Have you ever wanted to make your own fresh, preservative free, healthy and nutrient packed sourdough? If you and your family enjoy good quality bread, you could be spending over $200 per month on your favourite loaf. We’ll show you how to make bakery quality bread that works out to less than $2 per loaf! We will be making a You Tube video to follow in your own time over the coming days, but please see below for the method which you can follow to get your own starter culture fermenting away.
To make sourdough, first, you’ll need a starter culture to provide you with the flavour, smell and texture of delicious sourdough bread. A starter culture is full of wild yeast and Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) that consume the nutrients provided in the flour and water and turn it into acid and gas to provide 100% natural texture and flavour without any additives.
INGREDIENTS
Whole Wheat Organic unbleached flour
Plain Organic unbleached flour
Bottled water (chlorine will stunt the activity of the yeast and LAB so try to avoid tap water, although it will work OK if you run out of bottled water at any stage)
METHOD
STEP 1
In a glass container with a loose fitting lid, add 20g Whole Wheat flour and 20g tepid water and mix together to form a paste.
Place the lid on loosely and leave for 1-3days in a still, draft free, warm area. Behind the TV or on top of the fridge are good places to keep the starter warm. The warmth provides the best environment for the yeast and LAB to get established.
Check on your starter daily, and once you can see lots of tiny bubbles on top, it is ready to move onto step 2.
STEP 2
Once you can see lots of tiny bubbles and the smell of the culture is slightly vinegary and nutty and less floury than when it began, you can add 40g Whole Wheat flour and 40g tepid water, mix together and return to the warm area for another 24hrs.
*Note, if there are no bubbles, add a 10ml of water, mix gently and leave for another 12-24hrs.
STEP 3
After 24hrs you should again see lots of tiny bubbles. You can now add 80g Whole Wheat flour and 80g tepid water, mix together and return to the warm area for another 24hrs.
*Note, if there are no bubbles, add 20ml of water, mix gently and leave for another 12-24hrs.
STEP 4
By now the starter culture should again have lots of tiny bubbles throughout it and smell more strongly of vinegar, nutty & yeasty.
From this day you need to spoon out half of your mixture into the compost, keeping half in the container. Add 25g Whole Wheat Flour + 25g Plain flour + 50g tepid water to the remaining culture, mix gently through and return to the warm place.
REPEAT STEP 4 FOR 7 DAYS
STEP 5
After the 7th day of discarding and replenishing your culture, you should have a strong, well established starter, ready to make your first loaf of Sourdough bread.
For the next stage, check out our blog ‘Homemade Sourdough – Making and Baking the Bread’, or stay tuned to our You Tube Channel.
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