How do I make a sourdough bread ferment?
It’s surprisingly simple, but it takes 5 days. Once you’ve made it, you can use the same ferment or leaven or starter for years, assuming you like the flavour. Simply follow the instructions below to keep your ferment thriving. And remember, your ferment will be completely unique, even compared to the bakery down the street, or your neighbour who’s been baking for years. The wild yeast that go into your starter will be entirely unique, and give your bread a completely singular flavour.
Who invented sourdough?
Not hipsters, it turns out. Sourdough predates them by a few millenia, and actually has its roots in Ancient Egypt. Not entirely surprising as they had a culture that lasted thousands of years longer than what might be considered ‘modern day cultures’, with only a few exceptions, such as the societies of some traditional owners of the land in Australia that trace their histories 50,000 years back.
Why do you need fruit or honey for a sourdough starter?
Effectively this is the bait for the wild yeast floating around in the environment that you’re hoping to entice into your flour and water mix. I’ve used heavily processed, shop bought jam, blackberries picked earlier that day, yoghurt, cherries, apples, honey, brown sugar, banana, raisins… and probably a bunch of others I don’t remember now. They attract different yeast, so it’s worth experimenting, although I confess my palette isn’t smart enough to have detected much of a difference in the sourdoughs they have produced over the years.
Make your Sourdough Ferment
Equipment
- 1 Large mixing bowl
Materials
- 80 g Spelt Flour
- 850 g Strong White Bread Flour
- 20 g "Natural Sweetness" – mashed fruit, honey, even natural yoghurt
- 1 l Water
Instructions
Step 1 – First Mix
- Mix 50g of spelt flour, with 150g of your strong white flour, 20g of your natural sugar source, and 150g of warm water. Mix your ingredients in your large mixing bowl. Best to use your fingers here. Put a clean tea towel over the top.
- Leave it in a place with a consistently warm temperature (a boiler cupboard is ideal). Leave it for 1 to 2 days.
Step 2 – First Feed
- You'll know your mix is ready when it has got darker on top, and you should also be able to see some bubbles appearing (it's helpful to use a glass bowl for this purpose, but not vital as they'll bubble to the top too). Those bubbles signify that you have attracted some live wild yeast, and that it is happily feeding away, and releasing CO2.
- To your baby ferment, add 30g more spelt flour, 300g strong white flour and 160g warm water. Mix well, and then put your tea towel back on top.
- Put the bowl back in your reliably warm place, and leave it for a day.
Step 3 – Second Feed
- This stage creates a bit of waste which always annoys me, but I haven't found a good solution for it. You only need 200g of the ferment you've made, so throw away the rest at this point.
- Add to that 400g strong white bread flour and 200g warm water. This is the ratio you'll be using from now on for 'feeding the beast'. Compared to your quantity of ferment, it's an equal amount of water, and double the amount of strong white bread flour.
- Put your tea towel back on, and the bowl back in to your consistently warm place for about half a day. You'll start to see your ferment rising now. You've now got 800g of ferment that's nearly ready to use.
- Pop it in the fridge for 2 days, and then you can make your first loaves. When you pull back the skin on the top of it, it will have a slightly honeycombed appearance, and a mildly acrid / alcoholic smell. That means it's ready to go.
Step 4 – The Routine – 'Feeding The Beast'
- When you take the 400g of ferment needed to make two 900g loaves (see my sourdough loaves recipe), keep 200g of the ferment that is left in the bowl you keep in the fridge.
- To that 200g of ferment, add 400g of strong white bread flour, and 200g of warm water.
- Mix it together well to make what feels like a dough.
- Put it back in your fridge, and let it feast slowly for the next 7 days!
