My Love-Hate Relationship with Sourdough
Hello there!
During the peak of lockdown I did lots of baking, and when I say that I mean LOTS of baking. I did decide to jump on the sourdough bandwagon and make my own starter during this time. After a week and lots of love, my starter (called Stewart...yes I named it!) became my baking companion. However, in the words of Shakespeare: 'the course of love never did run smoothly' and this was definitely the case for me and sourdough. This is my love-hate relationship with sourdough, including some tips and tricks along the way. Enjoy!
You can't have a lovely light and airy sourdough loaf without a good sourdough starter so you do want to spend some time doing research on this. There are quite a few different methods you can follow and I am by no means an expert but this is the method I followed:
Day 1: Take a clean jar with a lid, then add 50g strong bread flour and 50g water. Combine well and leave in a warm place, without the lid and covered with a damp tea towel
Day 2 -5: Add another 50g strong bread flour and 50g water each day. Leave in a warm place with a damp tea towel on top.
Day 6: At this point it should begin to smell sour and bubbly. Add another 50g strong bread flour and 50g water
After this point, you can either leave the starter at room temperature and use straight away but you will need to feed it every day. If you don't plan on baking often you can place the starter in the fridge with the lid on and feed with 50g water and 50g strong bread flour every 2 weeks. If you get any liquid on top forming between feeding called "hooch" just drain it off before feeding.
Some recipes suggest that you discard some starter before feeding and I didn't do this when I was first growing my starter but if you haven't used the starter for a while yet are still feeding it every 2 weeks you will need to discard some otherwise the water and flour you add won't be enough to feed the whole starter.
Tip: I found that my starter had a much stronger aroma to it when it was hungry so if you find this you might just need to feed it once in the morning and once at night for the aroma to soften in sourness.
During the peak of lockdown I did lots of baking, and when I say that I mean LOTS of baking. I did decide to jump on the sourdough bandwagon and make my own starter during this time. After a week and lots of love, my starter (called Stewart...yes I named it!) became my baking companion. However, in the words of Shakespeare: 'the course of love never did run smoothly' and this was definitely the case for me and sourdough. This is my love-hate relationship with sourdough, including some tips and tricks along the way. Enjoy!
For starters...the starter!
 |
| This is the jar I keep my starter in |
Day 1: Take a clean jar with a lid, then add 50g strong bread flour and 50g water. Combine well and leave in a warm place, without the lid and covered with a damp tea towel
Day 2 -5: Add another 50g strong bread flour and 50g water each day. Leave in a warm place with a damp tea towel on top.
Day 6: At this point it should begin to smell sour and bubbly. Add another 50g strong bread flour and 50g water
After this point, you can either leave the starter at room temperature and use straight away but you will need to feed it every day. If you don't plan on baking often you can place the starter in the fridge with the lid on and feed with 50g water and 50g strong bread flour every 2 weeks. If you get any liquid on top forming between feeding called "hooch" just drain it off before feeding.
 |
| You can see the bubbles on top a few hours after feeding |
Tip: I found that my starter had a much stronger aroma to it when it was hungry so if you find this you might just need to feed it once in the morning and once at night for the aroma to soften in sourness.
Practice makes perfect
It's a cliche but practice really makes perfect when it comes to making sourdough. Trust me, I had my fair share of sourdough disasters before I got a half decent loaf. One attempt even came out completely hollow in the middle! Still have no clue why that happened!
I would recommend having a look at a variety of recipes and watching some videos on YouTube to get a sense of the different stages involved. Whilst it is a long process, the actual hands-on time isn't that much.
Tips:
Float test - It isn't a fool-proof method but a good indication that your starter is ready to bake with is if it floats when a spoonful is placed in water. It should have enough bubbles in it to help it float which you want to create a light and bubbly dough.
Hydration - The hydration of your dough is something you probably want to consider when you first start making sourdough. For many people, they struggle because sourdough is a much wetter dough than other bread doughs. To help, you might want to do a dough that is about 70% hydration, or a lower ratio of water to flour, so it is easier to handle. Once you're confident with shaping and handling you can gradually increase the hydration level.
Rice flour - I learnt this tip from watching videos by Ed Kimber and it is a game-changer when it comes to shaping. You can buy sourdough proving baskets which are lined but if you don't want to get one of those you can use a bowl lined with a linen cloth. However, no matter what you use make sure you dust it with rice flour! The rice flour won't be absorbed by the dough like bread flour would so when you turn it out it will keep its shape with no sticking. Simply brush off the excess before baking.
Dutch oven - I would say there is few pieces of equipment you need to make sourdough loaves and one is a Dutch oven or a casserole pot. The cast iron helps to make the pot very hot and this is ideal for giving the bread its airy texture. However, if you don't have a casserole dish there are other sourdough recipes that don't require one, such as bagels. Other recipe ideas are listed below.
 |
| This loaf took many attempts and it isn't perfect, it just takes practice |
I would recommend having a look at a variety of recipes and watching some videos on YouTube to get a sense of the different stages involved. Whilst it is a long process, the actual hands-on time isn't that much.
Tips:
Float test - It isn't a fool-proof method but a good indication that your starter is ready to bake with is if it floats when a spoonful is placed in water. It should have enough bubbles in it to help it float which you want to create a light and bubbly dough.
Hydration - The hydration of your dough is something you probably want to consider when you first start making sourdough. For many people, they struggle because sourdough is a much wetter dough than other bread doughs. To help, you might want to do a dough that is about 70% hydration, or a lower ratio of water to flour, so it is easier to handle. Once you're confident with shaping and handling you can gradually increase the hydration level.
Rice flour - I learnt this tip from watching videos by Ed Kimber and it is a game-changer when it comes to shaping. You can buy sourdough proving baskets which are lined but if you don't want to get one of those you can use a bowl lined with a linen cloth. However, no matter what you use make sure you dust it with rice flour! The rice flour won't be absorbed by the dough like bread flour would so when you turn it out it will keep its shape with no sticking. Simply brush off the excess before baking.Dutch oven - I would say there is few pieces of equipment you need to make sourdough loaves and one is a Dutch oven or a casserole pot. The cast iron helps to make the pot very hot and this is ideal for giving the bread its airy texture. However, if you don't have a casserole dish there are other sourdough recipes that don't require one, such as bagels. Other recipe ideas are listed below.
Uses of your starter
This is my favourite sourdough recipe, I just find it creates the most even bubbles in the loaf and has a great texture: ttps://www.abeautifulplate.com/artisan-sourdough-bread-recipe/
However, there are plenty of other uses for your starter that aren't just a standard loaf. Some other uses that I have tried including:
Focaccia loaves
Bagels
Pretzels
Pancakes (using starter discard)
I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful, especially if you're just starting out with sourdough. It is challenging and certainly not as easier as other breads to master but that almost makes it even more rewarding when you do. I would highly recommend giving it a go to anyone and you can easily fit it around your schedule even if you work full-time. There are endless limits to what you can make so get creative with your starter and, well, get started!
If you liked this post, visit my full blog at:
https://littlechefbeth.blogspot.com
However, there are plenty of other uses for your starter that aren't just a standard loaf. Some other uses that I have tried including:
Focaccia loaves
Bagels
Pretzels
Pancakes (using starter discard)
I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful, especially if you're just starting out with sourdough. It is challenging and certainly not as easier as other breads to master but that almost makes it even more rewarding when you do. I would highly recommend giving it a go to anyone and you can easily fit it around your schedule even if you work full-time. There are endless limits to what you can make so get creative with your starter and, well, get started!
If you liked this post, visit my full blog at:
https://littlechefbeth.blogspot.com
Comments