The Miracle of Creation

Day 1 – New beginnings 

Clear the decks for your creation station, unpack your box of goodies and get ready to welcome your new baking sous chef to the family table. All you need to bring to the party is a cup of warm water. Baking may be scientific in its precision, but all you’ll need for measurements is a 225ml cup or mug which will be used for feeding your friend and measuring bread ingredients. A clean home is a happy home, so make sure you give the Starter Home a thorough wash and dry to avoid a glum yeasty chum. Add one cup of Rye Flour and your Great British Sourdough Seed into the Starter Home. Follow this with a cup of warm water at hand temperature (that’s normal hand temperature not snowman building or hot potato handling hand temperature). Mix the ingredients together and give the mixture a good whisk before putting the lid on. Keep your dormant dough friend somewhere sheltered away from excessive heat or draughts, and give yourself a pat on the back for your handiwork, preferably after shaking off any flour.

Day 2 – The Day of Rest

Check your Sour Dough has had a good night’s rest and give it a stir, then add a cup of flour and further cup of warm water, stir and whisk in the mixture until smooth. Creating oneself can be a tiring business, so put on the lid and wait another day. 

Day 3 – IT IS ALIVE!

Lifting the lid on yesterday’s sleepy mixture - you should expect to see some bubbles on the surface of the starter and if you do, you are ready for creation stage three! This is the stage at which the starter begins to ferment, creating a unique flavour for your bread. A keen nose for good dough should detect a smell that is sweet and yeasty. If you have reached this stage, make way for more nutritious flour and water by throwing away a cup of the mixture. This way the mixture stays fresh and doesn’t end up the size of your house. Once your Dough has established itself as a fine fermenting form, you will be able to use the discarded cup for pancakes, biscuits, bread, fritters and lots more. When you have discarded the cup, your dough is ready for a cup of flour and a cup of warm water. If your concoction is not quite ready at this stage and is not fermenting, just add 1 cup of rye Flour and ½ a cup of water, mix and whisk in well to thicken the dough and give the little fella a boost.

Day 4 – Lovely bubbly

At the same or a similar time every day (usually the morning is best) and whatever the stage of your starter now, the process will be the same for the next few days building into a dough feeding routine. Discard half of the Sour Dough Starter and then add 1 cup of rye flour and 1 cup of water (you can use cold tap water now unless your Sour Dough has not begun to ferment, in which case, continue with warm water). By now, the mixture should be more bubbly and smell very interesting. Keep checking your evermore active friend, and make it is covered to prevent unwanted intruders and contamination which may cause it upset.

Days 5 through to Day 10 – Settling in

Repeat as per day 4 every day. If after this time, your starter has not begun to ferment, you can visit the web site for further advice from the dough doctor. During the last few days, you will notice a pattern that if you feed your gastronome companion in the morning, it will grow to almost double in size by the early evening. This is when it is at its most active and when you begin to make breads, this is the best time to harvest from your Sour Dough Starter. After 10 days, your sour dough is about ready to use for the first time; prepare for a world of new flavours that it will unleash unto your kitchen!