Cover the sourdough back up with a clean tea
towel and
leave again for 24 hours. Now,
scoop out half the starter and throw it away. Stir in another 100g
flour and add more water.
Repeat this process of throwing away
half the
sourdough starter and adding the 100g flour every day making sure that
you
maintain the sloppy consistency and keeping your
starter at room
temperature.
Always make sure that your sourdough starter can breathe. Therefore it should be always left on the kitchen counter covered with a loose tea towel. Never put it in an air-tight container.
After about 7-10 days with this
sourdough bread recipe you have a mixture
that no longer smells funky, but actually smells quite pleasant,
although you
will certainly smell the yeast at this stage.
For those of you who are going to bake
bread on a
regular basis you can maintain your sourdough starter in the same way,
keeping it
at room temperature, taking some out to make your sponge and feeding it
again with the 100g of flour. In this way you will always have a steady
supply of starter and you will never have to buy packaged yeast again.
For those of you who are not going to make sourdough bread every other day or so, then you will need to make sure that you treat the sourdough starter properly so that it does not spoil. You can do this by simply adding enough flour but no water so that it now becomes more of a stiff dough rather than a batter. You can leave it like this for about 4 days without feeding it. Or, you can stop the fermenting process by placing the sourdough batter in the fridge in a non-metal container and this will keep for a week without needing to do anything to it. You can also freeze the starter and it will start fermenting upon thawing.
If you are going to refrigerate your starter you will need to bring the starter back to room temperature and give it another feeding to get it bubbling again before you start the sourdough bread recipe of your choice.
To bring your sourdough batter back to
life, stir it up and feed it 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup lukewarm water and 1
teaspoon sugar.
Turn the sourdough out on to a lightly floured board and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Place in a large bowl and cover with a clean tea towel.
Leave it to rise all day or
overnight as sourdough rises very slowly, usually 6 hours. It should
have doubled in
size before you use it.
Knock it down and now place in lightly greased bread tins. Once the bread has risen again, and it doesn’t spring back when you poke it, it is ready to be baked.
Method: First thing in the morning mix the starter, water, and 4 cups flour in a bowl. Put this in a warm place, cover loosely with a clean tea towel, and leave it for the rest of the day. By evening, it should have doubled and smell like your starter again.
Mix the sugar, salt, baking soda and 1 cup of flour together. Now sprinkle them over the dough, and mix well.
Turn the dough out onto a bread board and knead it well, using the remaining flour. Shape loaves and place them on lightly greased baking sheets. Let rise until doubled in bulk.
Slash tops of loaves with a sharp knife, brush them with well-beaten egg, and place in a 400°F oven.A pan of water on lower shelf of the oven can help make a crispy crust. Bake until lightly brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
Enjoy!
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