Sour Dough Starter 101!  BBC3

 

Recently our Chef assigned to us the job of making our own sourdough 

starter. At first, I was a little nervous because the only experience

I had with sour dough bread was eating it!

We learned that a sourdough starter was a living thing that had to be 

fed in order for it grow and stay alive. Kind of like people! I was worried

I might kill it,but turns out, it wasn't so difficult. I just had to be attentive 

to its needs!

On the first day we mixed rye flour and pineapple juice together to

form a ball. We left this out at room temperature for 24 hours.

On day 2 we added bread flour and more pineapple juice. On day 3,

it had risen a little but not much. We were to discard, or share half of 

the starter and add more flour and some water. On day 4, my starter had

grown a lot! I let it sit for another 12 hours or so, and added still more

flour and water. After sitting for another day or so, it became very soft

sponge-like. Now it was ready to become a Barm.

So, I used a cup of the starter and added 31/2 cups of bread flour and 2 cups

of water. It was a wet, sticky sponge. I put this is a large bowl big enough to

allow my barm to grow to twice its size. The barm was then ready to use or be

refreshed, or fed, every three days. It had to fed more flour and water to stay

alive and active. I could not believe how much it grew!

When we were ready to use our barm to make sour dough bread, I took it back to 

class. I had been feeding and allowing it to breathe at home, so on the way to school

I felt like I needed to strap it in a baby car seat!

We were able to take a portion of our barm and add more flour and a couple of other 

ingredients to make sour dough bread in class! Mine turned out great! I was a bit

worried how it would turn out, hoping I had taken proper care of my starter and barm,

but, it the bread was amazing! The smell that filled our lab at school, with everyone's 

bread baking, was heavenly!

This was such a satisfying experience for me, seeing the bread start from a small starter 

to delicious freshly baked products!