SOURDOUGH STARTER: THE BIRTH
INGREDIENTS AND WHAT YOU NEED:
DAY ONE
Mix well, put in the glass jar and cover with a thin cloth. Leave it to rest in the kitchen at room temperature.
DAY TWO
After 24 hours, take 50gr from the day one mix (throw away the rest) and add 50gr of water and 50gr of the same flour. Repeat this for 10-15 days. At this stage, the part of mix that you don’t use has to be thrown away, as it’s too acidic and can’t be used to bake (someone suggested to dilute it well and use it to water your vegetable patch).
After a while you should start to see some bubbles on the mix’s surface as well as on the sides. This means that the fermentation has started.
These bubbles will normally start to appear after just a few days, but this doesn’t mean that your starter is ready. Keep patiently feeding it every day.
You will know that it’s ready when:
its volume grows in the 8/10 hours after you’ve fed it
it has a slightly acidic smell, but not too strong; it should remind you of fresh yogurt
Once you’ll notice these characteristics, and not before 10-15 days, you can start using it to bake bread. From now on keep it in the fridge and only take it out when needed.
SOURDOUGH STARTER: THE LIFE OR THE FEEDING
Once your sourdough starter is ready and working, it’s important you keep it alive by feeding it. This operation is simply called the feeding, and this is how I’ll refer to it from now on. You have to feed your starter every time you want to bake some bread.
Feeding your starter is very simple:
weigh the starter, add the same weight of flour and water and mix well (for example: if you have 100gr of starter, add 100gr of flour and 100gr of water).
For this procedure I always use the same flour: stoneground biodynamic plain flour.
I suggest you bake bread at least once a week. This way you’ll have a vital starter, as well as a delicious bread and always fresh.
FEED THE STARTER
WHAT YOU NEED:
STEPS:
Weigh the amount of sourdough that you want to feed (e.g. 80gr)
Put it in a bowl
Weight the same amount of water and flour (e.g. 80gr flour, 80gr water, 80gr starter)
Add water and flour to the starter in the bowl. Mix well until you get a uniform mixture
Put everything in the clean jar
Close (not too tightly) and put in the fridge
THE BREAD TIMESCALE
The bread timescale is a table that will help you remember at what time of the day you’ll have to do each step of your bread making process.
My suggestion is to print it and hang it on the fridge, so that you can quickly have a look at it at all times.
I have avoided to put any specific times on purpose, because there’s no standardised bread timescale. There are as many timescales as there are hands that bake the bread.
Every starter is different, alive, it breathes.. let’s learn to breathe with it.
I have left an empty column beside each step: there, if you wish, you can write the time at which you do each step.
It might be very useful, especially at the start, to check the timescale and correct anything that doesn’t work.
You’ll see that the exact time of each step will change according to the season and the temperature of the room in which you’ll make the bread.
MOUNTAIN BREAD PATTERN
Share your natural bread on Instagram tagging @mas_del_saro
Use the hashtag #masdelsaro so that I can see what comes out of your oven following my recipes.
One year ago, I resolved that I would learn to make all of the bread products my family needed. With an ever-shrinking bank account battling current inflation prices, I would walk the aisles of our local markets frustrated that I did not possess the skills required to make most of the things I needed to purchase…
Stained glass windows date back to the 7th century. With the earliest known reference dating
from 675 AD when workmen were imported from France to Britain to Glaze the windows of a
monastery…
Like many in this homesteading space, this has been a completely unexpected journey for our family.
Even 10 years ago I would have laughed at the thought of getting up to milk a cow each morning and
canning endless amounts of tomatoes…
I am a Hopesteader. I haven’t always tried to look for the silver lining in most any situation. It’s a skill that has encouraged me to spur on and learn and read and do and gain experience by turning knowledge into wisdom…
Greetings! I’m Mandy Vander Kolk, a joyfully married mother of three, suburban homesteader, and sourdough enthusiast! From very early on, I have had a great love for the natural world.
