This week I’m showing you how to make a sour starter. Although this isn’t exactly a bread recipe, it’s a starter for all things sourdough.
If you don’t know about sourdough, I’ll give you a little rundown on it. Sourdough bread is a fermented bread that doesn’t contain added yeast, it replies purely on the naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast. The bread does have a more ‘sour’ taste and that comes from the lactic acid that comes from lactobacilli.
This style of bread has become more popular over the years and during the lockdown that occurred in 2020, supplies were short in demand, so sourdough became a popular bread to make at home. This is mostly because you don’t need yeast and its super easy to make.
The starter is probably the most time consuming element of this bread, as it takes 6 days to make a starter that can be used… It sounds like a long time but it’s well worth it. All you need is a container, bread flour and water… It’s honestly so simple.
Every other day, you’ll be emptying about 70% of the mixture (which is called sour discard and can be used in other recipes such as pancakes and muffins), adding fresh flour and water and allowing it time to work. You’ll know it’s working as the starter will rise and bubble and start to smell more sour.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Day 1 –
500g Strong bread flour.
375ml Water.
Day 3 –
250g Strong bread flour.
188ml Water.
Day 5 –
250g Strong bread flour.
188ml Water.
Day 6 –
250g Strong bread flour.
188ml Water.
Method:
Before you get started on the sour starter, you’l want to do some prep work. You should start by weighing up all of your ingredients and grabbing any equipment you need such a container (feel free to use glass or plastic, glass works better for smaller amounts) and a silicon spatula.
This recipe takes almost a week to make but once you have a starter going, you’ll be well away to keep it going ultimately forever. This is perfect if you intend on making sourdough bread more often in the future.
To start on the sour starter, take your clean container and add in the bread flour, followed by the water and mix until a loose dough forms. Then you can place the lid on the container and leave somewhere at room temperature for 2 days.
You may not notice much difference on day 2 and this is completely normal but by day 3, you should see the mixture has grown a fair amount and has become fairly bubbly.
Now you’re on day 3, you can take the lid off the container and give the starter a good mixture, then into a jar (or bowl) pour out about 70% of it. This is known as sour discard and it can be used to enhance the flavour in many other baked goods such as muffins and brownies. Store the discard in a contain in the fridge and use within 2-3 days.
Into the starter, add day 3’s flour and water and mix until a loose dough has formed, place the lid back on container and leave again at room temperature for 2 days before you interact with it again.
On day 5, you will basically repeat what you did on day 3. Grab a jar or bowl and pour out about 70% of the starter (again, this is the sour discard). You can then go ahead and add in the flour and water and mix until a loose dough has formed – place the lid back on and cover for 24-48 hours.
If you are intending to make sourdough bread on day 6, you’ll only want to leave the starter for 24 hours. After the 24 hours, you can repeat the same steps as in previous days. Empty out about 70% of your starter into a jar or bowl and then go ahead and add in the flour and water then mix until a loose dough has formed.
Leave the starter for about 6-8 hours and then you can use it. This 6-8 hour window is what works for me, you may be able to be flexible either way.
That’s it for this weeks recipe, join me next week when I’ll be showing you how to make a simple sourdough loaf.
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
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