Pat "5mph"
Guru
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
Approximate quantities:
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.
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
- 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.
- Fed it 50gr or flour (plain) and 50gr of water for another 2 days, by day 5 it was live and bubbly.
- 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.
- I soon got the hang of feeding the starter without measuring, just about a tablespoon of flour and water does it.
- I keep them in the fridge not airtight, feed them once a week.
- 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.
- Left it at room temperature for about 24 hours, loosely covered in clingfilm.
- 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.
- Loaves are ready when they sound hollow if tapped underneath - careful not to burn yourself!
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.
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.
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