Yep, I'm a lockdown cliche. A basic quarantine bitch. And quite happily so with this bread to munch on. It's a real labour of love and a definite learning curve. Bread has never been my strongest point, but I'm learning the required patience and starting to get the hang of it. There's been a lot of back and forth with my mum and sister about our starters - "is this normal? How much has your's bubbled up?" I've called mine Sally and she's serving me well. So far she's been pretty well behaved and was ready to use in just over a week from starting the process. Unfortunately I didn't have bread flour when she was ready, so she's been sleeping in the fridge until I managed to get my hands on the most precious commodity of 2020 (besides TP?)
If you're up for it, you want to make sure you've got a solid supply of both plain flour and bread flour, patience and time. The process of creating the starter is long enough, so when you realise how long you need to prove the actual dough it's almost torturous. But so worth it.
I'm not going to try and instruct anyone on making a sourdough starter as I'm far from an expert. But I will point you in the direction of The Modern Proper - https://themodernproper.com/how-to-make-sourdough-starter - this was the most comprehensive guide I found on creating a sourdough starter.
I then followed the recipe below once the starter was ready.
Ingredients 300g starter 500g strong white bread flour 1 tsp fine salt 1 tbsp honey 125ml slightly warm water Method 1. Combine all ingredients in a mixer with a dough hook and mix until formed into a ball. Adjust the mix with flour or water if it's too wet / dry. Increase the speed and mix for about 5 minutes, or knead by hand for 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. 2. Place in a well-oiled bowl and cover with oiled cling film. Leave to prove for 3 hours - the rise is slow on sourdough, so don't fret if you don't see too much movement. 3. After the first prove, tip the dough onto a surface, knock out any air and shape into a smooth ball. Place in a medium sized bowl, lined with a very well floured tea towel. Loosely cover with cling film and leave to double in size. This can take anywhere between 4-8 hours, or potentially longer. Don't worry about the time, just use your eye to gauge when it's ready. 4. Preheat the oven to 230C/210C fan. Place a baking tray in the oven to heat up, and place a roasting tin with water in the bottom of the oven to create steam (this will help the bread form a lovely crust). Once hot, take out the baking tray, liberally sprinkle with flour and tip the dough onto the tray. Dust with flour, slash lines across the top with a sharp knife if you fancy. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden in colour and sounds hollow when you tap on the bottom.
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