Calling sourdough starter experts!

[stclair]

As I can’t find yeast for love nor money, I’m on day 3 of a sourdough starter (from bbcgoodfood recipe). What I am confused about is the pouring off of half the starter when ready to bake. Is this to be used to add more flour and water to keep the starter going? Otherwise It seems wasteful! If it isn’t, why pour it away?

@Gotthetshirt23, I'd not worry about temperature. It just means that it will take longer for your starter to become really active - something which will not a bad thing. Just need a bit more patience than people with warmer houses.

@Mominatrix Thank you for your recipe earlier in the thread. I've taken the plunge and made loaves so far. Today's was the best, but the others were also good. I've tried making sour dough before, without success, but your recipe is so easy to follow. Thank you!

That should read 3 loaves so far!

Help please! A friend gave me some of their starter. They fed it this morning.

They gave me the measurements but she said to put some in a new jar and add the flour etc to that. I'm confused is that for the levain? Why do I feed that? What's the leftover stuff for? Is the leftover stuff father levain? And the new bar stuff my working starter? Confused!

Also do I need to use filtered water to feed?

Loaf 4 , love the crust but still seems heavy and like normal bread?

That looks perfect to me Gotthe I don't like a loaf which is so holey it can't hold any spread!! Yum!

@Mominatrix I was intrigued by the recipe you attached earlier on in the thread. It’s a no knead technique. I have been using the river cottage technique which involves 10 minutes of kneading and up to 4 folds, plus a deflation and a second rise. I have tried improvising a cloche and must admit it made a very good loaf, better than my usual. I think I will try no knead, even though it seems a strange concept after about 10 years of scrupulously kneading.

Pleased that the recipe is helpful.

I started with sourdough about 10 years ago and really struggled in the beginning. I was using a mixture of Dan Lepard and Peter Reinhart with mixed results. The most frustrating thing was the inconsistency - one day I'd have a great loaf, then I'd suffer 5 loaves with could have been used to build a wall.

The lightbulb moment was when I learned about autolysis and about letting the dough do the work for you. I was really sceptical - how could just letting dough alone provide better gluten development than actively pounding the bread for 15 minutes? Well, it just works and spending time getting to know the dough was a revelation. Just feeling the difference is structure after leaving dough alone for 2 hours was too cool! It went from a shaggy mess to a much smoother texture with an elastic spring. A couple more hours just pulling and I could stretch the dough out on a counter like filo dough.

I experimented with different techniques based on Vanessa Kimbell's recipe and voila - perfect loves each time and no sore arms.

@Mominatrix Thanks so much for your reply. I have been reading Vanessa Kimble’s recipe and am going to give it a go. Like you I find it hard to believe that you can get a good rise without kneading as I always imagined it was necessary in order to develop the gluten. But also like you I have had some less than stellar results with my usual method and have nothing to lose except some flour and time. . My lightbulb moment was watching John Favreau’s Chef on Netflix and he makes sourdough the no knead way, and uses a Dutch oven. His bread was exactly what I’ve been looking for, a handsome rise and a crunchy dark crust. Like you no doubt I love how sourdough engages just about all the senses and you can tell so much from seeing, feeling and smelling the starter and the dough. I’ll post again after I’ve tried my 1st no knead loaf.

Nailed it today

Unfortunately I didn't taste it but if found a good home with DH who is self isolating

I want to try a sesame seed loaf... do you think I can just add a handful of sesame seeds to my existing recipe and sprinkle some on the top?

You could definitely add sesame seeds after shaping without a problem. You could add sesame seeds to the dough also, but timing is important. The seed will act, much like the fibre in wholemeal bread, to impede the strcture of gluten. I'd add the seeds halfway though bulk fermentation after you have a good structure going.

To get a good spread, you might have a go at lamentation - halfway though bulk fermentation, take your dough out onto a surf sprayed with water and stretch the dough unti it is a thin rectangle. Sprinkle the seeds evenly on the dough, then roll and fold. is a nice video showing the technique. It is really fun to do.

Lamination!

Thanks mominatrix that looks a bit tricky for me. I might try adding them while shaping..

So here’s my loaf made using Vanessa kimbles recipe which @Mominatrix posted upthread. Not my best effort yet. The rise is less than I’d like however my baking conditions were less than ideal as I don’t have a cloche yet ( have ordered one) and so it was an undignified squeeze into a target stain mould and an upturned le Creuset casserole on top. A big difference with my usual River Cottage recipe is temperature. VK states 220 whereas RC is more like 240. Also, I didn’t pre heat my “ cloche” and couldn’t go up to 240 because the le Creuset pans aren’t made to do so. I’m going to persevere and try again when I receive the cloche. Will post a cross section pic after I’ve cut it.

Target stain ?? Should be tarte tatin.

Here’s the cross section. Not bad considering it’s 20% wholemeal spelt and 80% white wheat flour

Cross section

Looks gorgeous!

It look great whatabout I find that spelt is very tasty but it makes quite a wet loaf, I don't use wheat flour but I 'dry' out the mix with half and half rice flour which makes it delicious (though I don't use a sourdough starter because I have a lot of dried yeast in the fridge to use up )

Thanks for your encouragement guys! I’m intrigued about the rice flour ppeatfruit, might give that a go.

They might have it in a large Waitrose, definitely in HF shops. You can also make bread with mixed in cooked rice too which is fab it lasts longer than normal bread.

There are recipes in Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery book, I recommended it upthread, it's a lovely book to read for background, history etc. too.

Oh and Dan Lepard's books. His is not as specialist as David's though. Though there's a pamphlet , I can't remember the name.

Dan Lepard praised my loaf! I sent him a photo because I had a question over a recipe - he answered the same day and said my loaf had a great crust and crumb - made my day :)