The rise and fall of Sourdough Starter

Hello HTS Community

So, experiments gone wrong are a part and parcel of cooking. This time, I am determined to bake sourdough bread. To bake one, first we need to culture wild yeast for a minimum of 1 week and then use those cultures for bread making. Basically, instead of using store bought instant yeast, we use homemade wild yeast.

So I started with my sourdough starter in a mason jar, with flour and water, feeding it at intervals of 24 hours. Bubbles, is what I call it, because it is a living organism 😛 Everyday, I discard half of the mixture and add more flour and water to let it ferment. I generally keep it in my microwave, so that the temperature is maintained, because its too hot in Pune, to let it ferment on counter top.

It has been going well, with a good rise, until day 6, when it over fermented and spilled out of the jar.

Lessons learned

• Use a bigger jar, that has plenty of space, at least 1000 ml in capacity
• Maintain the temperature, instead of letting it ferment on counter top, keep it in a cupboard or microwave. India is generally very hot during summers, which exceeds the normal temperature for yeast to grow, resulting in over fermentation
• Limit the water content

When I finally got it right, I decided to document the process. And you can read my starter recipe here, along with the ciabatta sandwich bread and sourdough bread recipe.