Anyone make Sourdough Bread?

beingfrugal

Excellent, now that's money saving! When you say feed it, do you mean replace the flour and water that you would remove to make a batch of bread? Have I got that correctly?

Pink.

Hi hotcookie,

As your thread has dropped down the Old style board I've added it to the existing thread on sourdough bread to keep the replies and advice together.

Pink

hotcookie101

Am just watching river cottage everyday from thursday when he made sourdough. Now he just did one rising-so overnight sponge, add flour, knead and shape and prove then bake, where in the book he kneads, then leaves to rise, knocks back and shapes, proves then bakes.
Does anyone make it with just the one rising? It would make my life a little easier if I could shape in the morning and leave to prove in the day to bake at tea time.
Thanks

spend_thrift

I only ever prove sourdough once. The reason for knocking back is to knock out any large air bubbles in the dough, and my sourdough starter doesn't tend to rise as vigorously as commercial yeast (which doubles in an hour) so it doesn't have many large bubbles.

You can control how long your bread takes to rise by controlling the amount of sponge you use in your bread. 1 cup of sponge gives a dough that will rise in about 4 hours and have a milder taste. 1/4 cup of sponge gives a dough that might take 12 hours to rise and has a more sour taste.

(The numbers are approximate as your starter will be different to mine, so YMMV )

Think about it this way - the more yeast you add (ie the more starter you add) the more yeast there is to chomp through the flour, so the quicker the dough will rise. Adding less yeast (ie less starter), means it will take the yeasties longer to chomp through the flour.

spend_thrift

beingfrugal wrote: »

Excellent, now that's money saving! When you say feed it, do you mean replace the flour and water that you would remove to make a batch of bread? Have I got that correctly?

Yes. Feeding it means giving it fresh water and flour. If you're maintaining the starter then remove half and feed the other half. If you're building up a little bit of starter into a sponge, then you don't need to remove any.

If the starter lives in the fridge, feed it every 2-4 weeks. If it is out on the side, feed it every 12 hours ish.

lindseykim13

I've had a search and it all looks very complicated! I thought stupidly to make sourdough i would just get a basic bread recipe and add something like sour cream to make it. I have discovered i'm way out!

Is there not a simple way of getting something that tastes similar to sourdough without all that dodgy might give the kids food poisoning lark :eek:

I like the taste of it but it's not v cheap alternitivly i'm happy to give making the starter a go but could somone put it very simply for me what you have to do? All the instructions i've read are talking about feeding and keeping it for months etc just seems weird to me with only ever using a bit of flour/yeast to make white bread before.

Seakay

Perhaps what you were thinking of was soda bread rather than sourdough?
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/607368
It's a simple recipe, doesn't use yeast, doesn't require you to make a starter. Only thing is, the bread won't stay fresh for more than a couple of days.
The instructions you refer to are to create a sourdough starter - it takes a week to ten days in the first instance and you keep it in the fridge ready to use thereafter. If you don't want to use yeast but want a loaf that keeps there isn't really a way around this

bees**knees

You can buy the starter on ebay - comes with instructions for using and making sourdough bread as well I think. ( search for sourdough starter).
Havent tried it myself but one day when i get the time...;)
Also a good thread on sourdough bread if you search on the forum.

kymbogs

It is very very easy, though if you read the whole process in one go it can be a bit daunting. Just take it a stage at a time.

Start off your starter - it's just flour and warm water, the one I used recommends using wholeweat flour rather than white (bread flour obv.) Cover it with clingfilm (though I keep mine in a jar with a clippy lid) and keep it in a fairly normal temp (not too hot or cold). Check on it every day for signs of life, basically a good head of bubbles, this can take anything from a day to a week, mine tend to take 3-4 days to get going.

When you have your first signs of life, look at the next set of instructions for feeding lol.

Caterina

If you can get hold of organic grapes (in order to avoid washing pesticides into your bread) you can use the water in which you have washed the grapes to start your starter, as it will be rich in the natural yeasts that grow on the skin of grapes.

I have a starter sitting there doing nothing at the moment, I really need to get baking soon before it goes off completely!