Yippee! Today my latest sourdough starter came to life.
Once a year, more or less, I go through a sourdough phase. Not only is sourdough bread delicious, but creating and nurturing a starter is rather like having a pet, but without the vet bills or the litter trays.
There are loads of sites on the interweb giving complex recipies, techniques and incantations for the generaition of sourdough starters. They seem to be there to put people off. It's ever so easy really. Here's how to do it.
Take a pot, jar or bowl that will hold about 1l.
Put about 100g of flour in it (it doesn't matter what type) and enough water to make a stiff batter.
Stir well.
Do nothing for 24 hours.
Stir in another 100g of flour and more water to return it to the stiff batter consistency.
Stir well.
Do nothing for 24 hours.
Use half of you mixture in your next batch of bread (using your normal recipe), or just throw it away.
Stir in another 100g of flour and more water to return it to the stiff batter consistency.
Stir well.
etc.
After four or five days the mixture will start to magically rise, as the natural yeasts and lactic acids in the flour take hold. Your starter is alive!
Once you have your live starter, you're ready to make some bread.
I cheat. I make the dough in my bread machine, using half the starter instead of yeast. But I bake it in the oven - it's much nicer that way.
You need to keep the starter alive by feeding it and watering it, but that's fine if you make bread every couple of days or so.
Experiment with different bread recipes. Because you can't control which types of yeast develop your starter will be different to any other starter, so try out diferent types of bread to fund out which works best.
And when you're bored of having a bowl of gunge lying around the kitchen, simply forget to keep half the starter back when you make bread. That way you dispose of your annoying pet (in time for the family holiday) but without the guilt associated with leaving it by the side of the motorway...
Happy baking!
Once a year, more or less, I go through a sourdough phase. Not only is sourdough bread delicious, but creating and nurturing a starter is rather like having a pet, but without the vet bills or the litter trays.
There are loads of sites on the interweb giving complex recipies, techniques and incantations for the generaition of sourdough starters. They seem to be there to put people off. It's ever so easy really. Here's how to do it.
Take a pot, jar or bowl that will hold about 1l.
Put about 100g of flour in it (it doesn't matter what type) and enough water to make a stiff batter.
Stir well.
Do nothing for 24 hours.
Stir in another 100g of flour and more water to return it to the stiff batter consistency.
Stir well.
Do nothing for 24 hours.
Use half of you mixture in your next batch of bread (using your normal recipe), or just throw it away.
Stir in another 100g of flour and more water to return it to the stiff batter consistency.
Stir well.
etc.
After four or five days the mixture will start to magically rise, as the natural yeasts and lactic acids in the flour take hold. Your starter is alive!
Once you have your live starter, you're ready to make some bread.
I cheat. I make the dough in my bread machine, using half the starter instead of yeast. But I bake it in the oven - it's much nicer that way.
You need to keep the starter alive by feeding it and watering it, but that's fine if you make bread every couple of days or so.
Experiment with different bread recipes. Because you can't control which types of yeast develop your starter will be different to any other starter, so try out diferent types of bread to fund out which works best.
And when you're bored of having a bowl of gunge lying around the kitchen, simply forget to keep half the starter back when you make bread. That way you dispose of your annoying pet (in time for the family holiday) but without the guilt associated with leaving it by the side of the motorway...
Happy baking!
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