OK I take up the challenge MOS - feast your eyes on these
My sour dough starter is in the jar
and with some home grown salad (except the radishes - mine bolted
) and some cheese. Did it taste as good as it looked - oooohhhh yesssss. I have made bread before but this is the biz
If you want a quicker way, using a cup of starter as part of the liquid in a standard bread dough mix was also pretty darn fine tasting
And for Livinhope
Starter - 1 cup wholemeal (preferably organic) flour and 1 cup warm water. Beat together really well, put in a jar and leave somewhere warmish until bubbles just start forming on the surface. Could take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days.
Daily feeding once bubbling - throw away half the mix and beat in another cup of flour and a cup of warm water, return to jar. After a week of feeding it's ready to use. It needs daily feeding but if you want to slow things up, it will live in the fridge for a week without feeding, just get it out and reactivate before use.
Sourdough - the night before make a sponge (loose breadmix\thick batter). I mixed 1 cup starter with 250g rye flour, 250g strong white bread flour and 600ml warm water, covered and left overnight.
Next day mix in 600g strong white or wholemeal flour and 25g salt and mix to a dough. Turn out and knead for 10 mins until smooth and springy. Form into a round and put into a covered clean bowl to rise for an hour. Tip out and press down gently into a flat shape, reshape into round and put back into covered bowl. You can do this another 1 or 2 times if you want to really develop the taste.
Once risen, turn out and gently knock down. Divide and make into loaves. Dust with flour and leave on a board to prove until double in size - this bit can take up to 4 hours depending on how active your starter is. Cover with cling film to stop the dough drying out.
Heat the oven to 250 degrees C. Put a roasting dish of boiling water on the bottom and baking trays for your bread in to heat Slash the tops of your bread and spray with water. Get the trays out of the oven, the bread onto them and back into the oven as quick as you can. Bake on max heat for 10 mins then turn down to about 170/180 degrees C depending on how quickly the crust is browning and bake for 30/40 mins till really crusty and sounding very hollow when rapped on base.
Cool completely before slicing - I suggest you get out of the house for a bit here because the smell of the freshly cooked bread will drive you wild