Hi a huge welcome to Steve's kitchen
we're going to start a new series on the
basics of bread making and I'm kicking
off with something a lot of you might
think is a little complicated it's a
sourdough starter but iIthink actually
you might have some fun and the reason
I'm starting with this is it isn't
actually that complicated and it also
will put you in touch with the process
of bread making we're looking at wild
yeasts which are all around us. Now throughout
this series I am going to be using some
digital scales I really advise that
rather than using cup measurements
you use weight measurements when using
bread. Now if you don't fully understand
why maybe I'll do a video about that at a later
date but I think most people are
starting to understand that cups are not
accurate and you just end up with dry or
wet doughs and never is that more
important than when you're working with
sourdough starters
Now what is a sourdough stater well if
you've seen yeast you've seen dried yeast
going into bread and you may have used
block yeast as well
Sourdough starters are natural yeasts
they're all around us they're on our skin
there on flour, thery're in the air what
we're going to do is capture those in a
flour water mixture and over time
they're going to develop a beautiful
strong yeast that has a slight sour note to
it and it creates those wonderful
sourdough breads. You're going to want a
container I'm going to show the
measurements, very simple steps. I'm
going to do it a little bit different
than some people on the first stage of
this I'm going to let the yeast
develop in a closed environment.
I'll show you that in a moment so let's
get on and measure out our flour and
water. Now in order to capture wild yeast. we
need to actually feed them and they feed
off the starches and proteins that are
in flour. Now unlike a lot of people
yeast are not flour snobs so you can
pretty much use any flour you like I
like to start with a strong bread flour
I think it creates a great sourdough
starter, you could add some whole grain
flours in with that as well so you can
start with almost any amount of flour
and for those of you want to know
I'm going to start with a hundred
twenty-five grams, I'm going to measure
it into a cup just to give you an idea
but as I say cups vary from country to
country and they're depending on whether
you compact them in or not, it can make a
lot of difference. So I've gone for a loosely
packed there, I'm going to put the flour
into a kilner jar or a mason jar and you
can see that's about 122g I am going to
be pernickety and I'm going to put a little
bit extra flour in to make it up to 125g
Now a common mistake would be to use the
equal amount of water we are going to
use the equal amount of water but by
weight and don't use water straight from
the tap that may have chlorine which
could affect your yeast so we're going
to have 125 grams of mineral water and
sometimes it is quite nice to mix up a
stone-ground flour and bread flour if
you decide to do a different flour
comment down below let me know what you
choose
Now we're going to give that a mix
together until we get a nice batter . Now
I could seal this but the gases that
build up in here could create pressure
so what I'm going to do is cover the top
over with some plastic wrap
Many times when you start a yeast like
this you leave the lid open so the
atmosphere can get round it, I found it
doesn't make a huge amount of difference
and I want to the water not to evaporate
so I'm popping this cellophane on the
top there and also we are not going to
touch or feed this for 48 hours just
going to leave it on the side keep an
eye on it and you'll start to see some
activity probably within the first 12 to
24 hours. So you patiently waited 48
hours and in that time hopefully the
flour and the natural yeast within the
flour have started to bubble like this
one has here, can you see all the
activity on the surface and it's a very
loose airy batter so you can see despite
covering this with this little bit of
plastic wrap
we've still developed a wonderful yeast
and the starting of a beautiful
sourdough starter. It is also important
to get used to the smell of your sourdough
in this early stage
there's almost a sort of hopsy beer
smell coming out of it which is
absolutely perfect
sometimes you'll get a little bit of a
brown scum on top don't worry about that
that's quite natural. The wild yeast thats
in there now is super hungry we're not
actually going to be discarding any of
the dough at this point we're just going
to be feeding it. Again I'm using my
scales we're going for about half a
cup, should be about 60 grams which is
about 2.1 ounces we'll add that flour
over the top of our starter and now weigh
out 60 grams that's about 2 ounces again
of water for that in on top of the
flour, then I'm going to take my spoon
and we give this batter a little mix
through. Now it's always good practice to
clean the sides down after you finished
this time we're not actually going to be
sealing in our sourdough, you can pop
the lid on loosely don't actually seal
it down, you could cover it with a sieve
or maybe even a little bit of
cheesecloth. Now for the next 4-5 days
we're going to take care of this dough
we're going to feed it when we get up in
the morning and before we go to bed at
night
roughly every 12 hours you don't have to
beat yourself up about it and in a day
or so the volume is going to get quite a
bit more so we're going to have to
discard some but i'll show you that when
we do it.
Now I'm going to take you through a
feeding but not every feeding we fed
this last night with equal flour and
water by weight thats 60 grams about two
ounces of flour 60 grams about two
ounces of water, mix it in, clean down the
sides and now I'm going to give this
another feed but today I'm going to take
a little bit out and the reason behind
that is twofold - one, if you just keep
feeding this you're going to eventually
have a yeast that will just overflow out
of your jar but secondly also we're
actually wanting to grow yeast not just
spent flour so we're going to be taking
a little bit of spent flour out each
time and you don't have to discard it
completely you could make pancakes with
it you could add it into a cake mixture
it's perfectly fine but we're just going to take
a little bit out today
Now you'll see a little bit of brown
liquid on the top that's quite common
not to worry about that the smell is
still a little bit sour little bit yeasty
I'm going to take about half a cup of my
sourdough mixture out of here I'm
going to measure that out into half a
cup like I say you can discard this
turn it into lovely sourdough
pancakes, pop it onto the compost
whatever you like. I'm going to measure out
my flour that's about 60 grams 2
ounces that's the feed for my wild yeast
and 60 grams of mineral water again it's
about two ounces so you can see by
weight the water is the same but by
volume it's not. Just as important as the
flour that goes in as well it's already
starting to bubble in there. I'm going to
give that a good mix through into a nice
smooth batter and I'm going to clean
down the side of my jar as I always do
and then this evening I may discard a
little bit more and feed it again. I'm
going to keep doing that the next three
or four days until I start getting a
lovely frothy culture
Now I'm super pleased with the way this
sourdough starter is going it's almost
all bubblesW when we fed it last night
it was down here it's risen up so
there's heaps of activity in there
just take a look at this you can see all
the bubbles and activity on the top if I
break it open like that you can see it's
very light and airy it's already
starting to bubble up again is a nice
sour note coming off of there. If you've
been joining me on this
this is about five days in now from the
first 24 hours plus five days and I'm
going to feed this now for the last time
and then we can use this sourdough
starter to start baking. Now to be honest
at this point it hardly needs discarding
but I'll take a bit off because I fancied
some sourdough pancakes this morning
I'm just going to pop maybe about half a
cup into a bowl separate like this
I've got my strong flour here which I'm
just going to use to feed the starter
and that was 60 grams of flour so I'm
going for the same in weight of water
and that's a tiny little bit over but it
won't matter too much, add the water get
the moisture levels right and we'll give
this a stir through, now you can see
that's knocked the batter back down to
half its former volume and that will
increase to double its size probably
within the next few hours and if you're
using this starter everyday for baking
you can just keep replenishing and using
I hope you're following along because I
can't wait to start using this
in some recipes on my channel. Now one more
feed tomorrow and it'll be ready
and you do want to get used to the smell
of your sourdough, this is just a little sour
but very fresh smelling. Now if you
decided to follow along and make your own
sourdough with me you'll be enjoying what we're
making with this on the bread series of
Steve's Kitchen
Join me next week we're not doing
sourdough next week but we'll be
starting this introduction to bread
making basics So I will see you then
share the love, comments down below
actually I'd love to hear it down below
if you are making sourdough starter so I
can help you and we can see how it progresses
be good, see you next time
Now if you've joined me on the series
about making sourdough starter you've
got your beautiful sourdough starter Now
what are you going to do with it, well if
you're baking regularly just keep them
aside feed each day make your bread, if
you're only making sourdough every week
or so......Those of you that have been
following along making the sourdough
starter will be anxious to get on and
make something with it. Now this is
looking beautiful and light and bubbly
it smells delicious and we going to use
it or we're going to let it help us make a
sourdough baguette so this is a no knead baguette
very simple to make, yeast is doing all
the work
let's get on and make it