Hi followers and lovers of all handmade, I have been away for a
long long time now, and I finally have good strength to write again. So sorry to all of you that was following me for sometime now. Please forgive me for disappointing you friends.
Now that I am back, I want to celebrate with you what I did this afternoon:
… Sourdough Bread!!
Yes, this is entirely homemade and handmade (no miracle, or life changing machine involved here) sourdough breads. And my entire family and friends are loving it.
Firstly, I want to say thank you to Andrea Ferguson for giving me the starter and from there I need to treat it like a pet (living pet). She also gave me a very good ratio to mix the bread and the whole granny story on how to look after my Holly (my pet)
Well, I must say this journey was not easy as I live in a very cold area in Tasmania. This success came very close to giving up the whole idea of making my own bread and crepe and what not!
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| upclose and personal with my Holly after being in the tanning bed for 1 hour |
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| Holly #1, Holly #2 and all the way to Holly #5 |
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| trying out my artistic side of photographing |
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loaf form from Tupperware; with the recipe below I yielded a good five loaves.
(I love how it comes off clean) |
Sourdough 101
1)Sourdough dislike cold places. (can’t grow well or rise)
2)that just mean Sourdough loves heat. Grows really well in the summer
3)Sourdough dislike metal surfaces touching it.
4)Sourdough loves plastic, wooden made, glass or ceramic bowls or spoons.
After three attempts I now have a 100% success rate and I would love to share my tips with you:
How to look after your pet (Sourdough)
Firstly, you need to be ready to have a new pet in your kitchen.
Be sure to give time to look after it like you would look after a goldfish? dog? lol!!! (since, we are going to take care of it we might as well give this thing a name) My son gave it a name and a type too; Holly the Sourdough Dinosaur. (I was laughing out loud when he gave me that whole story)
After we have build an emotional attachment to our sourdough we are well and truly ready to begin.
Feed pet with even amount of flour and water (the amount of repetition really depends on how much you will be using)
If you do not bake a lot then, my suggestion would be just before you want to use it (bake it) and keep the rest of it in the fridge for 7 days. (that way, your pet is hibernating and does not require any feeding during the 7 days)
Reminder: Being in the fridge ONLY means the process is being slowdown. So feed your pet after 7 days
….. ANOTHER WAY
You may want to feed your pet once a day on a daily basis. (your pet will certainly grow really heaps, Be careful that you may well and truly create a monster pet! LOL! This style of feeding is mainly for families that eats only sourdough bread and you have a heap of recipes using sourdough as a main ingredient.
For both methods please make a blanket for your pet and be sure to change your pet’s sleeping area (container) once a month. WE want to have a clean area for your pet to grow. LOL!
Sourdough Bread Recipe
4 cups of sourdough (pet)
6 cups of water
13 cups of flour
salt to taste
Mix starter and water.
Add 6 cups of flour and mix well, with your hand.
Add the rest of the flour and salt and mix with your hand again. (very sticky so I suggest that you use only one hand as your other hand might be useful to pick up a phone call or a bubba)
When it is all mixed well, leave in the big bowl overnight in fridge.
The next day put it in pans or free form.
Leave it on the bench top for the day (be sure where you leave her has a lot of heat) and covered with a wet tea towel.
Once you see your pet double in size you know that it is ready to be put in the oven.
Depending on ovens, I have my oven turned up to 150C for 1hr.
Beat the bread like a drum and you should look for that drum sound. And it is cooked.
Andrea’s oven is turned to 180C to cook for 40mins.
As I mentioned earlier, I live in a very cold area so I omitted the step where I had to put the sourdough in the fridge after I mixed it up. It fact I need to crank up my heater just to see it double in size. So have a go and try what suits you bestest.
Hope you like this recipe and will try it. Do let me know how you find your pet and how you like this recipe. Enjoy life!
