The Virtues of Sourdough and How to Make Your Own Starter

You can find good-looking and great-tasting sourdough bread all over the place these days. Hearty round loaves with rich brown crusts and handsome cracks can be bought at every farmers’ market and bakery worth its salt. But, as good as it looks, due to the time and skill required to make it in large quantities, sourdough bread is expensive to buy, while wholemeal sourdough can be too dense for some tastes.

At the same time, sourdough baking has a kind of mythical status that can be off-putting for beginners. When I first started thinking about making sourdough I heard stories of starters that had been passed on through generations to build up flavours that could never be surpassed. But where could I find some of this living, breathing leaven, and what if, when I did, I accidentally killed it? There was the issue of feeding it in-between bakes – what do you do with the discarded starter? Then I read about hydration – the ideal proportion of water to flour – and it was yet another obstacle in my way.

This was many years ago and, thankfully, I’ve realised since then that sourdough needn’t be a thing to fear. Over the years I’ve been given starters that died because I forgot to feed them, I’ve made my own from scratch – and killed those too. But it’s really no big deal. It’s easy enough to start another batch and now that I bake bread regularly and so easily, killing it would actually be quite hard.

So why switch to sourdough in the first place?

At the start, for me, baking sourdough was largely about the fun of baking really good, delicious bread that could compete with the £5 loaves in the market. I was also having trouble with digestion and cut out milk, eggs, cheese and most bread for a few years, only reintroducing them (in moderation) when I got pregnant and the symptoms seemed to clear up.

Now it’s more about bread with substance. When Sidney eats sliced supermarket bread I can’t help but feel that there’s absolutely no goodness going into him – it’s essentially a nutritionally empty (and chemical-filled) snack.

The problem with supermarket sliced bread is that it’s made quickly, so the yeast never has time to ferment and break down the flour to make it digestible. A whole host of additional ingredients are used to make it lighter, springier, bigger and to make it last – extra yeast, gluten, fat, emulsifiers, preservatives and various enzymes (which, incidentally, don’t have to be listed on the label).

Sourdough, on the other hand, uses slow proving to do all these jobs naturally. By resting the dough over several hours you’re providing enough time for all the chemical reactions to occur naturally, which is much healthier and actually does a better job in terms of flavour, texture and durability. The acids in flour that we find difficult to digest are neutralised during the proving process, making it easier for our bodies to absorb all the other vitamins and minerals – such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc ­– that are good for us.

What’s more, the flavours are incomparable. The lactic and acetic acids in the sourdough, absent in mass-produced bread, give it its quintessential sourness. And it lasts much longer than sliced bread, too. Even if it’s started to dry out it’s still delicious toasted, or it can be used in cooking – there are many ways to use up old bread so that none of your loaf is wasted.

How to make a starter

If you know a friendly baker, or you have a friend with a batch on the go, who will give you some of theirs, it will save you a few days of fiddling around with flour and water and you can start baking straight away. But making a starter is pretty easy. You just need to make sure you’re going to be around for a few days to get it going.

I started making sourdough using Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s method. Mix 100g strong bread flour (at least 50% wholegrain, such as wholemeal, spelt or wholegrain rye), with enough lukewarm water to make a batter the consistency of thick paint. Cover and leave in a warm place until bubbles start to rise to the surface and the mixture smells like it’s starting to ferment. This will take a few hours.

At this point, whisk in about 100g of fresh flour and more water so that you have a thick batter. Leave it for about 24 hours at room temperature, then discard half the mixture and stir in another 100g flour and more water. Repeat every day until, after 7–10 days, you have a sweet-smelling, yeasty starter with a spongy consistency.

I found this a reliable though time-consuming method.

I then tried James Martin’s technique, from his book Brilliant Bread. It’s a good book for both yeasted and sourdough breads, with advice about both that’s easy to follow. He recommends using a starter aid, such as raisins, to help kick-start the fermentation process. I grated a small cooking apple from the garden into the initial flour/water mixture and had bubbling starter ready to use in half the time.

How to keep your starter alive

You read a lot about keeping your starter healthy by throwing half of it away and building it back up with fresh flour and water.

Once my starter is up and running I almost never throw any of it away. I make a loaf a week, at least. I’ve found a fool-proof recipe that works for me (more on that next time) and so I know how much starter I need for every loaf I bake.

This is my routine:

The day before I plan to bake, I take my sourdough out of the fridge and add 2–3 tablespoons fresh flour and enough water to make a thick paste. I then let it sit until the evening. While it’s in the fridge the starter is dormant; bringing it back to room temperature revives it. By the early evening I have a healthy, bubbling starter.

That evening I prepare the dough, cover the bowl with a tea towel (same one every time and the same that I use to wrap the baked bread to keep it fresh) and leave it overnight to prove. In winter I make it earlier in the evening, in summer I make it just before bed.

The following morning I bake the bread ready to eat for lunch.

If you want to bake in the evening, simply prepare your starter the night before, prepare the dough in the morning and bake the same night.

This method gives me just enough starter to make one loaf, with a little left over in the pot that goes straight back in the fridge until next time. I used to make the starter up to a stiff consistency and leave it, wrapped, on the kitchen top. When you need to use it, simply thin out the starter with water. This is something Hugh F-W recommends, but I found that I wasn’t making enough bread to keep it going. Fridge storage is far more reliable for me. He does say that if you’re going away for 2 weeks this is a good way to store it in the fridge, although I haven’t tried it yet.

Every 3 weeks or so I give my starter a boost by making something extra in-between bread bakes. More on these simple recipes another time, but you can make an easy and healthy lunch or dinner incorporating a little sourdough and give your starter an extra feed at the same time. If you don't want to make something else, but your starter is looking a little sloppy, take some out and feed it a few hours before you want to mix your dough.

Mixing your starter is something you’ll get used to over time. It’s not disastrous if it’s a little bit runny, or a little bit thick, but the more you do it the more you’ll get a feel for the best consistency for your recipe.

How to dry out starter

A friend of mine with far more patience than me dried out his starter so that it could be stored long-term. I have a little pot of it in my kitchen cupboard ready for the next time I lose my fresh starter. This is actually a recommended method for storing your starter if you go away on holiday – far better, I’m told, than storing it in the fridge.

The process is fairly simple, if time-consuming – spread a healthy, freshly fed starter out on a sheet or two of parchment paper to as thin a layer as you can manage and leave it to dry out at room temperature. This can take a few days. Once it’s completely brittle, crumble up the solids and store in an airtight container.

Rehydrating the dry flakes is a little trickier and more akin to making a starter from scratch. However here you’re bringing a mature starter back to life, rather than starting a brand new one and needing to build up the flavours again.

Mix 30g dry starter with the same weight of water. Let the starter hydrate and soften, then stir in 30g flour. Cover and leave in a warm place, such as an airing cupboard, for 24 hours or so. Add another 30g each of flour and water and leave again. After 24 hours you should see some fermentation, if not repeat. Once you have a bubbling starter, build it up by adding more flour and water, as you would normally, until you have enough for baking.

It’s a little bit fiddly, but worth it if you want to make sure your starter survives a long dormant spell. In fact, dried starter has been known to survive for years, so you need only go through the process once if you revive just a little each time you make a new batch.

So that’s everything I’ve learnt about making sourdough starter. I’ve been doing it for a while now and it works for me. Of course you can experiment with different sourdoughs and make it as complicated as you like but if, like me, you want to keep things as simple as possible, I promise you can make it work. Next time I’ll share my go to, foolproof bread recipe. It really couldn’t be easier.

Brilliant Bread is published by Ebury Press and can be purchased here.

Chuck-it-all-in Baby and Toddler Balls! – Chicken, Carrot and Beetroot Balls for Babies and Toddlers

When I started Sidney on finger food he was pretty fussy about what he would and would not eat. While he always enjoyed the cooked food I prepared for him for spoon feeding, he wasn’t interested in plain foods to eat himself. Mainly he would just eat bread. Everything else would be dropped, piece by piece, on to the kitchen floor. He especially disliked vegetables and fruit, which would be accompanied by a curled lip and look of sheer disgust as he picked up the offending item between thumb and forefinger and tossed it over the side of the highchair.

It soon transpired that I have a little gourmet on my hands. He was happy to eat finger food as long as it was lovingly cooked by me, having blended all the ingredients into unidentifiable pieces, and arrived on his highchair table in tidy single portions (he’s not one for clutter).

My solution was balls – veg balls, chicken balls, fish balls – which have many, many benefits for a busy mum on 4 hours’ sleep.

Let me extol the virtues of balls:

• They’re quick to prepare (especially in the food processor – I soon invested in a second-hand Magimix and never looked back)
• They take no time to cook
• You can hide all sorts of healthy things inside and baby will never know
• They’re brilliant for using up leftovers
• You can make one big batch and freeze them for later

The only downside is the washing up. But then we also invested in a dishwasher.

You don’t really need a recipe for balls. I throw pretty much everything in (see below!) You just need to make sure you’ve got something to bind the mixture with (usually egg), and something to absorb the moisture from the vegetables (usually bread). After that, pretty much anything goes. If the mixture is a little loose, fry them gently and use a couple of teaspoons to ease them back into shape if they start to fall apart in the pan.

I used flour to coat these ones, but you can also coat them in breadcrumbs – just dip them first in flour, then in egg and then roll them in the breadcrumbs before frying. If you want really crunchy balls, double-dip them. You can also bake them in the oven, rather than frying, but I tried this on several occasions and Sidney (and I) much preferred the flavour of the fried versions. They also hold together better in his hands.

Babies will eat almost anything this way, but there has been the odd occasion when the ingredients have been too bland and Sidney has refused his food, especially as I don’t add salt to enhance any of the natural flavours. Chinese five-spice and garam masala spice blends have worked well for me. They give lots of flavour without heat and turn something boring into something really delicious. I use them a lot in our food, too.

One other thing – these are called balls, but mine almost always end up cubes. It’s easier to seal all the sides if you let them flatten a bit and life’s too short to worry about geometry in the kitchen.

I made these with the chicken I shredded from the carcass after cooking Labneh and Sage Roast Chicken, so they had all the additional flavour from that recipe. I literally chucked everything into these, but you can, of course, limit the ingredients to something more sophisticated. Chicken and dried apricots is a good combination, turkey with coriander and soy sauce is delicious and introduces herb flavours, salmon and frozen peas always goes down well, eggy rice with veg… the list is endless.

And remember, if your baby or toddler is feeling a bit poorly or is just off his food, make uneaten dinners into balls and freeze them for another time. There’s no need to waste a good dinner just because baby’s not in the mood. You can do the same with your dinner if you think it’s something baby would like but the textures aren’t quite right. Just keep an eye on the salt content. I usually cook without salt and add it later once I’ve removed Sidney’s portion.

Build up a selection of balls in the top draw of your freezer and whip them out for quick lunches or for days when baby just won’t eat their dinner (even though they loved it last time!). Defrost in the fridge overnight if you’re planning ahead, or on the defrost setting in the microwave if you’re in a rush, but break them open to let all the steam out before you serve them because they’ll be far too hot inside to eat straightaway.

Here’s how I made these balls. Sorry, they’re not too pretty, but they were devoured in minutes! 2 or 3 balls should be plenty for one meal.

Chicken, Carrot and Beetroot Balls

Makes about 14

leftover cooked chicken

leftover ham hock

2 carrots

2 cooked beetroot

1 celery sticks

2 slices bread

3 garlic cloves

1cm piece ginger, peeled and chopped

1 egg

1 tbsp chicken stock

dash of soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese five spice

4 chopped dried apricots

4–5 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp olive oil, for frying

Chop or grate all your ingredients into small pieces and mix together in a bowl or food processor. Younger babies may need the ingredients blended more than older babies and toddlers. It’s good for older children to have a few bits to bite into to help them get used to textures. If the mixture is a little wet, add more bread or a spoonful of flour and stir it in to absorb some of the liquid. If it’s too dry the balls won’t stick together so add a little more stock or some water, a teaspoon at a time.

Spread the flour out on a flat plate.

Scoop up balls of the mixture and form them into balls between the palms of your hands, pressing them together to firm up. Roll the balls in the flour so that the mixture is completely covered with a fine layer. Transfer to a flat plate or tray and pop in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to firm up. This will help them to keep their shape during cooking.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, carefully place the balls in the pan and cook for 4–5 minutes, turning them to make sure every side is nicely browned and the balls have some structure to them. You may need to do this in batches. Alternatively, place the balls on a baking tray and bake in an oven preheated to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 for 20–25 minutes until lightly browned.

Remove from the pan onto kitchen paper to absorb the oil and leave to cool enough for baby to handle. Remember the centres will stay hot. If baby is hungry, break them open and give them in pieces.

Cool the rest of the balls completely and freeze in freezer bags. Write the key ingredients on the bags and the date you made them so that you can serve different balls based on the ingredients and make sure they don’t stay in the freezer too long. They should be good for up to 3 months.