White Sourdough Starter

I recently acquired a new bread book called The Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook. Its got an amazing selection of bread recipies as well as pizzas, savoury and sweet pies, tarts, cakes and other desserts. The majority of sourdough breads in the book require a white sourdough starter so I decided to make a new one since my other starter is wholemeal.

The Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook has a guide for the amounts to feed the starters each day, as most bread books do, and this will vary according to what book you  use but the general rule is a ratio of 1:1 for a 100% hydration white starter. This may vary with flours that readily absorb more water. A good guide to making your own Sourdough Starter is also shown on the Sourdough Companion website, and they also have many great bread recipes!

Genesis: 7am

Use a 1-1.5L tupperware container or jar.

Measure and mix 50g white unbleached organic plain flour and 50ml spring water.

Cover and store in stable room temperature.

Day 1: 7am

Mix and add:

100g white unbleached organic plain flour

100ml spring water

Day 2: 7am

Mix and add:

200g white unbleached organic plain flour

200ml spring water

 

Day 3: 7am

Starter is now 800g.

Discard 700g.

Mix and add:

50g Flour and 50ml water to the remaining 100g. 

 

Keep feeding schedules the same for three weeks (repeating this cycle) until the starter is a nice frothy, sour but nice smelling dough. If it smells like its rotting or mouldy you shoudl throw it out and start again. Make sure you follow rules of commonsense - use clean utensils, and keep in a stable temperature.

Note: when I need to make many loaves of bread, I revive my starter till its 800g then I divide it between four tupperware containers and proceed feeding as usual so I have enough starter to make all the loaves. This is good to plan ahead during end of year parties or weddings.