Gotta say it sounded pretty scary
to make at first, sounded complicated and at first i was gunna flag it. So I
keep looking around and tried t find the simplest way to do it, I mean, gee,
some versions you needed juice, the tears of a virgin angels, pulling, pushing,
folding and prove in the northwest point of an ancient burial ground and only
make on the full moon! Thats what put me off...
So anyway this is the way I came
up with this to make it as easy and as least complicated as possible, I ended
up finding it very easy, you just have to get the timing right. Next bake I
will try a 14 hours prove, so I will form the dough at 6pm, leave until 10am
and then bake.
You can play around with the
amount to accommodate the loaf tin you use. I used 200g starter, 400g flour,
10g salt and about 200ml approx of warm water, mix with your hands until it
come together and just knead 1-2 minutes until smooth, its pretty quick. The
starter is whole spelt flour and the flour I make the dough with is white spelt
flour.
You then put in your loaf tin,
slash the top of the loaf. Sprinkle flour on top once its in the tin and cover
and leave for 12-18 hours
(until nearly doubled) depending
on how warm your place is. This process can be some trial and error, you will
probably get a different loaf every time...lol.
 |
| Before proving |
 |
| after 12 hours proving |
I have baked at 230c for 20
minutes and then turned down to 180 for another 10-15 minutes. If you are not
sure if its cooked you can always slice the end off, i do, then eat the hot
crust with plenty of butter, chuck it back in if it still looks a little wet.
Starting the sourdough:
Whisk ¼ cup of flour and ¼ of a
cup of water in a small bowl. Pour this into a jar, and let it sit for twelve
hours.
Twelve hours later, whisk in ¼
cup of flour with ¼ of a cup water and continue this every 12 hours for 7-14
days until your starter is bubbling. As you feed your starter, take care to
whisk in the flour and water thoroughly into the established starter aerating
the starter will help to yield the best and most reliable results.
To accommodate for expansion of
the sourdough when it’s fed, make sure that your jar is only half full after
each feeding. If you’ve made too much sourdough starter for the capacity of
your jar, pour some off and use it in sourdough biscuits, sourdough pancakes or
sourdough crackers
 |
| 12 day starter, should have lots of bubbles |
Maintaining the sourdough: After
1-2 weeks, your sourdough should be sturdy enough to withstand storage. If you
bake infrequently (that is: if you bake less than once a week), you can store
your sourdough in the refrigerator, bring it to room temperature and feed it
well about twelve hours before you plan to make a loaf.
If you bake more frequently every
day or a few times a week you can store your sourdough at room temperature and
feed it.
Special considerations: If a
brown liquid appears floating on top of your sourdough starter, simply pour it
off. Sourdough bakers call this liquid hooch, and it is harmless; however, it often signifies that you’ve fed your starter too much water in relation to flour or have let your
starter go too long between feedings. Sourdough starters are relatively resilient, and bounce back quickly once you resume proper care of them
.
