Anyone make Sourdough Bread?

[Deleted User]

you don`t need to be fussy with sourdough leven, all it needs is feeding with flour and a bit of water when you remove some for baking or if it needs reviving after being dormant in the fridge. I make sourdough bread 3-4 times a week and my starter is 8 years old. I just use any amounts I think appropriate and if I want the starter to get particularly lively then I use 00 flour

There are loads of recipes for making SD breead, even a good one in the panasonic breadmaker, I have one slowly rising in there now
320g strong white flour
8g salt
bit of oil
140g water
205 ish g starter

french dough. Then leave 6-10 hours to rise. Then put on bake setting for 58 minutes

easy one in a pot
quickly and roughly mix 520g flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt (I dissolve it in water), 5 tbs starter. water to make a soft dough

all in a cast iron pot with lid on, leave all night. Bake 15 min at 240 (preheated) take lid of and bake 30-35 mins at 200

It looks flat but is lovely

or of course the traditional one, risen in a banetton and slashed and baked with lots of steam

or one with the last raise on parchment all in a bowl. The parchment is then lifted with slashed dough and dropped gently into a mega hot pot. Lid on for 15 mins and then removed and heat lowered (my favourite bread)

organic_wanabe

Thanks both Pen-Pen and Kittie.

I have taken out a couple of teaspoons of the leaven and mixed it with flour and water. Does that mean that tomorrow I have to discard some of it and feed it again and repeat for the next few days until I have an active starter? I'm a bit disappointed as I hoped to get some dough started tonight!

Also, what do I do with the rest of the leaven as there is quite a lot of it. Do I just leave it dormant in the fridge.

Kittie - are you indicating in your first paragraph that I can just use a cup of the leaven as that is what I had hoped to do? I had planned to add a cup of it to the other ingredients to start my sourdough and then feed what was left but then I noticed that it didn't have any bubbles. I am still confused about sourdough leaven and sourdough starter!

Thanks for all the suggestions above - I'll work my way through them to see which works best for me - that is if I ever get started! I too have a Panasonic but only use it to make bread dough and then cook my bread in the oven. Since I am new to sourdough baking I was either going to try very little kneading by hand or use my KitchenAid and dough hook (hadn't really planned that far ahead, but any advice would be appreciated). Also I was wondering about either cooking it in a Le Crueset pot in the oven or alternatively trying it in my Remoska Standard to save on fuel.

Bella56

Has anyone tried kamut or spelt sourdough, or.... kamut spelt sourdough? I'm doing a 50/50 spelt and kamut starter and plan to use it only with kamut and spelt flours, but I've heard that kamut is especially awkward and doesn't always go well? Any tips gratefully received.

Edited to add - I used a normal wholemeal sourdough recipe, and it worked great! I did the starter over around 4 days, adding a TBL each of spelt and kamut each day, twice some days depending on my mood (: then made the bread overnight/this morning. The spelt really helps keep the kamut in check. We tend to find kamut too heavy and boring on its own.

silvergirl14

I was dubious about this, but followed a recipe, (Google Laura Hart's Sourdough Bread). I made a starter in March 2011 and I am still using it. Sourdough bread has no fat or sugar in it, and you do not knead it. You stretch it and fold it corners to middle. Follow Laura Hart's instructions, to the letter. I don't use my breadmaker for ir, because of the no knead (no need geddit?).

I tried to make more starter in France in April and failed dismally, so I'll be making a new one there this coming year. Meanwhile the old one carries on smelling of fragrant yeast. I make two loaves at a time and it freezes beautifully in quarters. I use half Allinson's strong white bread flour (£2 for 3kgs) and half Sainsbury's wholemeal (£1.30 ish for 1.5 kilos) I use a kilo of the half and half mix for 2 loaves. Which makes a loaf really reasonable because it's only water and salt plus cooking after that. I got a bread/pizza stone from Amazon, it makes a difference. It's trial and error, but go slowly and enjoy the process. The less you handle the dough the better, and allow lots of air to get into it as you fold. :A

RHYSDAD

Just to resurrect a very old thread! I have a sourdough starter on day four and all seems well but the recipe i'm following keeps advising to discard most of it in the compost and re feed with 100ml water, 70g of white flour and 30g of Rye but my question is this: If i keep discarding most and only replenishing with 200g of water and flour, how the heck will i ever build it up? I'm always going to be left with just 200g of starter or am i being really thick? Help please!!!

bitsandpieces

Sounds fine. When the starter's ready to bake with, you'll take part of it to use for baking and feed what's left. 200g sounds like a sensible amount to keep.

RHYSDAD

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Sounds fine. When the starter's ready to bake with, you'll take part of it to use for baking and feed what's left. 200g sounds like a sensible amount to keep.

Oh really? So I'd only really need a small amount then? I saw River Cottage and Hugh had a massive spring top jar with about a couple of litres in so I just assumed....
It makes sense only to have a small amount I guess. Thanks for the reply bitsandpieces!

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

*One of my culinary ambitions* I love Sourdough Bread! Hi to fellow Sourdough MSE Fans.x

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goldrush-Sourdough-Starter-Product-0-5/dp/B0019F9ZQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326436984&sr=8-2
This is my proposed route into HM Sourdough Nirvana.
I am aware of of the proper way of making Sourdough and the long and painstaking (but worthwhile) business it is.

bitsandpieces

RHYSDAD wrote: »

Oh really? So I'd only really need a small amount then? I saw River Cottage and Hugh had a massive spring top jar with about a couple of litres in so I just assumed....
It makes sense only to have a small amount I guess. Thanks for the reply bitsandpieces!

Exactly how much you need depends on your starter, recipe etc. I've baked with about 100g of starter per loaf.

I suspect River Cottage may do a lot more baking than most home cooks. If you're baking lots of bread in the course of the day, you need more starter.