my new friend mr sourdough
January 5th, 2009
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard for Christmas.
I’m a big fan of Dan’s, especially since he complemented the (South) Chelsea buns that I made for last years Brockwell Bake. Inspired by reading his book, I decided to cultivate my own sour dough starter (or leaven) over the Christmas break. Approximately a week of dedication required to get the process kick-started, with daily feeding and monitoring my leaven.
I was incredibly surprised to find that actually it wasn’t that painful. At times I felt it wasn’t working (especially when my loaf on day 5 appeared to fail), but the result on day 6 was just amazing. I’ve certainly never made a loaf with such a remarkable crust (so crispy) and crumb (so chewy).
I now just have to work out how best to keep my leaven alive going forwards. See the pictures below to see how the drama unfolded.
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- Day 1 – a mixture of rye flour, strong white flour, live yoghurt, water and raisins
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- Day 1: mixed up
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- Day 2 – following mixing (hence the bubbles, they aren’t real)
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- Day 2 close up – a better colour than day 1. Probable raisin decomposition.
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- Day 3 – the mixture has separated. Perhaps got to cold over night?
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- Day 3 – looked more healthy after a mix and a feed
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- Day 4 – natural bubbles! That is evidence of the yeast starting to breathe. It has a slight sour smell, but only for a second after removing the lid. I kept a wooly hat over the leaven over night to keep it warm!
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- Day 4 – after a good mix and a new feed
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- Day 5 – the bubbles are yet more pronounced. It smells pretty sour now.
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- Day 5 – time to have a go at turning the leaven into bread. Unfortunately after a day of rising, day 5′s loaf was showing no signs of rising.
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- Day 5′s loaf didn’t rise, but day 6 leaven looks more promising (more bubbles).
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- Day 5′s loaf. After a day of rising, it spent the night in the fridge, and was reinvigorated with some yeast. Cheating, I know, but I didn’t want to waste a good loaf. Just look at the crumb!
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- Inside Day 6′s loaf. Sourdough bread contains these wonderful cavernous air holes.
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- Day 6 – the final loaf. It looks like a mis-shapen mince pie, but it tastes amazing. Chewy on the inside, crusty on the outside.
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- Day 6 again, with Day 5.5 taking the back seat.
2 Responses to “my new friend mr sourdough”
1Jonathan
February 15th, 2010 @ 16:01
What an amazing looking loaf. Would you recommend Dan’s book? I’m keen to get into sourdough…
2tom
February 28th, 2010 @ 18:53
Absolutely – his book is great and the main focus is sourdough.
I’m sure there are plenty of other good sourdough books out there too..about time I found some more ideas and dusted off my starter!
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