Sourdough At Riverside

Serves Makes 1 loaf, about 15 slices

Ingredients:

Strong White Bread Flour
Tap Water
Fine, pure sea salt is best

Method

Making A starter - once it is active you will be able to use it again and again to make bread as long as you keep feeding it. Give it a name and take care of it.
you will need 250g of strong white bread flour
Day 1 - Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water in a glass jar. Make sure it has combined well and leave, semi-covered, at room temperature for 24 hrs.
Day 2 - Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday's mixture. Again, make sure all the flour has been incorporated and leave, semi-covered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.
Day 3 - Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into your existing mixture. Make sure it is all well combined and leave, semi-covered, at room temperature for another 24hrs.
Day 4 - Things should start to be happening to your mixture, bubbles forming and bubbling on top. mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into the bubbling mixture. Make sure all the flour has been incorporated and leave, semi-covered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs
Day 5 - Day or reckoning! The mixture should be very active and ready for making your levain (starter). If it is not bubbling it is not quite ready and continue to feed it as above until it does. When it is ready it should have a yoghurty smell and a teaspoon dropped into warm water should float.

It does seem a little laborious but it is well worth the effort. Try it with our hummus recipe

You now have a starter, which is the base of the bread. You will need to look after it; we have named ours Geraldine. Keep Geraldine in the fridge (it will stay dormant), then 12 hours before you want to use it, pour half away, and feed with 100g flour and 100g water. Leave at room temperature and it will become active again.

Geraldine can now be used to make Sourdough bread.

Serves 1 loaf

Ingredients:

For the Levain
1 tbsp active sourdough starter
50g strong white bread flour
For the bread
levain (as above)
500g strong white bread flour
10g fine sea salt.

Method

To make the levain, mix the starter with the flour and 50g water (this is the same process as feeding the starter, but you should do this in a separate bowl, keeping the original starter as back-up). Leave the levain for 8 hours at room temperature until it becomes active. When ready, a teaspoonful of the mix should float in warm water.
To make the bread, pour 300g of tepid water into the active levain and stir together with a rubber spatula. Tip in the flour and bring everything together into a rough dough with a rubber spatula. Make sure it has incorporated well and that there are no dry bits along the side of the bowl. Cover and leave somewhere warm to prove for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 hrs.
Sprinkle over the salt and add 25g water to the dough. Roughly knead in the salt and water with your hands; keep kneading until smooth. Leave to prove for another 15 minutes.
Grab the dough from one side with wet hands, and stretch it over itself. Repeat with the other side. Pick the dough up and curl it around onto itself, then cover and leave to prove for another 20-30 minutes. Repeat this process 2 more times, then leave the dough for another 2-3 hours until risen by about a 1/3, bubbly and soft.
Scrape the dough onto a lightly dusted work surface and fold it onto itself to create a ball. Leave, uncovered to prove for 30 min - the ball will start to spread - . Scrape the dough ball off the work surface, then fold it onto itself to create a tight ball that's trapped in all the air. Transfer into the fridge, seam side up, to chill overnight.
Heat the oven to 240c/220c fan/gas9 and put a lidded casserole dish in to heat. Cut a sheet of baking paper into a square slightly larger than the base of the loaf. Very carefully take the casserole dish out of the oven and uncover. Invert the loaf onto the baking paper, then, working quickly, score the top. Place the loaf into the casserole dish. cover with the lid and bake for 30 mins, the carefully uncover and bake for a further 10 mins. Lift the bread out and transfer on to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Good to know: Per slice 171 kcals; fat 1g; saturates 0.1g; carbs 35g; sugars 0.2g; fibre 1g; protein 6g; salt 0.8g.

The dough for the loaf can also be used to make pizza - and it is delicious!