Sourdough bread
We often buy sourdough bread –but often it is in short
supply and I have not found any lately in the shops. We have only been shopping once a week so not a
great expert on availability of it.
I have made it in
the past so thought I would try again.
In our local shops there is plenty of sliced bread, but
bread flour and yeast are in short supply. Fortunately, I have got bread flour
in the cupboard along with a whole variety of flours –or rather odds and ends
of them leftover from various projects.
I have not found yeast anywhere so decided to go back to
making sourdough bread. So, this is my
story
Sour Dough bread
I used to do a radio program with Vanessa the “sourdough
guru” who runs schools on making it.
I do not pretend to be an expert, but it has worked and
is quite easy
To make the bread you do need a starter and there are lots
of recipes for making one or you can buy one. I just make mine from basically
flour and water. Some make them with yogurt and other ingredients. Other
people even name them as they are a living thing which takes on a life of its
own as you must feed them. So, all quite fun.
They also make good presents –just tell the recipient to
feed them
Firstly, you need a starter which is basically made from
flour and water. So, I used initially a tablespoonful of ordinary plain
flour and 100ml warm water as I had the flour at the bottom of a bag. About
200ml warm water from the tap was added. It was all started in a plastic bowl
with a lid loosely put on top. I only used a small amount of flour as if it all
went wrong I ha only wasted a small amount of flour!
My husband named it Fido!
It sat there for about 3 days, doing not much so I just fed it daily with
some flour and water. Then day 4 I found some old rye flour, so I fed it about
a tablespoon of this. Fido loved it and started to show its appreciation by
starting to bubble nicely. It loved a sunny spot plus a spoonful of sugar that
I gave it on day 6.
All the while it was getting bigger and filling more of my
bowl so on day 7, I used it to bake by adding 4000g bread flour and a teaspoon
of salt. It is important to keep a bit of the starter back to start the
feeding process again.
I have to say I tended to look after it and just add amounts
I thought about right as it seems all about seeing it bubble and then smell
slightly sour. The final flour was the amount to take it from a sticky mess to
a dough. Which I kneaded on a floured board if it stays too sticky, I added a
bit more flour. It should be sticky rather than a dry dough. This needs to be
bread flour as it gives the structure to the loaf.
I put it in a bowl lined with a damp tea towel and covered
it with a damp tea towel and left it for about 4 hours. It nicely doubled in
size and the dough peel off the tea towel. I put it on a greased baking tray
left it to rise a couple of hours put a deep cross in it and baked it for about
40 minutes at 2000 C
I really liked this recipe –but when I followed it the
quantities made too much bread for us. Hence my more meager adaptation as I only
need a loaf at a time.
I like this recipe https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipe
They do take about a week to develop but occasionally are ready in 5 days.
Great fun to make and children love the
new “pet” and the bread is fabulous
The BBC one is also good
