Sourdough starter recipe...

A couple of weeks ago,  I made a loaf of sourdough bread from my new starter, and it was delicious!  It's been way too long.  I haven't made a sourdough bread since last year.  Consequently,  my old starter went to pot in the back of the fridge somewhere.

Starting again though, has been a positive thing, I've gone a bit sourdough crazy I think!

I got this sourdough starter recipe from my mum, so not sure where it came from originally, but it works!  It really works, and it is so easy to maintain - I've tried a couple of other recipes and failed miserably, so I'm really happy with this one.


                                      Sour Dough Starter Recipe

Days 1,2 &3:

50 grams water

35 grams white flour

15 grams rye flour

Mix & set aside for 24 hrs (covered)

DAYS 4&5&6

Discard most of starter & leave 1 Tblsp in the bowl

Add 100grams water

70 grams white flour

3O grams rye flour
Mix & leave 24 hrs (covered)

The first 3 days for me, were  a bit discouraging.  My starter didn't look like it was doing anything.  Infact, it looked kind of flat and lifeless.  I didn't even take any photos because I thought it was going to be a flop.  But then day 4 happened!  This photo was taken a few hours after the morning "feed".

Look at those lovely air bubbles !
On days 5 & 6 my starter looked like it was starving in the mornings...

Looking a bit shrivelled and hungry.

I obviously have a lot more to learn about sourdough starters, but after a morning feed, my starter was happy again.

Nice and light and fluffy.
At this point, your starter is ready for action.
I have been using this recipe, and I love the bread it makes.  The loaf is made over 24 hours, but really requires little time or effort on your part, just a few minutes, a few times over during the whole process.  Try it and see what you think!

Now while we all love sourdough at our house, we don't really eat a whole lot of

bread, which means I'm baking only one loaf a week at the moment.  (I freeze

half for the last part of the week.)  So I had to find out how to look after my

new 'friend'.  I learned how to maintain my starter while I'm not using it, with

this video from Cultures for Health. 

and after watching it, I got a bit curious as to what else I could do with that

sourdough starter that just keeps growing and growing...and it just feels wrong

to be throwing most of it away each time...look for the next post coming soon

to see what I did with the rest of that starter!!