Sourdough experiments

There is not alot to do in the garden at this time of year so it gives us time to have a bit of a play in the kitchen.

Today we decided to try a couple of different flavours with our sourdough starter, born last summer from our plums,five seed with malt syrup and fig, walnut and molasses.

Our starter is only little, about 500g, so each time we use half and feed it to the same kind of size with flour and water.

For the bread approximate measurements would be 125g starter, 300g organic strong white flour,tepid water by eye, a good handful/spoonful of malt syrup or molasses and either 6 dried chopped figs and a handful of toasted walnuts or a tablespoonful of linseed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, sesame seed, poppy seed and molasses.

Sourdough takes a bit more commitment than standard bread so you need a couple of days. Day one we mix up the dough and add the flour, water and either molasses of syrup. At this stage it seems to work best if you make quite a wet mix (a bit thicker than dropping consistency) and leave it overnight to divide and expand.

The next day after its risen by at least twice the size we slapped it onto a floured surface and added the other ingredients. With our sourdough we are not kneading at all really, just a bit of a fondle to get the mixture even and the right consistency.

Now we leave for as long as it takes to more than double in size, this could be a whole day. When its doubled and has big air bubbles forming we chuck it in a hot oven for twenty mins and then turn down the temp a bit and leave it in till it sounds hollow when you tap it.