Fresh sourdough at the Eco Villa.jpg — Sourdough…

has become an obsession for many during lockdown.

I have always wanted to make my own Sourdough bread. My sister in law makes beautiful loaves for her family with a starter passed down the generations from her Flemish ancestors. Oh how dreamy! She even gave me some of her ancient starter on a recent trip to Wellington to bring back and try myself… I neglected it and it died… I am a bad human being!

At the Eco Villa we are lucky to serve our guests freshly baked sourdough from local Woolston Bellbird bakery and it is delicious. See the beautiful picture of bellbird sourdough above. We really love the porridge, walnut rye and the seeded sourdough. It often arrives still warm from the oven and smelling delicious. We don’t make it ourselves as it takes 2 days to make and these guys are artisans, best to leave it to the masters! They deliver in paper and cardboard only and they even pick up their cardboard boxes to be reused, we love you Bellbird!

But during the Covid19 lockdown I found myself at home and with more likelihood that I would actually be able to ‘feed’ a sourdough starter without forgetting it. Spurred on by the countless sourdough loaves popping onto my social media from the likes of amazing Nicola Galloway in Nelson or TomBoy Cakes in Wellington, I jumped on the bandwagon!

Part of me was worried about the waste. Sourdough starter needs to be constantly fed with tepid water and high grade flour. You need to discard some after a while as you will end up with too much, but there is a new wave of recipes popping up with countless ideas on how to use up the rest of the starter so you don’t throw it out. This morning I made sourdough banana pancakes with my leftover starter! I will be absolutely honest with you… they were a bit stodgy and far from the glowing representatives from Tomboy’s instagram post. But that’s likely due to the fact that I took it on myself to add oats and more starter than the recipe said. I’m really not a scientific cook, more of an experimental and instinct cook, which is why baking is not usually for me.. So in this case instinct did not pay off. “Follow the recipe Anna! It’s not rocket science.”

Below is a step by step guide of the video tutorials I used for my sourdough starter, thanks to baker and cafe owner Kate Marinkovich and her follow along videos on Tomboy Instagram page. Check them out for the real deal! Start in the morning on day one and keep track of your days - great for Lockdown to remind you that it’s not groundhog day! Another tip could be to time it so you can make the bread on a weekend day. Once you finally get to making bread it’s good to be at home and have some time on your hands. It’s a lesson in patience which we all need right now.

Part 1:

Day 1: Two parts. Part 1: 50 gms flour and 50 gms of luke warm water. You can mix up with a little rye or whole-wheat too but make sure at least 50% is white. Leave it for about 8 hours then give it another feed. Part 2: Super simple, add an extra 25% of the total weight of flour and water to the dough. So the total weight is 100gm so 25gm and 25gm. Be gentle and cover.

Day 2: In the morning add in 50gm Flour and 50gm lukewarm water in a clean bowl. Combine. Add to the original starter mix. Cover.

Day 3: Again 50gm Flour and 50gm lukewarm water. Gently combine. Cover.

Day 4: Add 50gm Flour and 50gm lukewarm water to your starter. Gently combine and cover.

Day 5: First day to discard some sourdough starter - As suggested by Kate I made her banana pancakes with mine! Click Here for Kate's Recipe. Look out for a future blog post on other ways to use up your starter.

Day 6: Add 100gm flour and 100gm lukewarm water to your sourdough.

Day 7: Today we reduce our sourdough to 200gm. Feed with 100gm flour and 100gm lukewarm water.

Day 8: Add 100gm flour and 100gm lukewarm water to your starter

Day 9: Reduce to 200gm then add 100gm flour and 100gm water to your starter

Day 10: Add 100gm flour and 100gm lukewarm water to your starter

Some notes on these first 10 days. Don’t be too hard on yourself! I liked to feed my dough at 8am just after my breakfast, but sometimes I forgot and did it later, it still survived and it worked! I even forgot to feed it completely one day and it was ok - I just pretended I had 2 day 9’s ;) It’s ws still fine so like I said, don’t be too hard on yourself. Kate also says you don’t need to put it in a warm place like lots of other recipes call for, I had mine by the coffee machine but as it was April things were cooling down but this didn't seem to matter - it still bubbled away and worked out in the end.

Now take a look below for part 2. Making sourdough bread: Day 11-13 for the final steps and for baking your first loaf! This really is a lesson in patience, I don’t consider myself a patient person but I really enjoyed getting into the routine and the sense of achievement when I finally bakes my loaf!

Part 2:

By this time I have been feeding my little starter like a 1990’s tamagotchi pet, and even after missing one day (see previous post) I haven’t killed it yet! So it’s time to test out my work with the Leaven float test and bake some bread, you’ll be properly invested by now, ready to see if it will work out!

Day 11: Sourdough bread leaven. This is for the float test to see if our starter is strong enough to make a loaf of bread:

First make the leaven which is 75gm strong flour and 75gm water with 55gm starter. Leave covered on the bench for 12 hours and get started tomorrow morning.

Day 12: Float test! Take some of your leaven and drop a small amount into a glass of room-temperature water. If it floats, the starter passed the test! If it sinks just reduce your starter to 200gr then add 100gm flour and 100gm water and try again tomorrow. Luckily mine floated so time to make bread! It will take one day to fold and shape - so we will bake it tomorrow. I know, I know… sourdough is a labour of love and a lesson of patience. I have properly zenned on this fact by now and am enjoying it but my partner is just telling me to wait for the bakeries to open again!

Day 12 is quite an intensive process, start early in the morning, make sure you’re home during the afternoon to do the 6 folds. Easy in lockdown! Below are Kates steps for day 12 and 13.

Measure out 475gms of lukewarm water. Add all of your leaven to the water. Mix together into a waterer mix. Add 700grms of strong bread flour. Cover the bowl and leave for 3-4 hours on the bench. Do the next step while you’re waiting.
In a small bowl add 50gm boiling water and 15gm salt. Mix to dissolve and set aside on the bench to cool.
After your 3-4 hours have passed add cooled salt and water fold in at least 4 times, Kate has an instruction video on how to fold here. Rest for 30mins.
1st fold: Fold again, cover and rest again for 30 mins!
2nd fold: Fold again, cover and rest again for 30 mins!
3rd fold: Fold again, cover and rest again for 30 mins!
4th fold: Fold again, cover and rest again for 30 mins!
5th fold: Fold again, cover and rest again for 30 mins!
6th fold: Fold again, cover and rest again for 45 mins!
Dividing your bread. Gently scrape out of the bowl onto a floured surface. Divide into two loaves or you can keep it as one big loaf as I did. Rest the dough balls for 30 minutes on the bench.
Final Shape. Lightly flour your hands and do your normal 4 way fold to each loaf. Then flour a clean tea towel and place the loaf in, put your loaves into a banneton (proving basket) or linen napkins and bowls work as well.

Day 13: Finally… finally… time to make bread! Good luck!

When I looked at my dough I was really afraid it hadn’t worked, it had not risen at all in the fridge and it didn’t even rise for the first 30 mins of cooking in my big cast iron pot.. but the last 20 minutes it really came into its own and rose up dramatically, it was funny to watch my falorn and distraught face in the reflection of the oven turning into joy when I finally saw my loaf redeeming itself. I cooked my for a further 6 minutes as it wasn’t quite brown enough, I think I could have cooked it even loger and the bottom was still a little undercooked, maybe this is because I used a big cast iron put instead of the baking tray and ice cubes method. I will try that next time.

Preheat the oven to 240 degrees, place your loaf in your pot with baking paper. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for a further 20 minutes and 220 degrees or until it’s golden brown and brown on the bottom. Let it cool before you try and cut it, otherwise it will squish down. Enjoy with lashing of jam! And try not to eat it all in a few hours… hard, I tell you.

Kate’s top tips: If you don’t have a dutch oven you could use any pot that can go in an oven, if it doesn’t have a lid you could use tin foil. I used a big old cast iron pot - if you’re using a pot I think you need to cook a bit longer. Also make sure there’s no plastic handle on the lid! You can also bake without the pot and just use a loaf tin or baking tray, preheat your oven and when you are ready to bake put the bread in and throw in a few ice cubes onto the bottom of the oven and shut the door. Be quick as the moisture will evaporate and the steam helps the bread in the first stage.

I hope you enjoy making sourdough! It’s certainly not something I would do every day or every week for that matter but it’s nice to know the option is there. I really enjoyed some of the sourdough castoff recipes like pizza dough, crackers and pancakes. Watch out for a future post on what to do with your sourdough cast off. Happy baking!

Making Sourdough at Home

Part 1:

Part 2: