Sourdough – akifoodwine

This is my first attempt at making sourdough bread using my homegrown sourdough starter based on water and rye flour.

How to make a rye sourdough starter:

Making a sourdough starter is quite easy. It takes about 5 days until the sourdough starter is ready to use for baking.

You need a jar to keep your sourdough in. I used a 0.5 liter glass Kilner jar. Make sure that the jar is clean and sterilized before you begin.

Once the sourdough starter is finished it needs to be fed about once a week (even though you can leave it for longer). I throw away most of the starter when I feed it, I keep about 50 g in the jar (weigh the empty jar so that you can weigh it with the starter to see how much starter it contains).

I feed it once a week with 60g rye flour and 100g tepid water to 50g starter.

Day 1
Mix 1 tbsp rye flour (I use stoneground organic rye flour) with two tbsp tepid water (30 – 35C, I use Evian spring water) in your jar. Put the jar in a warm place (between 22 – 25C).

If you have a cupboard above your fridge this is a good place since it’s a bit warm.

Do not close the lid, leave it slightly open.

Leave the jar for 24 hours.

Day 2
Look at the sourdough starter. It might be a bit bubbly and maybe a bit foamy. It should smell a bit sweet.

Gently shake the jar to mix it up a bit. That’s it for day 2.

Day 3, Evening
It’s time to feed the sourdough starter. Add 1 tbsp of rye flour to the jar and mix well. We will leave the jar for about 10 hours and then feed it again.

Day 4, Morning
It’s time to feed the sourdough starter for the last time before it’s ready. At this stage it should be bubbly and a bit mousse like in it’s consistency.

We need to throw away some of the starter to get the right ratio. If there is a lot of starter it will require more food (flour and water).

Throw away most of the starter, leave about 1 cm at the bottom of the jar.

Feed it with 2 tbsp tepid water and 2 tbsp rye flour. Leave the jar in a warm place.

Day 4, Evening
The sourdough starter is now finished. Keep the sourdough starter in the fridge. If your jar has a rubber seal, take it off so that the starter can get a small supply of air even though the lid is closed.