The sourdough starter is one of the six pillars of baking: flour, water, salt, fresh baker’s yeast, sourdough starter and… passion.

 

After my liquid sourdough starter video, it is time to unveil the recipe of the firm starter.

 

You will have to try several times, to practise a lot and even to make mistakes, like any baker has. It’s the attempts that will make you better at baking.

 

Put your apron on and let me guide you day after day.

The ingredients

The ingredients:

Day 1:

125g of rye flour

125g of water

 

Day 2:

250g of fine stone-ground flour

250g of water

20g of organic honey (optional)

 

Jour 3 (depending on your needs for today’s recipe):

500g of fine stone-ground flour

250g of water

(Or 1kg of flour for 500g of water, or 700g of flour for 350g for water, etc...)

The timings

Kneading with the hand: A dozen of minutes each day.

 

Rest: 24 hours between each kneading + 3 hours of rest before each use.

 

The utensils

A few bowls of different sizes.

 

* 1st day *

Knead the flour and the water with your hands until there is no more lumps.

 

You can replace the rye flour with dark fine stone-ground flour or dark einkorn wheat flour.

 

Scrape the sides of the bowl and combine your dough in the middle of it.

 

Leave your blending to rest at room temperature for 24 hours under a cloth. Do not place it in the fridge.

 

* 2nd day *

Knead the water, the flour and the 1st day blending with your hand till your kneading is homogeneous.

 

If you want, you can add a bit of honey in your water to add flavours and increase the fermentation. (optional).

 

Scrape the sides of your bowl and assemble all the starter fragments together in the middle.

 

You can replace the dark fine stone-ground flour by rye, buckwheat or wholemeal flour. It is your starter. You decide the balance of flavours you want your bread to taste.

 

Leave your blending to rest at room temperature for 24 hours under a cloth. Do not place it in the fridge.

 

* 3rd day *

Knead the water, the flour and the 2nd day blending.

 

This time, it is not the same weight of flour for the same weight of water. Today, the water has to be the half of the flour weight. You can pour the amount of flour you want and divide its weight in half to have the weight of your water.

 

Knead till the mixing is homogeneous, without any lumps.

 

Remember that after the kneading you should have 2/3 of starter for your recipe and 1/3 to keep in the fridge for your future breads. (Portion that you would have previously refreshed before use).

 

Now, it is important to let your firm sourdough to rest and ferment at room temperature for 2 or 3 hours before using it this 3rd day.

 

For the other third kept in the fridge, after the refreshing, you should let it ferment for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature before using it.

 

It’s your turn to try.

And don’t forget to give me your progresses.

 

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