Sourdough bread

[UnSerpentQuiCourt]

Has anyone got a good method for making sourdough bread without a yeast starter? I have tried, but without success, but you can buy it in bakeries, so it must be possible.

What sort of flour have you used? I've made them with wholemeal flour, and with rye flour. Both were from Andrew Whiteley's book Bread Matters.

Do you have a local bakery that makes sourdough? If you do, they might sell some of their starter. In Andrew's recipe, it takes 6 days to make your first loaf. What's been going wrong?

The starter just hasn't done anything. It has just sat on the mantlepiece drying out.

Hadn't thought about asking a bakery - the Townmill Bakery has loads of branches and I think thgere is one in a town nearby.

From memory, with the wholemeal one, you started it on day 1, and then fed it day 3, 4, 5 and on day 6 you had enough to make a loaf. One of the bakers at the Village Bakery in Melmerby also did the same thing starting with 1 little ball of dried yeast.

It seemed to be fairly sloppy

day 1 40g flour + 40g water
day 2 as day 1
day 3 40g flour and 20g water
day 4 120g white flour + 100g water

It can die if it becomes too acid. He suggests taking 130g of the old started and adding
60g w/meal flour
120g white flour
130g water

The production leaven is then
160g starter
50g wholemeal flour
150g white flour
120g water

He leaves this for 4 hours and then makes a loaf with

300g production leaven
100g wholemeal flour
7g salt
300g water
300g white flour

In making the final dough, he makes a dough with the other ingredients and, after kneading it, he then adds the production leaven.

Andrew Whitley, isn't in Melmerby any more, he has gone to Scotland, where he is still running his bread-making courses. He used to have a forum. He's really approachable, and I'm sure wouldn't mind you emailing him and asking him for advice. bread matters

I've been on 2 of his courses - the basic one and the sourdough one, although I haven't made any bread for ages.

Good luck

Wow! That sounds very complicated. I remember my mother talking about when she lived in rural Austria and everyone kept and cared for their starter, going to the neighbours if theirs turned bad (acid?). I like the idea of making sourdough bread very much - I think I'll look for the forum.

It's not really that complicated, just means getting into a rythym. He had starter in the bakery at Melmerby that had been going for years, ever since he started up in the 70s.

I would think it's worth either emailing him, or even ringing him, he was very nice and keen to help people making bread.

If you get bored and don't make any bread for a while, I seem to remember that you can freeze the starter, and then thaw it out again when you want to use it. If you make bread every other day, it keeps going.

If your near Gloucester I recommend Shipton Mill courses, free of charge - Clive is a genius!!! I live in se wales and only took 1 hour and plenty of people travel miles.

I just made some sourdough this week, rose beautifully, tastes awful.

I won't be bothering again.

mine tastes great, but won't rise.

i've done it successfully before and it took a month or so to get into the rhythm of baking twice a week, refreshing it every time. after that, it was great - then we moved house, the jar that the starter was in cracked, and it died :(

so i'm trying to get the new one off the ground again but with children i don't have as much time to bake. i sometimes cheat and use starter for flavour and a small amount of commercial yeast for rising action.

i've always used Dan Lepard method in the Handmade Loaf.

I cheat a bit. I don't use a starter, but I 'ferment' the flour and water for a while at the start to give the bread some flavour and then I add a bit of dried or fresh yeast for additional rising.
I chuck some flour and water in a big bowl and mix to a gloopy batter consistency. Then I stick the oven on for a few minutes till it is toasty but not hot (a hotpress would do as well). I stick the bowl in and leave it for a few hours or overnight, sometimes (if I remember) I give it a bit of a stir or flick the oven back on to give it a bit more warmth. It will go a bit foamy and smell sour.
I just add enough flour to make a wet dough and some dried yeast and knead and prove. Bake.
Yum.