Gosh, I had totally forgotten about Sally, my sourdough starter! The last time I fed her was December 18. She had a good layer of "hooch" on top (this is the alcohol that is produced by the yeasts) so I stirred that back in.
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...then shaped it and popped it into a big, greased bowl. I covered it with a shower cap... (11.45pm)
I used my stand mixer to roughly mix the dough then tipped it out, gave it a very gentle knead...
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Sally has made a feisty dough this morning, rising right to the top of the bowl ... (6.20am)
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Ready to be tipped out...
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I divided it in half...
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...gently shaped the loaves then plopped them onto baking paper lined trays.
I preheated my oven to 250C for a good half hour then turned down to 220C - baked for 25 minutes, turned loaves then a further 25 minutes at 180C...
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Quite a nice crumb and definitely delicious (toasted and served with scrambled eggs).
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Cheers - Joolz xx
Super impressed with your beautiful loaves. I'm clearly doing something wrong because I'm not getting the rise like you're getting. When you say you fed it three times last night, can you explain that bit in detail please? How much did you feed it each time? Then when did you mix the dough? Thanks for this post.
ReplyDeleteI started late and the first feed was at about 3.30pm. My starter had a layer of clear liquid (known as hooch) on top, which I stirred back in. I took out a good 3/4 cup of starter and tipped into a bowl. I fed it 1/4 cup bakers flour and 1/4 cup boiled, cooled water - eg from your kettle that has gone cold. Town supply chlorinated water can kill starters so use boiled rain water or filtered/spring water. The next feed was around 6pm and then again at 8.30pm. I had bubbles forming by 6pm so I knew Sally was on her way back. By 11.30pm when I finally made the dough, she was bubbly like in the picture.
DeleteMy starter was gifted to me by Celia and her blog has so much information about siurdough. Go to http://figjamandlimecordial.com and click on her 'bread' tab at the top of the page. Lots of tutorials and how-to's! Good luck!
Thanks for this info. I always use rain water, but I think your way of feeding the starter like this might be the trick. Going to check out Celia's blog now. :)
DeleteHappy New Year to you and your family. I feel a bit like Sally and may be in need of resuscitating after Christmas/New Year. Your bread, like all the food you cook, looks so tasty.
ReplyDeleteLouise