My bread making journey started in 2012 but I have to admit I struggled with the motivation to make them at home until recently. Sourdough has always been Dav’s favourite, so since I have a lot of time during the lockdown, I thought why not. A good friend was also kind enough to give me some tips before I did some research online.
Making my own Starter
The first step is to make my own starter. I’ve heard you can buy a starter from your local baker but I never tried asking around.
My friend recommended the recipe and schedule by Joshua Weissman. It worked out very well and I managed to achieve an active starter by day 8. Below some useful information:
- Use stone ground rye flour – help speed up the fermentation time (i.e. active).
- Avoid bleached flour – as the flour is treated with chemicals, it will prevent the starter from becoming active.
- Use a see through glass jar – to observe the level of activity.
- Weight your jar without the lid before you start – so that you know how much starter to keep.
- Use a rubber band to indicate the initial level of the starter – to help measure how much the starter has grown.
- Starter can be kept in the fridge after feeding for up to 10 days.
I’ve named my starter Monster because it is super active. I left some discard on my kitchen top for 15 mins and before I knew it, it had overflowed. My starter is now 4 months old and it’s starting to feel like it’s a pet. It seems ok now to keep feeding it as we are not travelling. Not sure what we’ll do with Monster once we start travelling.
Recipes / Instructions
I’ve been following the following Youtube channel to learn the basics:
I’ve been watching more of ‘The Bread Code’ because I feel that he provides clear instructions (which I like) and how each action or changes to a component will impact the dough and the bread. He also experiments a lot to see what works.
Key learnings from my experience:
- Starter must be very active. Therefore if your starter has been in the fridge for a while, leave it at room temperature for at least 1 day before feeding it for baking the next day.
- Measure how long your starter takes to achieve peak activeness to prevent over proofing (also take note of the room temperature).
- Autolyse to get a dough that’s easier to work with and shape.
- Score (slashing the dough with a blade or a sharp knife) to allow it to expand during baking.
- If possible, use a dutch oven. I use a Pyrex (glass casserole) as a replacement.
- Bake the dough at a high temperature (230℃) for approx 25 mins with the lid on to allow the bread to rise and then remove the lid and bake for another 30 mins at 200℃. The dough will form a crust when baking without a lid.
- The whole process will take all day and sometimes over 2 days depending on your starter and dough. I found a really handy baking guide developed by Pro Home Cooks that I can use to determine when to start the process based on the time I want to bake.
What’s next
My dough is not perfect as I’m still getting a very sticky dough. Also I’ve not been able to get a consistently nice bread everytime I bake. But I’m happy that I’ve managed to get fairly decent bread that Dav enjoys. Hopefully soon I can start adding things into the dough but before that there’s still a long journey before I master the technique. Drop me a comment if you have any questions.
Maximillian & Us 