Rye Sourdough Starter
I have learned a lot about bread from Andrew Whitley's Bread Matters. One of his refreshing insights was his dismissive attitude to starting a sourdough like an alchemist's concoction or maintaining it like a spoiled child. With the right ingredients, neither starting nor keeping are particularly difficult.
For this rye starter, you need only good wholegrain rye flour and decent water. In this case, the flour is the fairly up-market Powlett Hill (from outside Melbourne) and the water was, well, from the tap. Mix a couple of tablespoons of the flour with a similar amount of water, leave it on the kitchen bench, add a similar amount of both the next day - and in this case it was already bubbling with natural yeast.
I happily neglect my starter in a plastic container with a lid in the fridge until I need to use it, then just activate it by using it to create a leaven. It has a consistency more like a slurry than a dough, quite wet. This starter now serves to begin Pliny's Bread, and was succesfull in creating my first ever sourdough hot cross buns - recipe under construction now.
For this rye starter, you need only good wholegrain rye flour and decent water. In this case, the flour is the fairly up-market Powlett Hill (from outside Melbourne) and the water was, well, from the tap. Mix a couple of tablespoons of the flour with a similar amount of water, leave it on the kitchen bench, add a similar amount of both the next day - and in this case it was already bubbling with natural yeast.
I happily neglect my starter in a plastic container with a lid in the fridge until I need to use it, then just activate it by using it to create a leaven. It has a consistency more like a slurry than a dough, quite wet. This starter now serves to begin Pliny's Bread, and was succesfull in creating my first ever sourdough hot cross buns - recipe under construction now.
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