Super Simple Sourdough Starter

As a person who loves to cook and bake, I've been pretty bowled over by the ingredients suddenly available to me over here. The spices alone are enough to send me into overdrive (oh, piri piri, where have you been all my life?) but the flours! Oh, the flours! There's a flour for everything, and some pretty cool specialty ones as well. While perusing the shelves at my local Waitrose, I came across Bacheldre Watermill's organic line and thought, "I'll bet these would make great sourdough starters."

I've done sourdough starters in the past, but they've always been "cheater starters" that used commercial yeast to get the ball rolling. This time, I was determined to do it the old-fashioned way, just using the wild yeast already in the flour. Armed with a sack of stoneground strong malted blend, I settled down to find a recipe I could work with.

What I found was a whole lot of complicated. People out there are passionate about their sourdough, which is great and all, but I think they're making things a lot harder than they need to be, especially for us newbies. They're a bit too deep into the chemistry, and some of these recipes get out of hand. I found one that called for at least half a dozen ingredients. Others told me to add organic grapes to get the yeast going. Yet another called for ten pounds of flour mixed up in a barrel. Who the hell is making that much sourdough starter in their home? This was insane.

You know what you need for sourdough starter? Water and flour. That's it. You don't need special filtered water, tap will do just fine. You may want to go for an organic flour, though. I've heard the wild yeasts are a bit more active in it because it hasn't been processed as much or sprayed with chemicals. It's what I used, and it worked beautifully. You don't need to stick fruit in there--in fact, I'd strongly advise against that, because that sounds like a great way to introduce mold to your starter. You don't need pineapple juice or three different kinds of flour. White, whole wheat, or rye will work just fine, it all depends on your taste.

Let's get started, shall we?

Sourdough Starter

Day 1: In a large jar or plastic container (anything not metal), mix 3 1/2 Tablespoons of flour with 1/4 cup warm (not hot) water. Cover loosely so the gases can escape and set aside in a warm spot for the next 48 hours, stirring 2-3 times per day. You may start to see bubbles on the top during this period. If you do, great, you're off to a good start! If not, don't panic, it doesn't mean your starter didn't take. Some just take a little while to get going.

Bubble up, baby! My starter after the first couple of days

Day 3: After 48 hours has passed, feed the starter with another 2 T flour and 2T water. Once again, leave for 48 hours, stirring 2-3 times per day.

Day 5: Time to start really building this puppy up. Feed with 5 1/4T flour and 3T water. Leave for 24 hours, stirring 2-3 times. At this point, you should be seeing some bubbles in the top.

The starter again after a few days. As you can see, it's less wildly bubbly than it was in the beginning, but still has some action going on

The same starter from the side. You can see little air bubbles here--just what you want!

Day 6: Add about 1/2 cup flour and just under 1/4 cup water. You should now have your starter going. If this hasn't bubbled at all and doesn't bubble even a little after the last feeding, start over. Don't be discouraged--this can be a slightly delicate process, and sometimes starters just don't take. It's probably not something you did. Try, try again.

What I saw: my starter bubbled up on the first day, which was gratifying. After the first few days, it settled down a lot and I just got a couple of bubbles on the top and could see a few on the sides of the jar. That's normal, and my bread still rose just fine. Just because it's not bubbling wildly doesn't mean it's dead. Starters, once they've gotten off the ground, are fairly difficult to really kill. Even if you leave it at the back of the fridge for weeks without feeding it, you can probably still resurrect it with a good feed or two.

You'll start to notice your sourdough taking on some interesting smells as it develops. Mine started smelling strongly of vinegar--don't worry about that, it's completely normal. If the smell's too strong for your taste, remove half the starter and feed as directed below.

Care and feeding: Like pets, sourdough starters need to be fed. The experts say that starters kept out on the kitchen counter should be fed everyday, though I have to admit, I didn't do this with mine and it seemed just fine. So don't panic if you forget about it for a few days. Unless you're baking sourdough every day, you'll probably want to put your starter in the fridge once it's gotten off the ground. Refrigerated starters only need to be fed once a week or so, and since I tend to bake once a week, I just feed it when I'm baking. Saves on waste that way too, since I don't discard what I remove from the starter to feed it.

To feed your starter: Remove about half of it. Either use that half in a recipe or discard it. Feed the remaining starter with equal weights water and flour, stir, let it sit at room temperature for a few hours, and once it's bubbling a bit, loosely cover it and return it to the fridge.

Word of Warning: If you ever see mold inside the container your starter is in, throw it all away. The same goes for any liquid that has a reddish or pinkish colour to it. If, however, your starter gets a dark-colored liquid on top, don't worry. That's hooch. Just pour it out.

Ready for some recipes?

Sourdough Pretzels
I love snacking on sourdough pretzels, but for some strange reason, they're impossible to find over here. Being me, I decided to start making my own.

3/4-1 cup sourdough starter
2 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup warm water
1 scant tsp salt
1 dipped tsp honey (optional)
1T baking soda
Sea salt for sprinkling

If you're refrigerating your starter, take it out of the fridge the night before you plan to bake and let it come to room temperature. In the morning, remove 1/2 cup starter and feed that 1/2 cup with 1/4 cup flour and equal weight warm water (around 3 T). Mix it up, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and set aside for a couple of hours. Feed your mother starter and return it to the fridge.

Once the starter has fed and grown a bit (it should come to 3/4-1 cup starter), it's time to get started. Mix the water, salt, and honey (if using) in a bowl until the salt dissolves. Add the starter, stirring to break it up (*note: make sure you don't add your starter to HOT water. That kills the yeast. Stick a finger in the water and, if you can comfortably hold it in there, the water should be fine. If you get scalded, wait for it to cool down).

Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and knead to form a fairly stiff dough. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let proof for 2 hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl, cut it into several pieces, and form each piece into a long rope. Either shape the rope into pretzels or cut it into small pillows to make pretzel nuggets.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C/425 F. While the oven's preheating, bring a pan of water to the boil on the hob, adding the baking soda and stirring to dissolve. When the water's boiling, add the pretzels in batches and boil them for about 30 seconds to a minute to develop that nice crust on the outside. Remove them to a cooling rack set over a baking sheet so they can dry off. Once they're dried, place them on a baking sheet lined with a silpat and sprinkle them with sea salt or toppings of your choice. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until browned and crunchy (if you want a softer pretzel, bake for 20-25 minutes). Cool and enjoy!

Sourdough Loaf

I'm just going to warn you, sourdough bread is not for the impatient. It takes longer for wild yeast to raise dough than commercial yeast, so there's quite a lot of rising time here. It's worth it, though. This bread is delicious--perfect toasted, as a sandwich, or just on its own. Try not to dig into it right away (if you can!); the flavor develops as the bread cools, so it's actually more delicious later on.

Recipe by Laura Hart

5oz/150g sourdough starter
1.1 lb/500g strong white flour
1/2 T fine table salt
Cornmeal or semolina for dusting

In a large bowl, mix the flour, starter, and 10 fluid oz/300 ml water, stirring just enough to make a sticky dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 min.

Mix the salt with 3T water and add to the dough. Cover again and leave for an hour.

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Shape it into a square, then stretch out one side (being careful not to tear the dough) and fold it over into the middle. Repeat the stretching and folding with the other three sides. At this point, the dough will be pretty sticky. Resist the urge to use too much flour--just use enough to keep it from totally sticking to your work surface and hands. Return the dough to the bowl, cover, and leave for an hour.

Repeat the stretching and folding and return to the bowl for another hour.

Stretch and fold once more. You should notice bubbles forming in the dough. Form it into a round loaf by cupping it between your hands and rotating it, tucking the edges underneath until it forms a smooth ball.

Line a colander or basket with a clean dishcloth and dust it with flour. Gently place the loaf in the basket, top side down. Sprinkle the bottom of the loaf with cornmeal or semolina, cover, and let rise for about 2 hours, until a little less than doubled in size. At this point, you can stash your loaf in the fridge if you want to bake the following day.

When you're ready to bake, bring the dough to room temperature (if you've had it in the fridge) while you preheat the oven to 230 degrees C/445 F. Let the oven preheat for at least half an hour, or 20 minutes after the "ready" light goes off, to ensure the inside of the oven is good and hot. For a really good, crisp crust, put a baking sheet or cake tin at the bottom of the oven or on the lowest rack while the oven's warming up.

Gently tip the loaf onto a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Slash a # or other decoration in the top of the loaf so the steam has somewhere to escape through (otherwise you may have steam blowing out the sides of your loaf, which doesn't look pretty). Place the loaf in the oven, and toss a few ice cubes onto the baking sheet on the bottom of the oven to create steam. Close the oven door and resist the temptation to open it and check your bread. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when it's tapped on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!