This weekend I’m making sourdough. Thought I’d do a thread walking through my process. Long multi-day thread incoming.

First up, meet Yeasty Boi. I grew him myself, so I’m very proud of my yeasty son. I keep him in the fridge and feed him once a week. Last week I fed him wholemeal flour, so he’s a bit darker than usual. You can see from the liquid layer on top that he’s a bit hungry, too.

To grow him, I followed this method from @SBS : https://www.sbs.com.au/food/explainer/make-your-own-sourdough-starter . This was about my 3rd try at making my own sourdough starter, and the first one to stick. I’ve been growing him since just before Christmas, so he’s about 7 months old.

The sourdough bread method I follow is based on a recipe from my friend @JBowes76. I’ve converted it to grams & modified it slightly to what works best for me and my setup. The whole process takes place over 3 days. This is not a “I feel like bread, I’m gonna whip some up” deal!

First, the leaven. I take 50 grams of poor, unfed and chilly Yeasty Boi and put it in a small bowl. Add 75g flour (I use Wallaby bread flour) and 80g lukewarm water. A sprinkle (around half a teaspoon) of raw sugar - my starter is hungry! Mix it all together.

Most sourdough recipes say you should feed your starter, then use it at its peak. I’d been doing that for months and getting mixed results. A few weeks ago I tried this way and got amazing results, so I’m sticking with it. Sourdough making is all about experimentation!

Now that I’ve made the leaven, I cover it with glad wrap and leave it on the bench overnight for at least 12 hours. Meanwhile, I feed Yeasty Boi again and put him back in the fridge for next week.

To be continued in the morning!

Day 2 begins! Here is my leaven after about 17 hours. It’s bubbly on top and smells yeasty. If I run a spoon through it, it forms long goopy strands.

This is my bread-making bowl. It’s a 5-litre glass bowl and is my Precious. The spatula I use is a stiff silicone spatula.

Put the leaven in the bowl, add 450g water, and mix it up into a kind of slurry. Then add 720g flour (again, I’m using Wallaby bread flour, but you can use plain flour). Mix it up.

This is the point in sourdough recipes where they almost universally say “mix to form a shaggy dough”. At first I was like “wtf is a shaggy dough?” but that really is the best way to describe it. The dough will be quite dry and stiff at this point and it really does look shaggy.

Until you do it yourself it really is kind of hard to understand. Here is what mine looks like at this point. See? Shaggy!

At this time, I also dissolve 20g of salt in 50g hot water. Dough and saltwater get covered in glad wrap and left to sit for 2-4 hours (I usually aim for 4, but depending on what my day looks like it varies - that’s fine).

It’s winter here now, so it’s around 20C (lol, “winter”) in my kitchen. There’s no fan or AC or anything going, so I just leave the bowl on the bench. Depending on the season, I might put it in the pantry or somewhere out of a draft. It’s not cold enough to need a heat boost.

The dough is resting now. The technical term for this time is the “autolyse” (although some would argue that, because I have the starter in the mix, it’s not a “true” autolyse). Basically, we’re letting the flour fully absorb the water and start to soften. Back in a few hours!