Hey guys. Salut. This is Alex.
So welcome back to the sourdough odyssey
Today is the most useful episode so far because you're going to learn three ways
to easily and safely store your sourdough starter.
Let's begin.
Breaking News. To bake sourdough bread, you need a sourdough starter.
In fact, a living sourdough starter.
And like every other living creature on the planet, it has to eat or it will die.
If it dies, you going to have to start again from zero, from nothing, from...
I mean zero would be something.
From below zero. You don't want to do that.
Feeding your sourdough starter is pretty straight forward.
It's always one part water and one part flour.
But you know what, there are at least two subtleties.
First one is regularity.
You need to feed your sourdough starter each and every day.
No exceptions.
I know it sounds easy, but it's like in all relationships.
In the beginning, everything is all well and good, but after sometimes, you know, people tend to forget things.
Like breakfast, celebrations, birthdays, weddings.
Mmmmmmmmm
And the second is quantity.
Let me give you an example.
So during long baking sessions.
I usually feed my sourdough starter with at least a heap tablespoon's of flour.
Each and every day.
A tablespoon of flour a day man. That's insane.
You're right.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but if you were to keep up that pace for, let's say, about a year.
Then that tablespoon of flour a day would make for about 11 kilos of flour a year.
That's a big waste.
Luckily for us, there are ways to get around this.
But it all comes down to how many bread you want to bake.
If you wanna bake one loaf a week, then you should use your fridge.
Feed your sourdough starter one last time before placing it, tight covered, in the lowest part of your fridge.
Once a week get it out and fill it with flour or with dough or with sourdough leftovers and place it back.
The fridge doesn't exactly stop your sourdough, but drastically slows it down.
A day before baking, pick up a few tablespoons from it and then feed that with equal parts water and flour.
In about a day or so, it should start bubbling again.
If it doesn't then refresh that one more time.
Now if you want to bake one loaf a month, then you should use your freezer.
This time your sourdough starter will be on proper hold.
So you want to freeze an active state.
Refresh your sourdough starter with equal parts water and flour and let it rise for a few hours until it is all foamy and bubbly.
Place a few tablespoons in a few containers and drop them in the freezer.
It's more practical this way.
It's almost magical because you don't have to feed them and they can stay in there for like month.
To bring your sourdough starter back to life
Get it in the fridge the day before you plan on baking
Then activate it like we just did.
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Okay back to the serious sourdough stuff.
Finally if you bake one loaf a year or let's say if you want to travel with your sourdough starter
then you should dry out your sourdough starter.
Trust me, it's nothing complicated.
Just spread a thin layer of your bubbly and active sourdough starter on a piece of parchment paper.
The thinner you make it, the faster it will dry.
Let it sit at room temperature or if the weather at your place is too wet or too cold, just stick it in the oven
Fan on, light bulb on, but very important heat off.
After about a day, it should be dry and brittle.
It should also unstick very easily from parchment paper.
Crush it and store it in a tight, air proof container.
To reactivate your sourdough, weigh it first and then add exact same amount of water to it.
Ah damn.
Wait a few hours until all the crystals have dissolved and then feed that with equal parts water and flour.
In about a day or so it should start bubbling again.
So that's it, I hope you enjoyed those three useful technique to keep your sourdough safe.
If like it, give it a like, thumbs up and share that over all your social, you know how it worked, #spreaditlikebutter, using the correct hastag.
And please don't forget to tag me in as well.
Also please click subscribe because I make new videos every week and you know it's all always about food.
Like, for example the dry aged beef machine, the recent one.
And also the canned chickpea series, but I think they have a different twist.
It's about, you know, uh, inspiring you and giving you confidence to cook.
It's about, you know, making this messy place a little bit better.
Might be a bit too far, but you get the picture.
Take care, bye bye. Salut.
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