Welcome to my newsletter for March. You may have noticed I missed February, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to sit and write my newsletter!
In my newsletters, I’d like to share things that I enjoy in life and that includes making bread. I started my ‘sourdough starter kit’ about 1 year ago and I affectionally refer to her as ‘Erica’ as she needs feeding once a week or every day, depending on where you store her. I usually bake bread at the weekend and enjoy a leisurely breakfast, there is nothing more comforting than the smell of freshly baked bread and freshly ground coffee! ‘Erica’ often accompanies us when we are in Whitby! Not only is sourdough bread delicious it’s also a good source of vitamins and great for a healthy gut.
Making your starter kit
What you will need;
100 grams Plain Flour
100 grams of tepid Water
A couple of raisins (6ish)
1 no Kilner Jar
Mix the flour and water together in the jar and add the raisins, cover the jar and leave for 24 hours at room temperature.
- Add another 100 grams of flour and water, mix together. Leave for 24 hours.
- Leave for 24 hours or until you notice plenty of bubbles. It should have increased in volume, once it’s reached this stage, pour away at least three quarters of your starter. Remove and discard raisins.
- Feed again with flour and water.
- You can make your dough when your starter kit is full of bubbles.
Feed your starter every day (100g of water and flour) if you are keeping it at room temperature. I keep mine in the fridge which means I only feed her every week when I’ve made bread, I top her up with 100g of flour and water. If you want to make bread, take her out of the fridge, let her warm up and give her another feed, you can then make dough.
If you neglect your starter kit, you’ll notice a layer of alcohol and acid (often it goes black) on top of the floury mix. This does not mean it’s dead. You can restart it by pouring away most of it, feed it with 100g of flour and water, feed the next day and she should start bubbling away again.
I’d love to hear from you with any questions whitbyyard@gmail.com , and please send in your photos of your bread together with the name of your starter kit. One of my friends called their starter kit, ‘Edna’!
I recommend using the bread recipe from James Morton’s book – ‘Brilliant Bread’ or there are some easy recipes on the internet accompanied with video tutorials.
Enjoy baking!