My Sourdough Experience: starting baking sourdough the "proper" way. [Now with pics]

[Azrael]

Yesterday i convinced a good friend of mine to give me some of her sourdough mixture when she did her weekly cutback and bake cycle so that i could have some as a starter.

I figure ill keep a little log of making sourdough as it seems to me that its a bit of a dark art and there isnt much out there on it, and lots of people seem to be a bit scared by the concept of baking sourdough.

Personally this time im going with the 100% hydration method used by the Bourke St Bakery in their seminal book of the same name (http://www.amazon.com/Bourke-Street-...7693077&sr=1-1). In the past ive done a partially hydrated sourdough, which worked pretty well, but i had to let die off when i moved from Melbourne.

Today is Day 1, i fed the sourdough this morning with 50g of flour and 50g of water.

and thus it begins....

[scon]

Awesome. I've been meaning to make a sourdough culture for ages, but haven't actually kicked one off yet. Be keen too see how this goes!

[Daft_Munt]

Thanks for the reminder, I need to feed someones starter while I house sit. Now where did they put the spelt flour?

[lethoso]

ooh, I think I am going to have to try this. Bought a loaf of sourdough from the wanky organic bakery down the road the other day, it was really nice but $6.50! Ouch :/

[Azrael]

Unfortunately at this point there isnt much to really update. I fed the starter again this morning, with 100g of water and 100g of flour. So now it will be built up to 400g. Tomorrow ill do the final feed to 800g and then cut down to 100g for the next build up.

Given that this starter is pretty strong im considering doing a loaf on Sunday, but we will have to see how it goes.

The starter already has this lovely acidic aroma, and smells absolutely gorgeous.

[bl4ck32]

please

[Azrael]

Heh, ill take a pic tonight, of the little guy bubbling away.

The problem is that you cant take pics of the lovely smell.

[Cryogenic]

Hmm, what's the chances of scoring some of this? Wouldn't mind giving it a go!

[Azrael]

Quite likely in a few weeks. Will want to make sure its a strong batch before giving it out. Nothing worse than trying to feed a limp batch into life.

[madcaow]

ive been meaning to try and get some culture from the sour dough joint near my house. (natural tucker). i doubt they will give me some tho huhu.

[Azrael]

Some time ill post a recipe on how to get your starter, its really quite easy.

Either that or you could grab the book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

Its on sale atm

[username_taken]

good stuff. I've been baking sourdough for quite some time ... I get some brilliant loaves and some very ordinary ones. It's a lot of trial and error to get good bread.

I find a long first proof, shaping without depleting too much air, and then a shorter second proof works best for me. This gives me good open crumb ciabatta type loaves.

[Azrael]

I usually find consistency of bread comes from the consistency of the starter. That said its a bit of a fine art, and weighing stuff out by the gram doesnt necessarily give the best results.

Anyway, a few pics for you all.


That was at 8am this morning, just before i gave it a 200/200g (Day3) feed and transferred him to his new home. You can really see the aeration of the sour in that photo, and its roughly 400g big atm.


And here the little guy is in his new home, happily chowing down on his 400g feed for the morning. Tomorrow ill be cutting it back, and ill reserve 100g for feeding on Friday and then baking on Saturday.

I think though im going to have to reset my cycle half way through somehow, as im currently a day out for everything and that will make it hard to bake on weekends.

[dafrizz]

Only just found this thread. Good to see others baking with homemade sourdough.

I've been baking with sourdough for 2-3 years now, culture is growing stronger and stronger.

I've got both a wheat and a rye sourdough, but I pretty much only bake rye breads.

Starting your own culture is incredibly easy: one handful of water, one handful of flour (rye or wheat, the more wholemeal the better), in a bowl, mix, cover. Add one handful of each every day, do that for about a week and you have a nice, strong culture to bake with.

In between baking, my culture survives for 2-3 weeks in the fridge easily. If you want to preserve it for longer: dry it.
Spread the sourdough culture thinly on some baking paper and let it dry. Once dried, crumble it (eg in a mortar and pestle).
When you want to use it again, add water, let it rest a few hours, feed it (handful of water and flour), rest a few hours, start baking.

[Azrael]

Originally Posted by dafrizz

Only just found this thread. Good to see others baking with homemade sourdough.

I've been baking with sourdough for 2-3 years now, culture is growing stronger and stronger.

I've got both a wheat and a rye sourdough, but I pretty much only bake rye breads.

Starting your own culture is incredibly easy: one handful of water, one handful of flour (rye or wheat, the more wholemeal the better), in a bowl, mix, cover. Add one handful of each every day, do that for about a week and you have a nice, strong culture to bake with.

In between baking, my culture survives for 2-3 weeks in the fridge easily. If you want to preserve it for longer: dry it.
Spread the sourdough culture thinly on some baking paper and let it dry. Once dried, crumble it (eg in a mortar and pestle).
When you want to use it again, add water, let it rest a few hours, feed it (handful of water and flour), rest a few hours, start baking.

Sorry, my hands dont really hold water that easily :P

Is that a full hydration culture that you have going?

The little bit of progress today was that i split my culture. I reserved 100g of it in the fridge for tomorrow, so it can be built up to a strength that i can bake with, and then discarded 600g ish and started feeding the remaining 100g again . In sourdough terms im doing a 1:1 feed, so 1 part sour, 1 part water/flour to the same weight as the starter, i.e. for a 100g starter i use 50g water and 50g flour. Day 2 gives a starter of 200g which means 100g water and 100g flour. etc.