Recipe Spelt Sourdough Starter

[Pat "5mph"]

Mod.Edit - this and following few posts moved to start a new thread

The reason why I wanted to make a sourdough starter was because I wanted to contribute to a baking thread on the cycling forum where they are all using it instead of commercial yeast, then I remembered about this forum.

Method for Sourdough Starter

1. I started with 50gr of wholemeal spelt flour and 50gr of water left for 48 hours in a glass jar covered in clingfilm with a couple of piercings for air to get in.
2. Fed it 50gr or flour (plain) and 50gr of water for another 2 days, by day 5 it was live and bubbly.
3. Instead of throwing away half at each feeding like the recipe said, I just split the amount between other jars, I now have 4 starters in the fridge, some to give to friends.
4. I soon got the hang of feeding the starter without measuring, just about a tablespoon of flour and water does it.
5. I keep them in the fridge not airtight, feed them once a week.

Method for baking sourdough loaves

1. A few days ago I woke a bit of starter up: was going to bake 2 x 500gr loaves, so I used 50gr of the starter, fed it with 50gr of flour and 50 of water.
2. Left it at room temperature for about 24 hours, loosely covered in clingfilm.
3. When it was double the size, I made my bread dough with 900gr of flour (plus warm water, add a level tablespoon of salt to the flour) let it rise for another 24 hours, then shaped it in 2 round breads, let it rise for another 24 hours, baked it at 200C (electric convection oven, I suspect a gas oven would be 220) for about 30 min, lowered the temperature to 180 for another 15 minutes.
4. Loaves are ready when they sound hollow if tapped underneath - careful not to burn yourself!

The discrepancy in the weight of the flour (I started with 900gr to make 2x 500gr loaves) approx is to account for the 100gr starter, plus the amount of extra flour you need for kneading.

Approximate quantities:

• 1 tablespoon of 50gr of live starter feed with 50gr of flour and 50gr of water=100gr of liven for 900gr of flour.
• How much warm (lukewarm or you'll kill the yeast) water? Enough to have a supple, moist but not sticky dough. Experiment starting with half a mug while kneading: not enough water makes a heavy bread, too much you'll need to add more flour, risking the leaven not to be enough to rise the dough.
• The flour you use also makes a difference: wholemeal makes a denser loaf, white a lighter one.

The taste compared to home baked bread using commercial yeast? Much tastier, takes longer but well worth it. The "sour" description is actually a bit inaccurate, it has a slight tangy taste that can be increased by leaving the dough rising for longer on the first rising. The taste compared to commercially made bread? Incomparable!

Pictures - as said up thread, this is my first effort using a homemade starter, previously I had only used shop bought dried yeast.

The small olive bread is OT, had some olive filling left over, so I used a bit of the wholemeal sourdough to raise a bit of flour and water to use up the leftover olive filling.
It worked.

 

[Wandering Bob]

Spectacular - and hugely impressive. If I understood correctly this is your first attempt with a sourdough starter? Wow - and wow again.

The starter was spelt - what flour did you use for the two loaves? an organic wholemeal? I also really like the 'X's on top of the loaves - not deep but just enough to let the dough open out a bit in the oven. A nice touch.

The olive bread looks delicious - you've used some cheese too?

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Spectacular - and hugely impressive. If I understood correctly this is your first attempt with a sourdough starter? Wow - and wow again.

The starter was spelt - what flour did you use for the two loaves? an organic wholemeal? I also really like the 'X's on top of the loaves - not deep but just enough to let the dough open out a bit in the oven. A nice touch.

The olive bread looks delicious - you've used some cheese too?

Yes, first attempt ever, got a lifetime supply of starter in my fridge now, as the pizza chef at work declined some, because it he can't be bothered with the feeding lol For the two loaves I used a wholemeal spelt bread flour (Cotswold) on special in Aldi's: I'm not normally into wholemeal, I like more granary, but we cannot refuse a special offer, can we

Also on special there was some French baguette flour, I used that for the olive bread (will start a new thread, because I used dried yeast that was already in the cupboard for that). French baguette flour: wow, what a nice texture! Ah, no cheese in the olive bread, that's another Greek bread called Tyropitta (cheese bread) or Halloumopitta (Halloumi Bread)

More to come in the next few days

 

[Wandering Bob]

Also on special there was some French baguette flour, I used that for the olive bread (will start a new thread, because I used dried yeast that was already in the cupboard for that).

I'm very curious about 'French baguette flour' ….I went down to a flour mill about 25km south of here a couple of years back and bought 10kg of their flour. I didn't like it much - it had a salty back taste and I'm fairly convinced that it was stuffed with yeast enhancers etc. I wonder what you've found....?

For those of us who haven't yet tried sourdough starters, any recipes you can share that use dried active yeast would be equally welcome. Thanks

But your immediate success with sourdough is inspirational. With all that starter left over, maybe you should open your own bakery ….?

 

[Morning Glory]

I recently attempted a sourdough starter too - but the results using it first time were a disaster. I made a fairly wet dough using white flour. It simply spread and 'puddled' and ended up dense, hard and inedible. The leaven was clearly not doing its job! The sourdough taste was evident. I was hoping for a beautiful open textured sourdough loaf with lovely big air pockets - this sort of thing.



I'm going to start the starter again!

 

[Morning Glory]

Also on special there was some French baguette flour,

I have some too, from Aldi.

 

[Elawin]

I seem to have an excess of sourdough starters too. I have two, both 500g, which I keep in the fridge and alternate when I want to make some bread. I use the same starters to make 3 lb tin loaves and pizza bases as well, although for my next batch of pizza bases I'm going to double up the quantities. The recipe I have should make 5 bases, but they are a bit too small for my liking, although OK for a lunchtime pizza. The tin loaf uses a sourdough starter plus a small quantity of dried active yeast too.

 

[sjm1027]

I seem to have an excess of sourdough starters too. I have two, both 500g, which I keep in the fridge and alternate when I want to make some bread. I use the same starters to make 3 lb tin loaves and pizza bases as well, although for my next batch of pizza bases I'm going to double up the quantities. The recipe I have should make 5 bases, but they are a bit too small for my liking, although OK for a lunchtime pizza. The tin loaf uses a sourdough starter plus a small quantity of dried active yeast too.

I have the same thing. I have a bread flour starter and a Rye starter. In a week I can have 2 to 3 cups of discard so I make waffles or pancakes with it. They are delicious.