The sourdough Starter Thread

[BarleySugar]

My starter is 10 days old, lovely and bubbly, so I'm hoping its grown up enough now to begin its career in making me lovely bread
I've made my sponge, according to the instructions in the River Cottage recipe, weighing in 5 tablespoons of starter (200g). I prefer to work in masses instead of volume, so it might be a bit trial and error to find the best proportions.
Tomorrow morning for kneading, rise during the day, hopefully bread tomorrow night.

[mothhawk]

My starter is 6 days old today and bubbling nicely, though it still smells quite sharp. I put orange juice (fresh) into mine as I had no pineapple juice or rhubarb. Hoping to make my first sourdough bread at the weekend.

I read a sourdough page somewhere that said the stiffer you keep the starter, the more sour it will be and the sharper the taste of the bread, and the picture was of the starter was more like a dough than a liquid. I'm hoping mine will get sweeter as per HFW's instructions.

[Bren In Pots]

BSugar I made my sponge just before coming on line so we'll be baking at the same time

[Bren In Pots]

I have been watching this thread with great interest and building up to starting myself. Today somebody came round and gave me Herman which is a cake version. You have to add flour, sugar and milk and otherwise it seems very similar. I was just wondering whether I can use one of the discards and start adding flour and water to that and see if it becomes a sourdough starter. Any thoughts?

I'd be tempted to make a fresh starter using rye, spelt, wholmeal flour or even white strong bread flour that way you'll stand a good chance of making a good strong starter.

[Bren In Pots]

Loaf number 4 straight out of the oven, made with 1/4spelt and 3/4 white bread flour using the R/cottage recipe.

[BarleySugar]

My first!

I've made my first loaf Everything went according to plan, as can be seen by the pictures, but I did have a fall at the last hurdle. I didn't have a basket, so I followed the advice of lining a bowl with a well floured teatowel. However, although it rose well, the dough stuck to some bits of the cloth, so I had to scrape it off. It spoilt the shape, and probably has meant I lost some of the bubbles. I also forgot to slash the crust
Perhaps I'll try the oiled bowl and clingfilm technique if I can't find a basket next time.


Rye/wholemeal starter with white breadflour. River cottage recipe (200g starter used).

[Bren In Pots]

Nice looking loaf BS

[BroadRipple]

Bren and BS yours look GREAT. Jeanied, that's just how I feel, can hardly bear to part with it. Everyone thinks am mad. Wondering how to make them rise a bit higher - any thoughts?

[Bren In Pots]

=BroadRipple; Wondering how to make them rise a bit higher - any thoughts?

BR this article says how you slash your loaf makes it expand in different ways, up to yet I've tried the tic-tac-toe pattern and diagonal slashes. both came out about the same.

The effect of scoring on loaf shape. | The Fresh Loaf.

[BarleySugar]

I'm just starting off another sponge as the first loaf is no more, I should really have done it yesterday, but it's a case of being organised. For this one, I've converted a starter to white over a few days, and I'm going to see if the results are different. The link to slashing the loaf looks very interesting, so I'm going to try that too

[Jeanied]

Whoops - day 8 here - can't remember when I divided it so I will need to trawl through the thread - the starter is no longer working - it has separated into a flour base and a watery top. The rhubarb is beginning to disintegrate. Not sure what to do with it - it does not smell bad but it is not as bubbly as it was before I divided it. Hoping that it is not dead and could be revived with some wand waving

[BroadRipple]

hi Jeanied, i bet that if you just top it up - i just shove in some organic flour and some warmish tap water and stir it up a bit, don't even weigh it - it'll be fine. Bren, v interesting thank you - will investigate. Been away for a couple of days and so missed my starter that I started making bread tonight, stupidly, and now need to stay up to bake it even though am half asleep. hmm, impressive planning, Ripple.
anyoen found any other good bread books for me to pine for?

[Bren In Pots]

Jeanie your starter might just want a good stir and a feed to make it spring back.

[Bren In Pots]

Great minds or clutching at straws BR we've both given Jeanie the same advice.

[BroadRipple]

united in, er, making it up. my kitchen smells delicious, wish you could come and have a look at what emerges. any minute now i'll be installing a webcam in my oven, just before i get carted off to the bin...