ali’s sourdough
Prep: Look after your starter, name her, feed her, discard her.
Starter
Chuck equal parts water and plain flour in a small jar – you don’t need heaps, less is
better so you don’t end up having to throw so much away. 60g each is good, the
important thing is a 1:1 ratio in grams. If you want to give it a little assistance, add in
some wholemeal flour but in total should still stay as 1:1 flour to water.
Give her a good mix so she’s nice and paste-y. Leave her alone for 24 hours with a
lid on top of the jar but not seal airtight, keep her covered but not SEALED shut.
She’ll like being warm if possible.
On Day 2, you will DISCARD (key vocab word for sourdough journey) half of her into
the bin. Pro tip – helps if you weigh your jar before this whole process begins so you
know what is left inside. Add back in 30g of water and 30g of flour. Use an elastic
band around the jar to track how much it rises.
You will do this daily for about a week* and ideally at the same time each day – even
more ideally when it hits it’s PEAK (another key vocab word for ya). You’ll notice on
the sides of the jar that bubbles may start to form, and that the starter will begin to
rise and peak each day before coming back down. It’s common to get excited within
the first few days that it’s perfectly rising (doubling in size) – this is a good sign but
also a bit of a false start, stay patient.
*Honestly it took me a month (in peak summer so idk if that had an impact) before I
was able to properly use it. I actually ended up feeding mine twice daily to keep up
with the demand, and over time you get less reliant on weighing things and better
able to eyeball the consistency you want. If you find it’s rising too quickly for you to
be able to get home and feed it etc, then you can discard more and do a higher ratio
of your fresh flour and water so it has more ‘food’ to get through and takes longer to
peak.
Wow my starter is rising beautifully and looks lovely and bubbly!
Now it’s time to give her a red-hot crack! In the days leading up to when you’re ready
to prep a loaf, it’s time to feed your starter a little more so that you end up with at
least 120g of starter. When it’s time to bake – go for a 1:1:1 ratio of starter, flour, and
water about 12-24 hours before (depending on how long your starter has been taking
to peak).
Sourdough prep time!
Be sure that you’ll be home and awake for the next 2 hours.
INGREDIENTS:
110g starter
350g water (if it’s freezing, use warm tap water to help speed along the process)
10-12g salt
50g wholemeal flour
450 white flour
Step 1:
OFFICIAL
Add starter (that’s at it’s peak, nice and bubbly), water, and salt to bowl. Give her a
big old mix to dissolve the starter in the water. Don’t forget to keep the scraps of the
starter and give it a feed and pop it to the side.
Step 2:
Add flours. Mix into shaggy dough. Give her a couple of rounds of stretch and folds,
just until it’s sticking together and is all one. Nothing crazy at this stage. Cover with
plastic (I like a shower cap, but gladwrap will do the trick). Make a note of the time
you started, then set yourself some timers – 30 mins, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours.
Step 3:
Every 30 mins, wet your hands, then do your stretch and folds and cover it back up
again. First two, rotate the bowl around and pull up the corners and slap them back
down. Final two, coil folds. We’re building some gluten structures, so try not to
stretch so far you rip her. On your last one, check the temperature of the dough.
We’ll use this to guide how long you leave your dough on the bench for before
shaping and popping in the fridge. The colder it is, the longer we leave it out for. Use
this chart to guide how long you BULK FERMENT (i.e., leave covered on the counter
for). The starting time is from when you mixed the dough, not this final stretch and
fold (i.e., the clock started 2 hours ago). In summer it was a 3 hour process for me,
but in winter, it’s been more like 16 so I usually start in the afternoon and shape in
the morning.
Step 4:
Once your bulk ferment is finished, you should see the dough slightly pulling away
from the sides of the bowl, lots of bubbles in the side of the dough that have risen to
the top of the dough, and if you shimmy the bowl a little it will jiggle. Flip the bowl
over and let the dough release itself onto the bench – if it releases with no
assistance needed, this is a good sign.
We will now shape the dough. This is too hard for me to put into words, so look at
these photos instead. Sorry.
Flop her good side down into a flowered banneton (or a bowl lined with a floured tea
towel), pop the shower cap/plastic back over top and pop it into the fridge until you’re
ready to bake. I usually leave it overnight and bake in the morning, but you can leave
it for about 72 hours if you need it to work into your schedule. I think the longer it’s in
the fridge, the stronger the sour flavour will come through.
Step 5:
BAKING TIME!! Chuck your Dutch oven into the oven and preheat to about 200
degrees. This what works for my oven, other may find it better to do 230, it may take
some trial and error. Once everything is nice and pre-heated, get your dough out of
the fridge and flip onto a silicone bread sling or baking paper. Give her a nice deep
score across the full length of the centre. If you keep the blade at an angle, you’ll get
a better ear and likely a better rise. If you want to do some pretty designs, dust her
with rice flour before scoring – it’ll make the colours pop nicer.
Pop the dough into the Dutch oven and cover, then bake at 200 (or 230 depending
on your oven) for 30 mins. After 30 mins, take off the lid and bake for another 30 to
let it get some colour.
Once done, pop on a cooling rack and DO NOT CUT IT OPEN UNTIL IT HAS
COOLED!!! AT LEAST 1 HOUR!!!! I know it will be tempting to eat while nice and hot
and steamy, but sorry she’s STILL COOKING.
If you’re disappointed when you cut her open, you can use visual cues to guide
changes for next time. There’s a good chance you’ve either left it too long or not long
enough during the bulk ferment (bench top hangout time). If you’re lacking rise, you
may also not be shaping into a tight enough ball and scoring well enough too. OR, if
you’re still in the early days, maybe your starter just needs some more time to build
up strength.
Once you’re making good loaves from your starter, you can give it a good feel, seal it
AIRTIGHT, then keep it in the fridge and only feed it once a week or when you’re
ready to bake with it. If I’m baking, I like to give it two feeds post-fridge to wake it up
again before baking.
Happy baking!!