In case you haven’t read the previous post, this is a little
project I’ve got going at the moment to make sourdough – this process takes 9
days and creates a really distinctive flavour in the end product. Check out the first post for a bit more information.
Over the past couple of days all I’ve had to do is stir, as
the mixture got thicker and gloopier, and bubbled (it’s quite amazing to think
that there’s a living process going on in there). Yesterday, on day three, it
was time to add some more “food” to keep the process going – 115g of plain
flour, 225g of granulated sugar and 235ml of milk (it doesn’t specify what sort
of fat content you need, so I went for semi-skimmed as a safe middle ground).
To get rid of the floury lumps that you always get with that much liquid, I
used my hand mixer (which is really useful for things like this, check out the Kitchen Bits & Bobs page for more info) – although I was then worried that I might have done something
wrong because there were no more bubbles, to signify that the yeast was still alive and respiring. Thankfully, when I got up this morning Herman had puffed
up into a huge mass of bubbles, so he’s still thriving.
I have to admit, I’d
feel pretty guilty if I let him die because, as I explained in the previous
post, my Herman is just one in a chain of cakes all made with a bit of the same
starter – which is a pretty cool idea. Bakers who specialise in sourdough are
often still using a starter that’s been used to make thousands of other loaves, which means
they all have distinctive flavours and styles.