[caption id="attachment_9562" align="alignleft" width="300"] Starter[/caption]

Finally, I've successfully produced a stable and reliable sourdough starter. The starter has been bubbling away for about 3 weeks. To begin with, I fed her as per the method in the book I'm using: Do Sourdough. There are a couple of sourdough bread makers at work and one of them recommended keeping the starter going with equal amounts of the starter, new flour and water.

Since 29th February, I have been discarding half of the starter and refreshing it with 50g of organic wholemeal flour and roughly 30-50ml of water depending on the starter hydration - you don't want it too wet. To avoid issues with chlorine, I let the water rest overnight in a jug, although on one day I did use water fresh from the tap. Apparently, the natural yeasts can overcome the chlorine but in the early days of the starter, it is best to use spring water.

[caption id="attachment_9563" align="alignright" width="300"] Making Production Sourdough[/caption]

The starter has been living in the airing cupboard. I tried a day outside of the airing cupboard, but she's happier in there. This morning I took 150g of the starter, added 120ml of water at 35°C to break it up and then added 100g of white and wholemeal flour to make the production sourdough starter. This is the first step towards bread. I will know in 4 hours or so if this has worked.

I've fed the starter today but I suspect she'll go in the fridge tomorrow. I'm experimenting and I'm not sure I'm going to bake every week - I only eat carbs on cheat day. But if you are going to have bread, you may as well have good quality bread.