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Make your Sourdough Ferment

An easy and guaranteed way to make your own sourdough ferment
Cuisine: Ancient Egypt, French
Keyword: Bread, Sourdough
Yield: 800 g

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!