The first Delivery (Part 1)

 

Saturday morning at 0700, and I’m preparing my sourdough starters for the bake on Monday.

First of all I take out 250g of starter and put into a larger container. Adding flour and water gives them a feed and they should start bubbling.

I will do this again this evening, and by Sunday morning they will be ready to use in my dough. This will form the basis of the loaf.  I refresh the starters and put them back in the fridge, but, while I am about it I have the usual problem faced by all sourdough aficionados. What to do with the industrial quantities of starter that must be discarded.

Well I have two approaches to that.

First, I make an accelerated white loaf, which is where you add white flour to the spelt starter, and then ferment over an 8 hour period for a quick loaf. It doesn’t have the full flavour of the overnight fermentation, but it still has a pretty good flavour.



Quick White and Spelt, prooving.



 

Second, you can make pancakes with the raw starter; just add egg, milk and oil to get a batter. A bit of sugar will help sweeten it up, and I put a handful of raisins in as well. Then proceed as normal when making pancakes. These are nice eaten warm with banana and syrup.

 

Batter

In the Pan

Ready for Syrup

 

By lunchtime there are bubbles in both the Rye and the Spelt starters, and they both have swollen in size.

Rye Starter

Bubbles Starting

 

Spelt Starter

Bubbling Nicely

In Part 2, I will make the dough and prepare for baking.