Let's talk sourdough

I have been reading about sourdough lately. (I had spare time, don't judge me.)

It came to my attention that a lot of people make sourdough sound so much more work and so much more difficult than it really is.

There are a few tips, yes. For example: want more sour flavour in your bread? Do your second rise in the fridge.

Another one? I ALWAYS let my dough rise over night for the first rise. Always. Al-ways. (Unless it's for crackers, or pancakes, or the recipe gives a timed first rise, but bread always rises over night in my house.) However, my mantras strictly "Do whatever works for you."

Tips are one thing. There are a lot of myths that keep being perpetuated out there.

Let's crack some of those sourdough myths, shall we?

Sourdough bread loaf. No precise-to-the-oz-measuring when feeding my starter. Oh the humanity!

First myth: you have to be precise when feeding it.

I read an article on "lazy sourdough feeding". First thing suggested? Buy a scale, because cup measurements are not accurate enough.

Please.

Sourdough has been around since way before every kitchen had a scale. If it was that delicate, it would never have made it.

I give my sourdough 1 cup water, 1 cup flour to 1/3 cup starter. Want to hear something super crazy? Sometimes I am too lazy to grab out my cup measures. So I just use a small bowl. As long as you use the same amount of flour to water you are fine. Sourdough is quite resilient.

Second myth: hooch is bad for the starter.

Hooch is liquid that can form on top of the starter. It can have a few different colours from clear, all the way to black. It forms when your starter has gone through all it's food and is hungry. You can stir it back in the starter, or pour it off. Either way is fine.

I have read when that happens you have to feed it more. Give it either more food, or make feedings more frequent.

My starter lives in the fridge, so I have to feed it less. It is a rather aggressive little thing and eats a lot. I feed it once a week, usually when I bake. It doesn't have hooch on top every week, but when it does, I pour it off. I measure out my starter, clean the jar, put fresh food in it and add the 1/3 cup of starter.

Done. I am not feeding it more flour in a sitting. I am not feeding it more frequently. It has never let me down even once. Hooch or not.

Myth number three: you have to feed it always at the same time.

Wth? Unless you taught your starter how to tell time, this is totally bizarre.

Just get to know your starter and figure out how long it takes from feeding to peak of performance. Then it doesn't matter what time you feed it. If it takes your starter 30 minutes from feeding to top rise, you know to feed it 30 minutes before you need it.

I guess a routine helps people remember it. But to say it always has to be the same time because of the starter is ridiculous. If you have trouble remembering, set a reminder in your calendar. I bake pretty much once a week at bare minimum, so that's the day I feed it. If I bake more, it gets fed more often. It's baking, not brain surgery.

Myth number four: you have to take it out of the fridge 2 days before baking and feed it up.

If you start out with less starter than your recipe calls for, yes, you have to take it out and feed it to increase the amount, but even if you have to increase the amount of starter before baking, it won't take 2 days.

I keep 1 and 1/3 cups of starter in my jar. Mostly because my favourite bread recipes call for 1 cup starter. This way I can measure out 1 cup to bake and have 1/3 left to feed 1 cup flour, 1 cup water and store for next week.

If your recipe calls for 1 cup starter, but you only keep 1/2 cup in the fridge, take it out, let it warm up and feed it 1 cup flour and water each. This will make the amount you need for your recipe, plus some extra for storage. Proceed as you would with baking.

Latest focaccia bread I made. It was delicious even though I have a totally cavalier approach to sourdough baking.

Speaking of feeding it for 2 days prior to baking.

I ran a little experiment. For my last 3 bakes (all shown here in the photos) I kept my starter in the fridge until I was ready to bake. I did not take it out to let it warm up, I did not feed it prior to baking.

I got my flour ready, popped the water in, then took my starter out of the fridge, measured out the amount and directly popped it in the waiting flour.

The bread did just fine. It rose just like always.

Now, I am not saying you should always do this. I think there is merit in letting it warm up and, if your recipe calls for fed starter, definitely give it one feeding before you bake with it. But there is absolutely NO reason you need to feed it for 2 days prior to baking. It is just a lot of wasted flour. And who has time for that anyway?

Focaccia. Sourdough starter came directly from the fridge. No prior feeding, no warming up. Where is the sourdough police?

In short: please don't be afraid of sourdough.

Don't let those mile long essays scare you into thinking only specially anointed people can make it work. You do not need to be in some secret society, or know the secret handshake, or have some sort of baking wizard degree to make sourdough bread, or pastries. All you need is common sense and a bit of practice.

It is easy. It is fun. It is delicious.

Try it. Don't be scared. It's just water and flour.

XO❤

B. 🐝