Sourdough... don't be scared now...

This is going to be fairly involved and possibly only one for the real foodies as it will take your life over.  

All baking's an art, and making sourdough bread's more of an art than most but once you start you won't look back and even any failures that you may have are usually edible and delicious.  There are deliberately lots of options and few quantities during my instructions, I make no apology for this it really is a case of trial and error!

Sourdough is one of the ultimate slow foods and is extremely rewarding to bake, there's nothing difficult about making it and it requires little work but some patience waiting between the stages.

There are a million and one ways to raise a sourdough loaf and this is just a very quick guide to how I make mine, again don't be afraid to experiment!

What separates sourdough from conventional loaves is that you create your own yeast culture from naturally occurring yeast (in the air and flour) and then use this to raise your loaves rather the commercial alternative, this creates an amazing flavour.

This first stage, "brewing" your starter's going to take a week or more, so don't wait until your hungry before you start!

First buy a bag of strong white bread flour, ideally unbleached, organic etc. etc. similar that from Maud Foster mill pictured above (local to me in Boston, Lincs).  This untreated flour should have more naturally occurring yeasts, but to be honest I used commercial flour to "brew" my starter and it worked just fine, so it's not essential.

Take your flour and mix with water to form a watery paste (about 300g flour to 1 litre of water but quantities really are unimportant) in a clean vessel such as a kilner jar, mix well and leave in a warm place.  After several days you should notice some bubbling in your jar, let this continue until it's really quite "fizzy" if shaken, open your jar enjoy the sour, yeasty aroma.  At this point discard half of the paste and top up with flour and water, this just mellows your starter a little the first "brew" is often a little strong if used for baking.

That's it.  Simple.  It really is that easy.  You now have a sourdough starter that can be with you for life.  Your own particular culture's a very special thing and will taste just that little bit different from anyone else's, some bakeries and breweries have cultures that have been going for decades / centuries.

Every time you use some starter simply top it up with flour and water and let the yeast multiply again, if you're not going to use the starter for a while (more than a few days), store it in the 'fridge to slow it down.  If your starter's too slow tip away half, add some more flour and water (to feed the yeasts) and leave in a warm place to speed it up again.

Now, what to do with your starter..

This is one of my everyday sourdough loaves.  They have a lovely loose texture, an amazing a flavour, a slightly chewy crust and keep much better than shop bought bread.  I make about 2 per week to feed myself and my family, I've been doing this for a couple of years and I'm still perfecting my technique.

As I've already mentioned, this is an art not a science and hence these are only very loose directions, most of the fun's in the experimentation!

Take half of your starter and add to a large bowl, top up the starter as described previously.  Add a little extra flour and water to your mix in the bowl to form a double cream consistency and around 500ml volume.  Cover this "batter" and leave in a warm place to activate for around 12 hours (I usually leave mine in the airing cupboard overnight).

After 12 hours your "batter" should be frothy and smell deliciously yeasty, add a teaspoon of salt for flavour and enough strong flour to make a very loose dough.  You can use any flour at this stage I occasionally make wholemeal or spelt sourdough, but initially it's probably easiest to stick to strong white bread flour.  On of the common breadmaking errors is to have your dough to dry, it should be very wet and sticky at this point, you should need to flour your hands and surface to allow you to knead.  I always knead by hand and actually find sourdough requires less kneading than normal bread (I guess because of the long timeframe  some of the gluten's already developed) 5 minutes (or one track and a link on 6music) usually does the trick.

Place your dough back in the bowl and leave for at least an hour in a warm place until it's approximately doubled in size.  I say at least an hour, but all of your yeast's will be slightly different, mine often takes 2-3 hours.

Knock your dough back, enjoy that aroma again and shape, either stretch back under itself to form a ball or use a proving basket (the well floured basket in the top photo) and shape to fit.  A proving basket has the benefit of shaping your loaf, but really isn't necessary when just starting out, just form the dough into a tight ball.

Place your dough either on a well floured board / tray or directly on a baking tray (or leave in the proving basket that you've used) and leave to rise for further hour or more likely 2 or 3 until it's doubled in size again.

Once the loaf has risen, heat your oven to as hot as it'll go and put your loaf at the top.  I use a baking stone and place the loaf directly onto it from the proving basket but again, you can either slide from your board / tray or place your baking tray into the oven, the key thing is that the oven's VERY hot.  You can slice the top of your loaf with a razor blade to help it rise and look pretty at this stage, this is not essential.  I also add a cupful of water to the oven to create steam and develop a crust, again this is not essential.  After 10 minutes turn the oven down to 160-180C (depending on the colour of your crust) and bake for a further 20 minutes until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Transfer your finished loaf to a cooling rack and allow to cool, or rip apart and consume warm with lots of butter if you can't resist!

Sit back and feel very smug that you've conquered one of cooking's great enigmas, and continued an ancient art.

Don't be scared to try this, it's endless fun to play with and keeps the family in delicious bread!