Yeah, so in our sourdough recipe we actually, well, when we were proving our dough
We used a Pyrex dish, which is this here.
Basically Pyrex is just a brand, it's one that's readily available here in Ireland
But you could use pretty much anything you have, like a cast iron dish, a casserole dish
The concept's exactly the same. The idea is to create a little chamber
In which the dough to bake. I suppose the benefit of use in a Pyrex dish
Is it actually has the flat lid, so when you flip it upside down
It's got a flat surface to work on where a lot of dishes often have a little... a little handle
A lid, so it's very hard to use. So the one we use is two and a half liters
Which is perfect for the likes of an 800-900g loaf of bread
So, the size dish that you use largely just depends on how much dough that you have
Obviously you don't want to fill it completely, you need to leave room
For which the dough is going to prove and rise
Online realistically is probably your best bet
A lot of ours actually comes in from companies in Germany
Depending on, kind of, where you're from, flour is often graded and has a different name
I suppose in the UK and Ireland we generally call it strong flour
The idea, it's made from a harder wheat so it's got a higher level of protein
Generally, about 11-12% and it's your protein that equals your gluten
So when it comes to bread... It's often known as bread flour
Again, for example
The French and the Italians would have a slightly different grading system than we would
Like the French would be T65, we call it strong, a lot of people call it bread flour
It's all exactly the same thing just depending on, kinda, where you're from
The mill might have attached a slightly different name
The difference between a starter and a levain is absolutely nothing
They're exactly the same thing, it's just a different name
So, yeah, you'll often find either you either got your starter culture, your mother, the levain
They're all exactly the same thing, again, it's just a different name's been applied to it
But they're the same thing
You'd have seen the sourdough starter recipe that we used, and as I say
When you kinda look through online you see a lot of different variations how to make different starters
Between soaking grapes, using yoghurt... To be honest
Simply flour and water's absolutely perfect. So the ideal flour to use when starting off your starter
Is probably like a stone ground organic wholemeal flour
The idea being, all the nutrients are still trapped within the grain so it's exactly what you need
And by going stone ground, you know that all the full grain is still contained within the flour
And again, organic is a great way to ensure that there's been nothing added to the flour
When it comes to your sourdough starter, um...
For example, I would actually have two starter cultures. I have one that's based on white flour
And one that's based on rye flour. So this is just our rye one here
You'll see it's kind of that much, much darker in colour
It's got a much stronger flavour. Probably the only difference is once I got my starter up and going
On my daily feeding I simply use rye flour as opposed to, saying, using white flour
But ideally, yeah, the flour you're going to bake with is... Try hold onto that
So if you're just using a white starter, um
Make sure that you're just using a good-quality white bread flour
So you will notice in this sourdough starter recipe that we suggest that you
discard some halfway through the process. Simply the only reason we do this
And you don't have to, is to stop you building up too much
'Cause ideally the ratios we work off is whatever quantity of sourdough starter we have
We add the same weight of flour, same weight of water. So for example if you had 500g
You would add 500g flour, 500g water which takes you up to 1500g
For the home baker, that's quite a lot, and then the more you have if the more you have to feed
Which in, realistically, is gonna start costing you more 'cause you have to keep adding more and more flour
So the next time you feed it would be 1500g of flour, 1500g of water
So simply the only reason we discard it, um, it is just to stop you building up too much
You don't have to discard it. If you want to keep it all, feel free
If you really don't want to throw any of the starter away, um
I found it works great used in pancake batter, works great for waffles
I've actually made, um, a chocolate brownie using it.
So you can feel free to improvise and use it where needs be
As I say again
Just don't build up too much 'cause you will have more to feed and more to look after
So ideally we recommend that the starter is fed once a week
Now it is quite resilient. You can push it up to about 10 days or so
But you'll often kinda find, as the starter gets neglected this kind of grey liquid starts to form on the top of it
So that's a bit of a cry for help, your starter's starting to die off
So ideally if that happens, just pour the liquid away, don't mix it back in, and feed it
You're gonna... You might kind of find that you'll have to feed the starter for two to three days continuously
In order to bring it back to full strength
If you're kind of maybe only baking once a week
And you're kind of keeping your starter in the fridge, and you're kinda...
So as you take it... I generally would recommend, for example, as you're baking on a Saturday morning
When generally a lot of people tend to do and have a bit more time
Take it out of the fridge on the Friday, maybe before you go to work, leave it sitting in your
Just allow it to take the chill off, allow it to kind of come up to room temperature
That evening, whatever weight you have, for example you'll have 200g
Simply add in 200g flour, 200g water, stir it together, leave it sitting in your kitchen
Just cover it over, um
And the next morning you're gonna find it lovely and bubbly, lovely and active
Ready to make your bread
Take what you need to make your bread, and then whatever is left over, um
You've two options really. You can pop it straight back in the fridge, it will be perfectly fine
Or again, you can feed it before it goes back into the fridge, um
Just depends, again I suppose, how long it is going to be until you bake again the next time
So a great way to store your starter if you kind of find you're not gonna be baking for a little while
And you don't want to have to kind of keep feeding it
Is you can freeze it
Freezes absolutely perfect. Again, you might find when you let it thaw out
You might need to feed it for two or three days again
Just to bring it back up to full health
The reason we would autolyse our dough is the idea
Very simply... It's a simple process, it simply involves the mixing together of flour and water
Which allows you to kind of condition the flour. Allows you to hydrate fully
Also allows us to slightly extend our fermentation process
But I didn't really want to over complicate things too much
The ideas is we're trying to keep this nice and simple, encourage as much people to bake as possible
Course we can get a little bit more technical
I generally found... Autolyse is is great when you're kind of using like a whole grain flour, um
Because it, particularly with the likes of the bran and the fibre within the grain
It does take a little bit more time to hydrate, so autolyse is a great benefit there
Also it's a nice process to use when using much wetter doughs
'Cause it allows you to build up some strength within the dough
Which you'll probably find are much easier to work with
So it just depends on the recipe, um, not every recipe requires it
Converting, say um, a yeasted recipe to a sourdough recipe, it... I suppose...
It is... of course it is possible, um
But you're gonna find that it won't... It will produce slightly different things
I suppose with a lot of yeasted breads, it tends to be a little bit softer, um
Than say what we have with our starter culture here
But I suppose the easiest kind of ratio to work off, for example
As bakers, we typically work in percentages, um, and we'll always regard flour as 100%
And everything else the percentage of that. So for example, for a yeasted bread, a very simple recipe
Would be 100% flour, you have 2% salt and 2% yeast
So for example you got 500g of flour, most basic recipes based on fresh yeast would be 10g of fresh yeast
Which is exactly 2% But if we wanted to convert that to a starter
A good starting point is about 30% So if you are I say working off a kilo of flour
That'll be 300g of sourdough starter
As opposed, to say with our yeast, where it would only be 20g
So that's probably the ratio we use a little bit different
But again, when you're converting recipes over, think logically, think about the effect it has
If you're kind of using kind of a wet starter like we do
You will find that it's going to add additional hydration to your dough
So you might find that you need to hold back a little bit more liquid
So you can keep that lovely balance
No, when it comes to shaping your bread you can shape it any way you like
You can use... It can be in a tin, it can be round, it can be square it can be any shape you like
It just depends on what you're actually going to prove it in or what you're gonna make it in
And what the process is. It's only a visual thing really
It doesn't make a difference actually how it bakes
So you so you can be using a loaf tin no problem, you have our little Pyrex dishes
You can use individual little rolls... Just depends on what you're trying to achieve
Typically I do find with most sourdough loaves, in particular, is they do you do bake better free-form
Rather than in a tin. Tend to produce more volume
Help to create a kind of a better crust rather, than say, bake it straight in a tin
But again, use whatever you have at home
If you've only got a few loaf tins, use that, that works absolutely perfect
Depends on what day of the week it is really
Quite a few staff at the bakery I'm sure I could think of it from time to time
Who down-thumbs sourdough videos?
People with a lot of hate in their life
Sadly, yes