You may have read my previous sourdough posts. I have killed a previous starter, in fact twice, I got some back from my brother and killed that too!
Last time I was in London my brother in-law gave me some more, this time from a pizza restaurant, it made very nice bread. I made a few batches, have left it two weeks and it was fine. Then last weekend I forgot to start it off on the Friday night… oops, then forgot to start it off on Saturday night… oops again. I work as a supply teacher and didn’t have work booked on Monday so I set a batch off on the Sunday night.
Sods law I got a call on Monday, worked, got home and found the starter bubbling away, now I had work booked on Tuesday and Wednesday and nearly threw it away, but the fridge had room so I put it in to see what happened, I do hate throwing food away.
On Thursday (so it had been 24 hours out then 2 days in the fridge) I had a day free, so I looked at the starter, it smelt fine, (kind of sour!) I mixed 50g of flour with 100g of boiling water and then mixed that into the starter from the fridge. I wanted to get an answer as to whether I would be able to use it as quickly as possible so wanted to warm it quickly. After about half an hour in a very low oven (about 40 degrees Celsius) it was obviously alive and well so I went ahead. I took away the flour and water that I had already added from the recipe. This time I also added about 80 g seeds, a mix of sesame, poppy and sunflower, I added them with the olive oil after the one hour proving.
I also tried the bread in a loaf tin for a change, that also seems to have done well, tin oiled and floured and dough proved in the tin.
I do use the oven to prove it, as the house is pretty cold at the moment, I just leave it less than the 3-6 hours recommended in the original recipe I was given, yesterday the loaves had doubled in size in about 1 1/2 hours.
So a recap of the recipe (with experiential changes)
24 g of the starter you keep in the fridge,
add 150g of tepid water and add 150g of flour,
mix and leave covered in a warm place overnight.
To the remainder of the starter add 10-20 g of flour and up to 10 g tepid water mix well, leave out of fridge for a couple of hours to allow the yeasts to get going on some of the new flour/food then put back in the fridge. (I left it overnight once and then had very active starter that kept trying to escape from the plastic pot in the fridge).
Next day (or some time later!) to that add;
250 g tepid water and mix
add 500 g flour (1/2 white, 1/2 brown)
5 g salt and mix.
Leave for 10 minutes in a warm place then mix by dragging the edge into the middle with your hands, repeat twice.
Leave for an hour.
Add 20 g olive oil and 80 g or so of seeds if you want.
Mix as above then tip out onto a work surface and knead for about 10 minutes, divide in two, prove, either in a basket lined with a flour dusted tea towel or in a tin, oiled and floured.
Leave in a warm place until doubled in size (1 1/2 to 6 hours depending on how warm it is).
Bake in a hot oven 220 degrees Celsius, (put a roasting tin with 1/2 pint of water in the bottom of the hot oven, this gives a better bake) for 30 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
It freezes really well, lasts well and is supposedly easier to digest than “normal” bread.
I read (probably in McGee on Food and Cooking) that oil can inhibit the gluten release from the dough, hence adding it right at the end, salt on the other hand did something good, can’t remember what, so goes in at the beginning…
city girl hits the country 