Weeks ago I paid for a Sourdough and Pasta making class. I was excited. I had to book a month in advance. It was a Saturday morning. When the day came I forgot all about it. I went to get groceries and when returning home at 12pm I looked at the calendar and my heart sank. I had missed it. I had even paid in advance. so sad. :(
Shortly after one of my co workers said she had extra sourdough starter to give away, I jumped at the opportunity not knowing anything about it really.. She had gone to the class I missed and gave me the information. It was a lot to read, a lot to learn. I thought no way I can feed this stuff every day. forget it.
But then I saw hidden in the instructions somewhere that you can keep your starter in the fridge and only feed it once a week! Woohoo. I'd try it after all. So here are my summarized and simplified instructions. You will need a kitchen scale. you will also need a pot with a lid you can bake sourdough inside. I use a large soup pot.
If you receive a sourdough starter be sure you know what day it is due to be fed. When you keep it in the fridge it can be fed one week after it was fed last.
Make sure you have the weight of the container you put it into. write it on the top.
When its due to be fed, take it from fridge and put a big bowl on your kitchen scale. zero the scale and add 150g of your starter. zero again. add 25g of oil. zero and add 250g of warm water. it needs to be warm to counteract the cold starter from the fridge. Stir well with a fork.
then zero scale and add 500g white flour and 10g salt. mix it up the best you can trying to get all flour from sides of bowl. cover and let rest 30mins-1hr. this starts the gluten making process.
Then, kneed it again a bit making into a smoother ball. this is the long part. it needs to rise til the ball doubles in size. This can be 3-12hrs depending on the temperature of your home. you can put it in the oven with just the oven light on for a bit of warmth. i used to turn my oven on to the lowest i could and let it warm up a bit then turn it off. be sure to put a sticky note on your oven saying sourdough is in there for others in your house :)
once its about double you can put parchment paper in the bottom of your pot and move it there, shape it again, decorate it, make cuts etc... put at least 1 slash across the top to let steam escape. I saw someone use a utility knife, and flour can be used on the surface before cuts are made.. let it rise in your pot one final hour before baking. at the end of this rise preheat the oven to 450 degrees. then before you put the pot inside turn it down to 400 degrees. leave the lid on for 20mins. then remove the lid for the last 40mins.
Now set your beautiful little loaf on a wire rack covered by a towel for 1 hr before cutting. if you cut sooner it may be doughy still. it will still be nice and warm after the hr. <3
My first time making sourdough I started late afternoon and had my loaf ready late at night. - you can start in evening and let it do the longest rise overnight. or start earlier in the day.
I hope this helps :)
Feeding the remaining starter:
The weight of your remaining starter is important. you will need to add an equal weight of water and white flour to it. This means a 1:1:1 ratio. example: if you have 150g starter you add 150g flour, 150g water making 450g for your starter. (that amount means you can make 2 loaves each week)
make a line on the side of your container and leave it on the counter til it doubles in size. then pop into the fridge til next week. you can use the starter at any point all week. its ready to use once it doubles in size :) when it starts to shrink back down it means it soon needs to be fed again. when it gets liquid (hooch) on top, pour that off and continue as usual.
