The Grand Sourdough Adventure - more, part one

General
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1

This is a reliable method I have used to create a sourdough culture.
Included is a useful recipe for flatbread that can be used as a wrap, a pitta pocket, naan bread, a pizza base or a sweet or savoury pancake. It is easy, tasty and a good introduction to bread making.

Later I will present instructions for using the culture to make a sourdough loaf.

I wanted to provide step by step instructions with photographs for this project.
Unfortunately my mobility is restricted and obtaining some of the items I need is taking a while.
As soon as I am able I’ll set up, photograph all the stages and insert them with these instructions when I can.

In the meantime it is a shame not to share this so I will publish now and update later.

IMPORTANT

  1. Measure everything, including liquids, by weight in grams. This is both reliable and accurate.
  2. Use still spring water or filtered water. Avoid tap water, whether boiled or not. Your yeast and bacteria will then thrive.
  3. You will require an extra large portion of patience. The microbes will do all the work, but you must allow them the time they need to do their job, they will not be hurried.
  4. You will be performing a revival of an ancient practice, bread making, which has been going on, with regional variations, practically unchanged for many thousands of years.
  5. We live surrounded by friendly microbes. They will happily help us in our endeavours if we treat them right.

You will need:
A small bowl
A digital scale
A silicone spatula
A couple of recycled jam jars, or small kilner jars
A rubber band
A tablespoon
A couple of litres of still spring water or filtered water
A bag of wholemeal bread flour
A bag of strong white bread flour
Salt
Cooking oil, such as sunflower

Method
Weigh 16g wholemeal flour into the bowl.
Add 16g water.
Vigorously mix flour and water to combine and aerate.
Put the saucer somewhere out of direct sunlight.
Be prepared to do nothing and just wait, for a few days.
After day one it might be possible to see tiny pinpicks of gas emerging from the surface of the mix.
By the second day these pin pricks should be more apparent.
On day three a few larger bubbles should also be visible.
Day four shows good signs of active fermentation.
Add 50g water and combine as a slurry.
Pour this slurry into a jar.
Add 50g wholemeal flour and stir well to combine.
Attach the rubber band around the jar and slide it so it is level with the top of the flour water mix.
Watch this and after four hours the level of the mix should have risen.
By looking at the position of the rubber band and the new level of the mix we know how much it has risen. If it has doubled or more, you are ready to make bread.
Transfer a couple of tablespoonsful to your second jar. This is your culture, label it with your name for it, loosely cover with a lid and put it out of the way in the fridge. It might look like a tiny amount, nothing like what you see on the internet, but it is quite sufficient to keep you going indefinitely.

The remainder is your ‘starter’, we will transfer this to a bowl and use it to make bread. The method for this will be outlined at the next stage.

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This space is for instructions for making a simple flat bread
I’ll be back to complete this as soon as I can.
As ever don’t rush fhis. Extra hours means extra flavour.

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A Simple flat bread recipe

If you are just getting started, making a flat bread is the easiest way to begin making great bread at home. With just a few steps you can stop buying bread forever. This works with every flour, including gluten free options.

Take 10g of your remainder, from the previous exercise, to use as a starter, refrigerate the rest.
You will have the perfect quantity to make a dough for one person.

Flatbread recipe for 1 person.
(Multiply the ingredient quantities below to increase the number of portions.)

Flour 100g (strong white)
Water 100g (still spring)
Starter 10g
Salt 2g
(Bake when dough has increased 50% in size
This could take a few hours, maybe overnight)

Mix the ingredients last thing at night and leave, covered to prevent drying out, until next day. If the dough is risen sufficiently it is ready to pan fry. If you need to delay it can be kept in the fridge until you are ready. Put a little oil in a frying pan and heat up. Shape each portion about 1cm thick. Drop onto the hot oil, then cover with a lid, if possible, to contain the steam. Flip over after 2-4 minutes when the colour looks good and cook on for the same time. When each bread is done, wrap in a tea towel, to keep moist. When cooled store in an air tight plastic bag in the fridge so they don’t dry out. They can be stored in this way for weeks.

People will love your fresh-baked flatbreads.

Garlic butter
On a chopping board finely cut up a clove of garlic. Crush this to a puree with the side of the knife. Add a generous pinch of salt, a few twists of ground black pepper and a good pinch of chopped parsley. Moisten all this with lemon juice. Then add a knob (a couple of tablespoons) of room temperature butter, mix all this well in together to combine. Transfer the mixture onto a small piece of cling film and wrap around to form into a cylindrical shape. Twist the ends, then keep in the fridge to firm up, cutting off pieces to spread over freshly made flatbread, as required.

Much of this material was taken or adapted from an open source work, named The Sourdough Framework, on the internet by a software engineer called Hendrik Kleinwachter. It is an excellent work in progress published free, but he seeks donations from any in a position to do so. (see:- https://www.the-bread-code.io/ )

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I think you missed your calling, Bobbi. You should be a professional chef!! :bread:

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When I was a kid I had a summer holiday job for a few years. I worked as kitchen porter in a small hotel in Blackpool, a holiday town.
My first job of the morning at 6am was to feed sliced bread into a row of eye level grills (I think you call them broilers) in the hotel kitchen. When that was done I next fed in trays of bacon carefully done to a turn then replaced with more trays. Next the components of an English breakfast were layed out on a plate and these were sent up to a serving area following the toast. Once that was done we had our breakfast at the huge kitchen table. Then after mopping the floor I went down to the cellar to begin rumbling and peeling potatoes, occasionally also chippimg some of them. After this I washed up the pots, pans and breakfast plates. Then began helping serve up and send up lunch. Then having our own lunch and washing pans and dinner plates, followed by an afternoon break. During this I took the hotel owners’ dogs for a walk on the beach, occasionally, my boss when watching horse-racing on the television would send me to put bets on at the local bookies. Then we served up the evening meal, followed by more washing up and finally mopping down. After that the evening was my own, sometimes my boss would buy me a pint at the Lifeboat, a local pub, or I’d go to the Captains Cabin a coffee bar with a juke box to meet my girlfriend.
All that was almost 60 years ago. I was paid the princely sum of a pound a day, which for a seven day week worked out at £7 a week. I was working something like a ten hour day for 10p an hour.
Sadly the hotel I worked in was demolished some years ago.

I worked in a kitchen but never got anywhere near becoming a chef. I’m just an enthusiast but anyhow, @axnr911, thanks for the complement.

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Sourdough Pizza
As an alternative, spread tomato puree over a flatbread. Chop up mushrooms, onions, peppers, maybe a little ham or chicken and sprinkle over a generous quantity of grated cheese. Add a sprinkle of parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.
Brown the bottom of the pizza in the frying pan, then cook the top under the grill.
Cut up and serve hot or when cold. Enjoy ! !

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Such a great piece of writing- you should expand on this @Bobbi

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Morning @Bobbi. This is brilliant. I found bread making very doable and was the first thing I tried when I came out of hospital although I remember being exhausted trying to slice the loaf for freezing. Hope you have inspired others it is a rewarding thing to do. Well done in spreading the baking vibe :+1::bread: Julia x

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