Justin Gellatly and Louise Gellatly

My notes:

1. I keep my starter in a Tupperware – lid just resting on if being kept at room temperature, lid on tight if in the fridge. Mine has only been in the fridge once, and then only for 3 days, and I just fed it 1 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp water for a couple of days till it recovered.
2. They do recommend only keeping 500 g of starter maximum. (Mine weighs about 220 g at the moment, after making 3 loaves, which last me 4-5 days each.) Don’t throw it away! You can freeze the excess in case of absolutely dire emergencies, and don’t forget you can use it to make pizza bases, loaves for the freezer, white (off-white, if you use an unbleached wholegrain starter) tin loaves, rolls, some flat breads – the list is almost endless), or you can just give it away to a friend.
3. If you need any more information, or the recipes (far more than just bread), you’ll have to buy the book!

My starter aka mother:

Loaf no. 3

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm' thinking about trying that!!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I did try that, before reading the above recipe, so with slightly different quantities and times.
See here