Making sourdough bread is very easy if you take some care. The videos and blog from Bake with Jack helped me a lot. In particular, I use his method for making the sourdough starter, with only a minor tweak.
Making the starter
Making a sourdough starter is very easy. Most recipes use wholemeal rye flour but I use wholemeal wheat flour which is a little less sour. This recipe is for 150 g sourdough starter, which is the amount I use for a single loaf.
- Take a container of about 500 ml. I use a plastic mug with a lid, it does not have to close tightly.
- Add 25 g flour and 25 g water at 35 °C, mix (I use the handle of spoon), leave for 24 hours at room temperature (20-25 °C; the warmer, the quicker).
- Repeat for three consecutive days. It should roughly double in volume. If so, it’s ready to use; if not, leave it for another day.
Feeding the starter
Once you have made this starter, keeping it going it is very simple.
- When you make your first loaf with a fresh starter, leave about 20 g starter in the container to make your next batch. I just keep this in the fridge.
- Then, the day before I bake the next loaf, in the morning, add 75 g water at 35 °C and 75 g flour to the container, stir well, and leave it at room temperature for a day. Put it in the fridge before you go to bed.
- The next day, take the started out of the fridge 3-4 hours before you start to bake.
- Because you have now 170 g starter in the container, you can use 150 g for the loaf and then feed the starter again, for as long as you like.