All About Sour Dough .

[Cornish Cream]

I hope all goes well with your SD starter thermilover.

[cookie1]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

[thermilover]

Chookie, can you plz help me with this.. Today I got the sour dough starter inside, it has a lot of bubbles but I am not sure about the smell, it does not have a foul smell atleast but as I am not familiar with the smell of beer, not able to say if it is okay.. Thinking of feeding it but just not sure This is how it looks... Sorry to bother u with my never ending questions...

[achookwoman]

Chookie, can you plz help me with this.. Today I got the sour dough starter inside, it has a lot of bubbles but I am not sure about the smell, it does not have a foul smell atleast but as I am not familiar with the smell of beer, not able to say if it is okay.. Thinking of feeding it but just not sure This is how it looks... Sorry to bother u with my never ending questions...

No problems with the ?. Feed it. 1/2 cup of filtered water and 1/2 cup of bread flour.  Give it a good stir.  Leave on bench over night. It should have bubbles by the morning. You will know if it is off as it will have purple blotches on top and smell foul.
Good luck. 

[thermilover]

You are the best Chookie  Thank you for your reply, now will wait for the right quantity for my first ever SD loaf  You surely have boosted my confidence!!

[cookie1]

Thermilover I'm going through this with you. I can imagine how you feel. I can't wait for your first loaf. One of my SD loaves took an eternity to rise the other day.
Good luck.

[achookwoman]

Thermilover, to grow your own starter is rather special. It is difficult and needs persistence.
To make your first SD loaf in very special, whether you have grown the starter yourself or borrowed one.
I will be delighted to see your first loaf. 

[thermilover]

Chookie, can I get your help on this?
As you may remember, I started my SD starter a few weeks back, but as we had been falling sick one after the other, couldn't make the loaf
I just placed the starter in the fridge and haven't fed it since.
I am planning to make my first loaf, any advice on how I go about from here?

[cookie1]

Thermilover I would take it out of the fridge and feed it again with equal quantities of filtered water and bread flour. It needs to be active before you make your bread. When you mix the flour and water in I would give it a good beat (by hand) to incorporate lots of air. Then let it sit and watch for the bubbles, they will be slow, especially if it is cold.

Chookie please correct me if I am wrong. As you know I use a crazy mixed up method for my SD.

[thermilover]

Thank you so much Cookie.. Probably a stupid question but do I need to let the starter come to room temperature before feeding it?

[cookie1]

No questions are stupid, please ask away. No you don't need to let it return to room temperature. If it was me I'd feed it, then let it bubble and then feed it again and let it bubble. Even if you let it go overnight. Do you have enough starter for your loaf of bread and a little left over to feed up again?

[achookwoman]

Thermilover, good advice from Cookie.
Just keep feeding it until you have enough for your loaf and at least a tablespoon over. I leave a large stainless steel spoon in mine and stir  it when ever I pass. Some people say that it takes 7 hours after feeding to be really active.  Better test is to look for the bubbles and that strong beer smell.
Good luck.m

[Bonsai]

I've had trouble with my starter recently. Get it out of fridge, feed it and it's bubbly overnight but once I try to make a loaf using chookie's instructions it rises very poorly (I even cheated and added a tsp of yeast) and cooks to a brick-like consistency. Left the dough for about 12 hours in a warm place before cooking but it doesn't rise much at all. Can't figure out what's happening!  I'm having another go tonight with less salt in the ferment - I wonder if 2tsp is a bit much for my yeast

[achookwoman]

Bonsai, very strange.  I do think too much salt. I add none, but then I use Laucke mix which has salt in it .It does sound like it isn't fully  active.
Make sure it is active, bubbles and smells of beer. Give it a good stir after feeding and stir about every hour when you can.
Try this recipe. 400 g starter, 500 bakers flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and sugar if not using mix, 250 water. Knead 4 minutes and scrape into tin.  Allow to rise over night.  Bake next day. Should more than double but no oven spring. I like to bake this in a cast iron pot with the lid on for first 30 minutes , and the 20 minutes with lid off.

Sometimes during winter I leave the starter on the kitchen bench for a few days.  I might make crumpets, feed it again,  make bread, feed it again, make sour dough hot cakes. My jar holds about 2 litres of starter.
Let me know how you are going.

[Bonsai]

Thanks Choockie - I've been using the recipe which is on the "Chookies sourdough recipe and process" thread which calls for two tsp of salt and sugar in the pre-ferment. I have never had great success with this and I suspect the amount of salt would be ok if it was being mixed into the entire loaf but not for a smaller amount. I'll see what happens with the batch I left overnight.