Sourdough Bread Made Easy

When refreshing your starter, you could try experimenting with different ratios and total amounts of flour to water: a looser starter will ferment more quickly than a stiff one; refreshing more often or adding a large refreshment will dilute the taste and acidity.

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it to prove in a warm place for two to four hours until roughly doubled in size. If you live in a warm country the kitchen will probably be fine, if not a warm airing cupboard should be fine or put it in the oven with just the oven light on (which is what I do as I was told off for getting flour on the cloth

My own preferred solution is to make soda bread. It not only tastes great but it takes less than an hour from start to finish. So I have also included a basic soda bread recipe as well.

the fridge, bring it up to room temperature, give it a feed by adding flour and water and leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours until it’s bubbling again.

The flour can be either rye flour or an unbleached, strong white bread flour or even a mixture of both but I would recommend starting with strong white bread flour initially unless you are only planning to make pure rye bread.