Sourdough help

You are supposed to keep topped up daily when it produces bubbles it is ready about five to seven days it's smelly. I use a similar technique to make Kwas it's for Polish cabbage soup starter. Don't throw away after taking what you need for your recipe. What is left just top it up there are lots of recipes out there for sour dough bread. The fabulous baker boys have good recipes. Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall too.

You don’t need any specialist equipment. A large jam jar or Kilner jar is fine for the starter. I keep mine in the fridge because you then only need to feed it occasionally rather than daily, or when you want to make a loaf.

I use this no-knead recipe which suits me the best. I start it in the late afternoon/evening and finish it next morning. www.growforagecookferment.com/no-knead-sourdough-bread/

I had no success with sourdough until I started using a "dutch oven" - I cook my loaves in a large pre-heated cast iron casserole with the lid on for the first half hour of cooking, then remove the lid to get the fantastic crispy, blistered crust.

I have just started making sourdough too and have been using the recipe/advice in the latest Good Food Magazine. Barney Desmazery is the chef expert and I’ve just taken my second loaf out of the oven with good results!

Thank you all. There are so many methods.
I have made some delicious crackers from my discard and also pizza dough.
Tonight I have started my first loaf?
It’s hopefully proving as I sleep.
I well let you know.

*SueDonim*, Thanks for the link you posted. I'm going to make the sourdough starter, if I can find some organic grapes.
I have many bread failures under my belt. Hopefully, this one will be a success.?

I used the recipe on this site:
www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/bread

One of our favourite ides for South dough is to make four very large rolls from the dough. When cooked, slice off the tops to make lids, scoop out the middle and fill with a thick soup.

I have made a lot of sourdough but just use 1/2 of my starter and top it up. It goes in the fridge if I don't want to bake every day. I take mine out to top it up then put it back.

The last 4 or 5 months I've been making sourdough with semolina flour (Italian twice-milled type) and am not yet expert at this. I'm looking for that lovely thick crust southern-Italy type but am not about to become a scientist to make it! ? The best looking loaves online seem so particular!

Basically, sourdough is a very old bread. You really can't go too wrong. All my early breads I started in the morning and baked in the evening when they looked "ready". I know the advice is to leave overnight but I had fewer problems when I can look at it!

I am a "bung it" type cook so not to be trusted with recipes.
All best. Have fun!

When DS moved to the States 5 years ago, they started making their own sourdough. The bread is very good, just like they were used to at home in Germany.

They are flying back soon as their little boy will be starting school and they want him to go to school here.

I am wondering how they can move their sourdough - will it have to go in hand luggage? They always keep it in a kilner jar in the fridge and feed it once a week. It is now, of course, beautifully mature.

I heard of an Italian restaurant in San Francisco where the owners brought their sourdough over when they emigrated from Italy in 1849. The culture has been passed down the generations and their bread and pizzas are legendary. Apparently, the older it is, the better the taste.

JackyB sourdough starter actually dries remarkably well: Just spread it out thinly on something like a silicon mat and allow it to dry completely in a very low oven. I did mine on the top of the Aga. Once it's dried, break it into small pieces and store in an airtight jar. Mine was about 2 years old and reconstituted perfectly. (I just looked on YouTube for method for reconstitution - its easy.)

Here's one I made earlier!

Pageturner I couldn’t get organic grapes so just went with the flour and water. My first two attempts didn’t go well but the third one worked and is the same one I still have today. I think it’s three years old now and it definitely changes as time goes on. It is v sour now.

I’m gonna try a Jamie Oliver’s recipe

I think it was Michael Deacon in the DT who gave a foolproof sourdough bread recipe

1. Go to a supermarket
2. Buy loaf of sourdough bread

MawB . But that means venturing outside ? and also having enough £££ to pay for it.

First loaf ! Not as pleasing on the eye as I would have liked but delicious ?

That's fabulous missfoodlove - well done you.
And it looks as though it's got the lovely holes in I do so like!

Thanks for the tip, Grannylaine. I passed it on to DS and he said it would certainly come in useful.

You are welcome JackyB

I admire those of you who make all that effort. It seems to take a long time, I'm sticking to dried yeast. Even that takes about 5 hours from starting to putting the cooled loaves in the freezer.
I always use 1 kilo of flour.
re the starter - I have a bread baking book and the writer recommends using pineapple juice.
www.amazon.com/Blessing-Bread-Traditions-Jewish-Baking/dp/1579652107?tag=gransnetforum-21