Sourdough Starter

Starting your own sourdough starter is child's play.  If no-one has any active starter they can spare you, simply mix bread flour and water and leave it to ferment for around 5 days.

I use wholemeal bread flour for my starter, even if making a white sourdough loaf.  I find it ferments quicker and is not as sour as white bread flour.

50g x 4  wholemeal bread flour
50g x 4 lukewarm water

Day 1: Mix 50g bread lour and 50g lukewarm water in a clear lidded container. Mix well and and leave, with the lid loosely on, at room temperature for 24 hrs.

Day 2: Mix another 50g bread flour and 50g lukewarm into Day 1's mixture. Leave, with the lid loosely on, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.

Day 3: Mix another 50g bread flour and 50g lukewarm into into your growing starter, and leave for another for another 24 hrs.

Day 4: You should hopefully start to see your starter becoming more active, with bubbles visible through the clear sides of the container. Mix in a further 50g bread flour and 50g lukewarm water, and leave for another for another 24 hrs.

Day 5: Your starter should be very active/bubbly now.  If not, continue to feed it daily until it does. 

When your starter is ready, pour off 300g (or whatever your recipe requires) for the loaf you are about to bake.  Feed the remaining starter with 50g bread flour and 50g tap water and store in the fridge for 24 hours before you want to use it.

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Wholegrain Sourdough

Wholegrain sourdough does not have the big cosmetic 'holes' that have become associated with artisan white sourdough.  Instead it is a dense, filling, high fibre bread. 

I sell homemade white sourdough, but have begun making this wholegrain sourdough loaf for my partner and I.  As with sourdough, it is a lengthy process, but it is mostly hands off and requires no tricky shaping or turning out.  If you don't have any sourdough starter you could have your own homegrown starter in 5 days, and sourdough on your New Year's resolutions.

Makes 1 large or 2 small loaves
Preparation time: 36 hours (hands on time about 30 minutes in total)
Cooking time: 1 hour

300g active sourdough starter

250g wholemeal flour 

250g wholegrain flour (I use Sainsbury's Wholegrain Seeded Flour, but intend experimenting with varying quantities of wholemeal rye flour, malted flour, spelt flour)

25g mixed seeds

10g salt

320g warm water

I have based the timings of this loaf around a working day, and baking the loaf first thing in the morning.

Two nights before (36 hours before) you want to bake the loaf, take the starter out of the fridge and leave on the counter to warm up.

The following morning (8am - 24 hours before), feed your starter with 50/50 wholemeal flour and water to make 300g starter plus about 20g to keep back as reserved starter. Leave the starter on the counter throughout the day.

Late afternoon (5-6pm - 4 hours before you go to bed), weigh out 300g of starter into a large mixing bowl.  Whisk in the water with a fork, and then stir in the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well with the fork then use your hand to ensure everything comes together.  You should have a sticky but stiff dough.  Wholemeal flour absorbs more water than white bread flour so you may need to add more water to make a workable dough that you can push your fingers into with some force but holds it shape when folded into a ball.

Cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm like near a radiator, in the airing cupboard or in a sunny window.

Every hour for the next 4 hours, with a wet hand, stretch and fold the dough in half onto itself, top down, bottom up, left to right, and right to left. Re-cover and leave for another hour.

After the final stretch and fold, tip out onto a lightly floured surface, stretch out to a rectangle and then roll up like a Swiss roll to a sausage shape to fit in a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper.

Loosely cover with a large plastic bag, with enough room for the loaf to rise without touching the plastic, and leave to rise overnight in a cool place. I've begun making this in winter, so leaving the loaf to rise in the kitchen overnight with the heating off has been perfect. In summer I may have leave it in the fridge overnight if it rises too much, although wholegrain flours don't rise as much as white so this loaf may never overflow it's loaf tin.

The following morning preheat your oven to 230C.  Once up to temperature, place the loaf in it's tin on the middle shelf and bake for 15 minutes at 230C and 15 minutes at 200C. 

After 15 minutes at 200C, tip the loaf out of the loaf tin and remove the greaseproof paper.  

Turn the oven down to 180C and bake for a final 30 minutes.

Baking lore advises to wait a couple of hours for loaves to cool to body temperature before slicing. I'm not entirely sure why. From experience hot/warm loaves are harder to slice, with the bread often tearing. But the urge to taste a freshly baked loaf is hard to resist...

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Sourdough Discard Pizza

I saw couple of reels making sourdough discard pizzas and thought I'd give it a go.  As I don't discard any starter, so I fed my starter more so that I had enough.  This makes a moist, crumpet like pizza base. And for once, no-one left any crusts!

Makes 3 pizzas

150g active sourdough starter

1 cup bread flour

1 cup water

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Toppings

Premade tomato sauce

Sliced mozzarella

Other toppings of choice; chorizo, ham, anchovies, olives, capers, pineapple...

Leave your starter out overnight to wake it up.

In the morning, mix in the bread flour and water, cover and leave to ferment for as long as you can.

At dinner time, turn the oven on to 220C to preheat and heat an ovenproof frying pan or shallow casserole dish on the stove.  

When the pan is piping hot add the olive oil and a US cup measurement of sourdough starter.

When bubbles start to burst on the surface of the pizza base spread on the tomato sauce and toppings of your choice.

Place the pan and bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes until the topping is bubbling.

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High Fibre Wholemeal & Wholegrain Sourdough

I sell homemade organic white bread flour sourdough loaves (with a wholemeal starter), but thought I'd try to make a wholegrain sourdough for the family.

The more wholegrain flour you use, the higher in fibre this sourdough is, so experiment with 500g wholegrain flour, or adding different wholegrain/wholemeal flours eg wholemeal rye flour.  

Wholegrain sourdough will rise less than a white sourdough but is better for you!

Proving time: 3 hours 45 minutes (5 x 45 minutes)

Overnight proving: 12-24 hours

Cooking time: 40 minutes

I mix the dough late afternoon the day before the morning I want to bake.

300g lively wholemeal starter

375g water

2 tsp salt

250g wholemeal flour

250g wholegrain flour (I used Sainsbury's Wholegrain Seeded Flour, other wholegrain flours are available)

Mix the starter & water together in a large mixing bowl.  

Mix in the flour and salt until you all the dry flour has been incorporated.  It will be a rough looking dough. Don't worry.  Cover the bowl and leave for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes do the first of four 'stretch & folds'.  Wet your hands, scoop your fingers under either side of the dough and lift it upwards so the top and bottom of the dough stretch and fold down from your hands.  Give the bowl a quarter turn and do one more stretch and fold.  Cover and leave for another 45 minutes.

After four stretch & folds and a final 45 minute rest, tip the dough out onto a floured surface, stretch the dough out to the side and up onto the middle of the dough at the top, bottom, and sides of the dough.  Shape, and place in a well floured  banneton or bowl with a well floured cloth. Cover and place in the fridge for 12-24 hours until you are ready to bake.

When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven and a deep lidded casserole dish (I used a domed turkey roasting dish) to 230C.  When the oven reaches temperature, tip the dough out onto a piece of baking parchment, and score with a razor blade, bread knife, or scissors (optional).

Lower into the preheated dish, and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on, then 20 minutes with the lid off.

Leave to cool entirely on a baking rack to make slicing easier.

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Whole Vegetable or Wet Brine Fermentation

After the success of my Red Cabbage Sauerkraut aka Red Cabbage Coleslaw Sauerkrat, I thought I'd try fermenting my Piccalilli ingredients ie cauliflower and green beans using the @ZOE fermentation guide

Whole vegetables, or vegetables that contain less water, require a wet brine to ensure they are submerged below the brine and kept away from airborne bacteria.

Makes a large 2L  jar

1 cauliflower

200g green beans

Salt

Water

Break the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Top and tail the beans and cut in half. 

Mix the cauliflower and beans in a large mixing bowl. Place the jar onto digital scales, zero them, and weigh in the mixed vegetables plus the water required to cover them.

Note down the total weight of the vegetables and water. 2% of this weight is the required amount of salt.

Weigh the required amount of salt into the mixing bowl, then with your hand over the mouth of the jar to stop the vegetables falling out, pour the water into the mixing bowl. Stir the water until the salt has dissolved and then pour back over the vegetables in the jar.

Use a pickle weight or smaller water filled jar to ensure the vegetables are covered by the brine, and put the lid on if you can. Leave to one side on the kitchen counter.

In a few days the odd bubble will rise up the side of the jar.  Burp the jars daily, or leave the lid on loosely. Mine is in a cheap preserving jar and seems not to seal properly, so I have had to stand it on something to collect the overflowing brine caused by fermentation, but I do not have to burp it.

Zoe Nutrition recommend waiting at least 2 weeks before starting to eat your fermented vegetables. After 2 weeks, the jar can be put into the fridge to slow down the fermentation.  However, you can always leave it out at room temperature to continue fermenting until it is all eaten. Mine is about 5 days old.  I tasted it a few days in, as soon as it started to ferment/overflow.  The cauliflower has a slight garlic taste, even though there is no garlic in the jar.  The beans seem a little tough. 

Already, I am planning my next fermenting combination; red cabbage & grated beetroot, and cauliflower & crinkle cut baby beetroot which should be an interesting colour.

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Warm Yoghurt & Spinach Soup

I love Chilled Yoghurt Soup, Cucumber Raita, Indian Salt Lassi but in this cold and damp weather I wanted something warm.

I found a recipe for a Turkish yoghurt soup, and added a little more fibre.

Serves 1

150ml water

1 large handful baby spinach

1 tsp dried mint

1 tbsp extra olive oil

1 tbsp flaxseed or cooked brown rice (optional)

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

150g Greek yoghurt

1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 free range egg

Liquidise the spinach, garlic, olive oil, and flaxseed/rice, with the water.  I added flaxseed to add a little fibre to this soup, and as the Turkish recipe I based this soup on used a watery white rice base, but it is optional.  You could, of course, add a portion of cooked rice to the finished soup to make it into a meal in itself

Pour the liquidised mixture into a small pan, bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer

Beat the egg and crushed garlic into the yoghurt.  

Stir a couple of tablespoons of the hot stock from the pan into the yoghurt, then slowly stir into the stock in the pan.  The soup will start to thicken with the egg.  Keeping stirring, and take the soup off the heat just before it boils otherwise the yoghurt may split.

Season with pepper and salt to taste, and serve with an optional drizzle of chilli oil.

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Homemade Red Cabbage Sauerkraut

@zoe Nutrition posted an online foolproof guide to how to ferment foods by @kenjcooks in mid December 2023.  This simple guide made fermenting much more straightforward than many other recipes I have read.

So I thought I'd turn my red cabbage coleslaw into a sauerkraut.  Two+ weeks on, this sauerkraut is nothing like coleslaw, but tangy & crisp, and goes well with smoked mackerel, avocado, cottage cheese...

Makes a pickle jar

1/4 red cabbage
1 large carrot

1 small onion, peeled & halved

Table salt

Thinly slice the cabbage and onion, and peel and grate the carrot.

Weigh all the prepared vegetables into a mixing bowl, and add 2% salt. So if your vegetables conveniently weigh 500g, add 10g of salt.

Scrunch the salt into the vegetables with your hands for several minutes until the cells start to breakdown, the cabbage starts to go slightly limp, and liquid starts to be drawn out of the vegetables.

Pack the vegetables firmly into a clean jar and pouring over the liquid from from the mixing bowl.  In order to ferment and not rot, the vegetables need to be covered in brine so no air and bacteria can get to them.  

Use a pickle weight, smaller water filled jar, or large cabbage leaf to push the vegetables into the brine (you may need to add a little water to achieve this).  Put the lid on the jar and push to the side on the kitchen counter.

In a few days bubbles will start to appear on the surface of the liquid.  Burp the jars daily, or leave the lid on loosely.

Different vegetables ferment at different rates, and slower in cooler climates.  Zoe Nutrition recommend waiting at least 2 weeks before starting to eat your sauerkraut.  Two weeks in, my coleslaw sauerkraut is crunchy and tangy almost as if it's been preserved in a mild vinegar. 

After 2 weeks, sauerkraut can be put into the fridge to slow down the fermentation.  However, if you like the tanginess you can always leave it out at room temperature. Mine is living out on the kitchen counter, and almost finished after nearly 3 weeks after starting it.

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Bread Machine Sourdough

I’ve been mixing my sourdough in a bread machine for years, but with rising energy prices I thought it would be more economical if I could bake one in the bread machine rather than our now ageing oven.

I googled, and found some timings on My Greek Dish. I used my recipe, taken from BBC Food, with a few tips taken from YouTube over the years.  I am constantly refining technique, flour types, and hydration so this is by no means set in stone.

The method makes paler and softer sourdough than oven baked, particularly if left in the bread pan overnight to cool (see end of recipe),which is preferred by my family.

300g active starter

500g flour 

10g salt

250g water + 1 tbsp water

I start my sourdough over 24 hours before, taking my pot of starter out the fridge around lunchtime the day before the evening I plan to bake.  We have an off peak electricity tariff (to charge electric cars) between 10pm and 3am, so my timings are based on baking at 10pm.

My starter always contains just over 100g of 50/50 bread flour and water. Currently it is 100% wholemeal bread flour. I have experimented with higher quantities of white bread flour in my starter but this can develop a very vomity smell! 

12:00 Day Before - starter out the fridge 

22:00 Day Before - top your now active starter up with 50g strong bread flour and 50g water. Cover and leave out in the counter overnight

08:00 Baking Day - weigh 100g of starter into a bread machine bread pan. Add 100g strong bread flour and 100g of water. Roughly combine the ingredients with a silicone spatula, taking care not to scratch the bread pan, then mix on the dough cycle. Turn the dough cycle off after 15 minutes (which is when mine stops the initial mixing) and leave until 2pm. 

14:00 Baking Day - your starter should be bubbly and ‘lively’. Add 500g flour and 250g water.  Mix for 15 minutes on the dough cycle. Switch off, and set a timer for 30 minutes. 

14:45 Baking Day - add 2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp water.  Mix with the dough cycle for 15 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

15.30 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Our machine starts mixing slowly, then speeds up. So I turned it off once it speeded up.  Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

16.05 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

16.40 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

17.15 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 30 minutes.

17.50 Baking Day - Mix with the dough cycle for approximately 5 minutes. Turn the bread machine off and leave for 4 hours for the final prove, until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

To bake, set the Bake option for 1 hour 15 minutes.  DO NOT OPEN THE LID whilst the sourdough is baking and let the heat escape. Bread machines do not get as hot as ovens, so you need every precious degree of heat.

A friend who I taught to make sourdough following the BBC's recipe commented that all the mix and rest steps sounded like 'a lot of faff'.  This method works for me as I am in the house most of the day as a cook from home for a living but if you can't be bothered/aren't on hand all day, try the My Greek Dish method which only proves for 3-4 hours after the initial mixing (with all the ingredients) until the dough has doubled in size. I do note their recipe has sugar/honey, which may make it rise slightly quicker. 

Finally, when the cooking time is up, leave the bread in the machine to cool before turning out. I ended up leaving mine in the bread pan overnight as a) it was midnight and I wanted to go to bed, and b) I had used an old bread pan (from one of my four bread machines!), and it had stuck.  The following morning I gently eased the pliable bread away from the edges of the pan and eventually shook it out.  Now I know this method works I will use a newer non-stick pan. Or possibly take the dough out before the final proving, clean the bread pan, remove the paddle, lightly grease the pan, and then return the dough to prove.

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Easy Preserved Lemons

I have been meaning to make my own preserved lemons for ages, and now wish I'd done so sooner as it is so easy, and gives a wonderful kick to savoury dishes.

Small preserving jar
4 lemons 

Salt

Cooled boiled water

Wash the lemons giving them a good scrub with a vegetable brush.

With the stalk end pointing down, cut down ALMOST halving the lemon, then cut again at right angles to make 4 segments/quarters still joined at the bottom that can be opened up like petals.

One by one, cup each lemon in your hand, open the sections up, and spoon in 1 tsp of salt.

Pack the lemons tightly into a sterilised preserving jar and top up with cooled boiled water.

Leave for 3-4 weeks, flipping the jar every few days, for the lemon rinds to soften in the brine.

A lot of recipes tell you to scoop out the pulp before using, and just use the rind.  So far I have just chopped everything up (discarding any pips) and added them to North African dishes like Vegan Tagine, Chicken or Lamb Tagine, and Courgette & Yoghurt.

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Cake Tin Sourdough

I have been making and selling small sourdough for a number of years, but have found myself needing to make family sized loaves over various lockdowns and school closures. 

Sourdough's second rise is typically in a 'banetton', or proving basket, and gently turned out onto a hot baking tray before baking.  I have makeshift baskets for my 400g loaves, but had nothing for my full size 900g loaves - until I watched a friend bake her's in a cake tin.

The same friend anxiously tipped her sourdough from a banetton into the cake tin, fearing it would deflate. So I simply decided to let my sourdough rise in the cake tin and then cook it in it, removing the risk of deflating.

My sourdough is still not as 'holey' as the beautifully photographed artisan loaves but it has risen, is tasty, easy, and cheaper.

Oh, and I knead mine on the dough cycle in a bread machine and leave it to rise for the first time in the bread machine pan, so it is a wonderfully hands off process. A dough hook in a food processor would work as well if you don't have a bread machine.

Makes 1x 900g loaf

300g lively sourdough starter
500g white bread flour

250g water

10g salt

If you fridge your starter like me (as I only use it once or twice a week), take it out of the fridge 2 days before you intend to bake the loaf. I take mine out in the morning of Day 1.

On the evening of Day 1 I feed my starter to ensure I will have 300g of starter the following morning.

8-9am on Day 2 I weigh 300g of starter into the bread pan followed by all the other ingredients.  Knead using the dough cycle and then leave in the pan in the bread machine for 12+ hours until just before you go to bed. 

Bedtime Day 2 tip your dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead lightly and shape into a smooth ball.  Place in a lined 20cm cake tin. Cover with a puffed up plastic bag to stop the dough from drying out, but allowing the dough to rise and not stick to the bag and leave on the side overnight. NB. I did experiment with leaving the dough in the fridge overnight but it did not rise enough. This recipe was developed during a cold spell, and our kitchen is around 16C overnight. I may have to revisit proving overnight somewhere cooler in the height of summer.

8-9am Day 3 preheat the oven to 230C. Dust with a little flour and slash the dough if you like. Boil the kettle and pour a mug of boiling water into a high sided baking tray at the bottom of the oven, after placing the sourdough in it's cake tin on a middle shelf. 

Bake to 10 minutes at 230C, 10 minutes at 200C and, if the crust is golden brown, 20 minutes at 180C. I take the bread out of the tin for the last 10 minutes, just placing it on the oven shelf.  When ready, the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

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Kimchi, Spicy Pickled Korean Cabbage

I've been meaning to make kimchi for ages, so when Sainsburys substituted lettuce with Chinese cabbage, this seemed the ideal opportunity.

Makes: 1 large (1L) preserving jar

1 litre water
4 tbsp sea salt
1 Chinese cabbage
3 carrots
1 mooli, or 2 medium turnips
2 small onions
2 garlic cloves
5cm-piece fresh ginger
1 tbsp gochugaru powder or 1 tsp cayenne pepper (I used cayenne powder and it is very fiery!)

Cut the cabbage into quarters lengthways. Coarsely chop the quarters. Peel the carrots and mooli/turnips and grate.  

Place the vegetables into a large plastic mixing bowl, pour in 1 litre of cold water and the salt. Mix around well with your hands to help the salt dissolve.  Find a plate that just sits inside your bowl and weight cover the cabbage keep it under the brine and leave for 8-24 hours.

When the brining time is up, peel and roughly chop one onion, garlic, and ginger. Put into a food processor with the chilli and enough brine from the vegetable to process into a paste. Thinly slice the other onion.

Drain the cabbage, reserving a little brine. Taste for saltiness; if too salty rinse in cold water, or if  not salty enough sprinkle on a little more salt and taste again.

Combine the vegetables, sliced onion, and paste in the bowl you soaked the cabbage in.  Squeeze the cabbage gently with your hands as you mix it.  This helps break down the cell walls in the cabbage, and release it's juices,

Pack into a wide necked preserving jar, pushing the cabbage down with your hand so it is covered with liquid.  Add some the reserved brine if needed to ensure the cabbage is covered in liquid.

Scrape down and clean the inside of the jar with a spatula then weigh the mixture down with a flat plate or plastic lid that fits inside the jar, with a weight on top (like a smaller jar filled with water and sealed). Cover the jar with a muslin square or tea towel so it can breathe, and secure. Do not close the lid tightly,to allow the fermentation gases to escape. 

Leave to ferment in a warm place at around 20-25°C. If cooler it just takes longer

Check and taste daily, making sure the cabbage is covered with brine. Depending on your taste and the room temperature, this can take around 3-14 days. It’s ready when it tastes sour and tangy (and there is a smell like leaking gas in the kitchen!).

Pack tightly into warm, dry sterilised jar leaving a 5mm gap between the top of the vegetables and the rim and seal.

Keeps for up to 6-8 months unopened in a cool, dark cupboard. Once opened, keep in the fridge and eat within 4-6 weeks.

I've had this served stirred through rice as a cold salad in a Korean cafe in New Zealand, as as a side in Wagamama's.  The recipe above, using cayenne, is incredibly spicy and you would only want little serving!

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