Baking School

During these first 6 days (when you’re feeding and growing your starter), it should be kept loosely covered at room temperature.

It should take about 6 days to create a healthy, bubbly starter. By this point, your starter should have a honeycomb pattern of bubbles in it and a slightly alcoholic aroma.

In this recipe, we use the delayed salt method. This gives your starter time to become active and your flour time to absorb water before the salt is added. When the hour is up, uncover your dough and place the salt on top. Sprinkle a little water over the salt, then gently start pulling the salt through the dough. This should take about 30 seconds,

WHAT HAPPENS IF LIQUID APPEARS ON TOP OF MY STARTER? Don’t worry if this happens – it’s harmless and is referred to as ‘hooch’, which is naturally occurring alcohol. It’s basically your starter saying ‘I am hungry’ and ‘FEED ME’. The hooch can either be poured off or mixed back into your starter – we are ‘hooch in’ at Bread Ahead.

The sourdough loaf is all about a long fermentation, the development of a real depth of flavour, the open texture of the crumb, a chewy leathery crust, plus a nice singe and a flavour that sings.

HOW/WHERE SHOULD I KEEP MY STARTER AFTER THE FIRST 6 DAYS? If you’re not baking with your starter straight away, put it into the fridge, with the lid of the container firmly fastened. If you’re not baking regularly with your starter, you’ll need to give it a feed (50g of flour and 50g of water) every 2 weeks.

HOW MUCH STARTER SHOULD I GENERALLY KEEP? Again, this largely comes down to personal preference, but we recommend keeping about 500g.

You can use any flour to make a starter, but we recommend using a wholegrain rye flour (and we use this in our production bakery). Rye starters tend to be a bit heartier and more resilient than their white counterparts.

DAY 1 50g wholegrain rye flour 50g cold water DAYS 2, 3, 4 & 5 1 tablespoon wholegrain rye flour 1 tablespoon cold water On day 1, just mix the flour and water together. Cover with a tea towel and leave at room temperature for 24 hours. Each consecutive day, add 1 tablespoon of flour