We have taken on the nurture of another little life in this busy household of ours – one that pops up in homes up and down the country. Yes we have our own sourdough starter. Making bread and even cakes using natural yeast leaven takes a little thought, a change of pace. Yet the effort is rewarded with a more developed flavour. We are making our pizzas and flatbreads this way as well as regular loaves. Dan Lepard, a baking guru and someone who makes fabulous loaves the gentle way (a caress more than a kneading of dough) is someone we admire. Our copy of his book Short and Sweet is covered in flour and sugar stains, the loaf cakes and cookies being particular favourites. We love his writing and the simplicity of his recipes.
When we discovered Dan was holding a masterclass on making sourdough bread at the little Cookery School in Great Portland Street, it was too good an opportunity to let pass, so Pierre went along.
Here are the tips from the course and Pierre’s experience of making sourdough regularly over the last few months.
Note that we cannot even begin to transmit all the science of sourdough – take a look at Dan’s super book the Handmade Loaf, and the blog Azelia’s Kitchen as good UK-based resources.
Making the starter:
First off don’t stress about it. A starter is a mix of different yeast and some bacteria such as lactobacilli. The proportion will vary according to the ambient temperature and hydration status of the starter. It will flourish with feeding, but sometimes it may go bad and smelly, liquid etc. There are ways to rescue a starter that has gone bad, some people have starters going for years.
If you are new at this though, you could just get a new culture going. It is just a matter of days and you will still make great loaves. Our current starter has been going 2 months and yields a light, airy loaf with a slightly sour taste that is just as good fresh or toasted. We had a great starter before that which went off track during the very hot weather spells over the summer.
The natural leaven (starter) you use instead of bakers yeast needs to be established by fermentation of the natural yeast bacteria that are found on grains of flour (dark rye is particularly good apparently). You can boost this with other yeast-laden things such as raisins and yoghurt. You could start with a rye flour leaven and when the culture is well established and bubbling you can feed it white, wholemeal or any type of flour you want remembering the taste will change accordingly.
Here is what we do:
Day1: You need a clean and dry large glass wide mouthed jar with a loose fitting lid. Add in 50ml lukewarm water, 2 tablespoons each of Rye Flour and Strong White flour. You can add a teaspoon of raisins to boost the yeast growth (we do this).
Day2: Mix the starter, add 50ml water and stir the mixture. Add 2 tablespoons each of Rye flour and Strong White and mix. Push the flour from the edge downwards to ensure the starter has even thickness.
Day 3: if the mixture is bubbling and starts to look active, pass it through a sieve to remove the remnants of raisins into a new clean glass jar and feed it again (as you did above – water, then flour, mixing before and after each addition). If it is not yet bubbling much, leave the mixture another day.
Day 4: The mixture is likely to be bubbling well and increasing in volume now, in which case you can remove three quarters of the leaven and discard or use in a loaf. Feed it again as on day 2. You can now move to feeding with the flour of your choice.
Day 5 onwards – you will need to feed it every few days depending on how often you make bread.
You can freeze portions of starter and then feed and refresh it as you bring it to room temperature, but we have not done that. We keep it in the fridge if we go away to slow down the growth.
Thanks to Dan for the excellent tips and we are now making all kinds of loaves.
Soon to come on Franglais Kitchen – making regular loaves, sourdough naan bread and some sweet sourdough baking.
Dan has also been doing sourdough classes with Vanessa Kimbell at her Juniper and Rose school of cooking where Vanessa herself also holds regular classes that are highly popular.
Fantastic looking loaves!
thanks. They do come out well and now we are used to sourdough it is too addictive and we have gone off regular loaves
I love this type of bread – with the holes and the slightly sour taste!
We like to make our own bread , too. When I get rye flour I think I’ll give it a try your way.
Thanks for sharing!
that sounds super. To be honest Helen I am sure you can start it with normal flour too. The raisins are a good help in getting some yeast into the mix
You might just tempt me to give sourdough another go. I had one for about 7 months, but came across the opposite issue to your summer batch – it got too cold for my starter. Perhaps winter isn’t the best time for Scots to start a sourdough ‘baby’ but maybe with a little insulation I might have more success. In any case we LOVE anything sourdough and your cut loaf looks perfect. I have had a go at sourdough choc chip cookies and they were pretty fab so maybe try making biscuits with the bit that normally gets chucked (I hate chucking it!). I look forward to your sweet naans, btw.
thanks Kellie. It is interesting to see how well the sweet bakes come out. The naan bread is a work in progress. I need a recipe that will deliver the same soft and puffy bread as the yeasted version
I keep telling myself to make my sourdough starter, still hasn’t happened. I will do it before the end of the year. Looking at your airy light loaf I know it will be worth it. I will be following your sourdough recipes closely, love the flavour so much!
do give it a go Laura. I mknow you are an expert breadmaker so I think you would like getting this one under your belt.
Thank you for the great tips. I love making brad, but I’m totally out of the habit now. When I used to make it more often I used the more old-fashioned technique using old dough. I’ save some from each loaf before it was baked and left it to develop.
Thanks Jac. You make an important point – essentially that is what a starter is – a cultured bread dough that you feed when the yeast and bacteria digest the existing flour.
Lovely photo of Dan and Pierre. I’m quite envious of the masterclass with Dan, but I shouldn’t complain as I had four days with Andrew Whitley a few years ago. My rye sourdough is still going strong from then. I keep meaning to use it to make a different sourdough for a change, but in all these years, I still haven’t managed it.
This is a really useful guide you’ve given and long may your newest lifeform continue to thrive.
This is a really timely post as I am planning on starting a sourdough culture this week. Thanks for the hints and tips.