Tell me about sourdough please

[whatsthecomingoverthehill]

I was thinking of trying out some sourdough but don't really know where to start, as there seem to be a multitude of opinions out there. I realise there aren't right or wrongs as such, but it would be helpful to know what works for people! So:

• Starter from rye or plain flour?
• Do you keep your starter out, or put it in the fridge if you're not using it for a while? (The fridge appeals in that if it slows it down you won't have to feed it as much which does seem like a bit of a faff to be doing every day.)
• Do you feed the starter with anything particularly special?
• I make pizza pretty regularly, does that make any difference to what starter you should use?

Sourdough is a huge subject, and everyone does it differently.
But here are my thoughts...
I use a white starter at the moment. I have had a couple of rye ones, which are meant to be easier, but they have both given very flat results over time. My current starter is about three years old, and very lively. I use a very strong white flour, usually Allinsons, but if I run out then any old strong white does fine.
I feed it when I am baking lots, and keep it in the fridge when I'm not. It will go three weeks without a feed if it's refrigerated. You need to be really generous with feeding it - enough for it to almost double the quantity. This can lead to chucking a lot of starter away, but if you bake a lot it shouldn't be too wasteful. It makes amazing pizza dough as well, so I use excess for that.
I'm always messing with quantities of different types of flour, and still struggling to get good results with wholemeal.
One thing I find invaluable is a ceramic baking cloche. It gives a fantastic crust, and saves faffing about trying to get steam into the oven. If you have any more questions, I'm happy to bore on and on about sourdough for ages!

Hoping a photo is on here...

That is a very handsome loaf. I have dabbled with sourdough before, but I never got a rise that good!

That looks amazing bamboo. I have heard wholemeal is difficult, something to do with the bran 'puncturing' the air holes is what I read. I did hear of someone sieving wholemeal flour but keeping the bran and rolling the loaf in it afterwards (which tbh sounds like a faff and not sure how good it would taste either!)

Paul Hollywood is great on sourdough. I made my first ever sourdough loaf this week following his method and it was fab!

This is his method, just omit the herbs!

www.mumsnet.com/family-food/basil-coriander-sourdough

Also, think you need to feed starter with strong flour ( bread flour) as it has higher levels of gluten in it

Also if you are serious about baking sourdough a bannetone is essential!

Hollywood advocates using a grated organic Apple to get the starter going.

Yes, a banneton is essential, although you can get good shaping with a shallow mixing bowl lined with a bit of muslin.
I use Tom and Henry Herbert's recipe. Their Hobbs House website is a sourdough geek's dream!

I've been baking with my sourdough starter for the past 6 years and make a weekly boule, bagels, crumpets, and muffins with it. It is kept at 75% hydration as I store it in the fridge and it is not fed everyday and I find that the lower hydration starters do better in these conditions. I use 5% rye and the rest strong white flour to feed it.

I originally acquired my starter from another baker, but you can now purchase a very good starter from Bakery Bits. They sell a San Francisco, all white sourdough starter, and all rye sourdough starter.

Bakery Bits is a great site to get all your baking essentials. I buy my flours from there, my bannetons, lames, and other various bits and bobs. I also bought a La Cloche from there which dramatically improved my loaves. It also has great recipes.

I get a bit lost when you start talking of hydration percentages.... hopefully it will come with experience!

I like the idea of doing my own starter. Without wanting to sound too pretentious part of the appeal is it being rooted where I live.

Even if you purchased your starter from somewhere else, it would eventually acquire a bit of where you live as the yeasts in the area would get incorporated into your starter as you go through subsequent feeds.

%hydration has to do with amount of water as compared to amount of flour. a 100% hydration would have the same weight of flour and water. 75% hydration means that the weight of water is 75% of the weight of flour (e.g., if I used 100g of flour, I would add 75g of water).

And here is a thing. I took my starter on holiday. We went to the Yorkshire Dales. And it went NUTS. I had bread spilling out of the oven. We live in a very hard water area, so I guess it was the lovely soft water up the there!

Thanks mominatrix, that makes sense.

Bamboo, I live near the dales (think our water comes from there anyway) so that sounds positive!