a busy domestic blog of knitting, sewing and all kinds of needlecrafts, cooking my garden produce and preserving it

Thursday 25 March 2021

Experiments with Sourdough

One of the things I've started during this last lockdown since Christmas is the nurturing of a sourdough culture. I wasn't actually expecting great things of it, but it turned out to be easier than I expected to transform flour-and-water paste into something tasty. 

At first I was playing around with the daily discard - making pancakes with the batter, thickening it with flour to make cinnamon rolls, and tarts topped with sticky rhubarb or Mediterranean veg (an experiment to use up a frozen pack I received as a substitute for peppers, which turned out very tasty)
After a week or so the sourdough was bubbling, and ready to make my first loaf of bread. It didn't look brilliant, but tasted good - which is the most important bit.
I'd heard that it was possible to keep the mother culture almost indefinitely in the fridge, so I tried by putting half in a jar and leaving it there, but after a couple of weeks I seemed to be just left with sludge. 

The other half, in the warmth of the airing cupboard, has gone from strength to strength.
 I've managed to bake a couple of respectable-looking loaves with it, cobs and mini-baguettes, and some strange half bread/half cake concoctions like this apple sandwich, but my favourite uses are for pittas and pizza, made with discard and strong flour.


I now make these regularly, and I'm constantly amazed at how flour-and-water paste turns into anything so tasty.






 



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