[Scribbler]

CQ: a malt loaf with fruit? if so, can you post the recipe or give us a link please? I've had a special request for malt load from one of the kids!

[compostqueen]

Yes, with fruit. It looks and tastes nothing like Soreen. How they get theirs so dark I can't imagine. It's probably gravy mix 

This is the one I made http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/9609347/Rose-Princes-Baking-Club-malt-bread.html

I used a stout from T*sco (Marston's Simply Stout) 

It makes two whacking great loaves. I think the one pound loaf tins are too small!  I'd make it in two pound ones next time as there is just too much overhang 

It's delicious toasted as well as fresh with butter, jam, marm etc.  I thought of making bread and butter pudding with it too.  My husband ate some when he got in from work and he thinks the beer comes through really well, even today and it's days old now. Still soft though 

[Hank Ovel]

Sourdough is a bit of a self serving little geezer. Give it time, plenty of time and then add some more time.
Making the sourdough is all about allowing natural yeasts to grow without pushing them about too much. If you feed the yeasts too much they will get indigestion and go sour on you. Then they stink, think old socks. If the starter gets too warm too quickly the yeasts gobble up the proteins in the flour and then shut down for a while, often for as long as ten days at 12 C. You have the best temperatures in your kitchen. Stay with it, if it looks like a bigga it could be that you have over fed it. leave it. Don't look at it for a week.

If you are really worried start another little fermentation and let them have a race!

Good baking
Chef Hank

[allotmentann]

Hi Hank, welcome and thank you! My first sour dough loaf (with starter from a local baker) is going to be baked today - although I fear with the temperatures in my kitchen, I may be up at midnight! I am following a Peter Reinhart recipe as meticulously as I can, but my rising times will obviously be much longer because it is so cool. I may have to resort to using the oven with just the light on if it is taking much too long!
My own starter is still sitting  on the side in the kitchen, bubbling slowly. Smelling good, but not rising when fed. It stopped feeling like a biga a few days ago and is now more liquidy, but still gloopy - not easy to take out a spoonful, if that makes  sense. It wants to stick to itself, not the spoon.
I did not know that getting warm too quickly could cause problems and certainly not for so long. (Although I don't think that is going to be a problem for me, for a few weeks yet!). I was also not aware that you could overfeed it, so am grateful to know that.
I have divided what was left of the starter that I was given, into two small portions, fed them and put them in the fridge as an 'insurance' policy. I would rather have left them out, but feeding three starters daily is too wasteful of very good flour.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

[compostqueen]

I've got one in the fridge and feed the daily one on the worktop which is the one using the Dan L recipe. I've switched to organic flour for feeding it and it seems to be working very well

I'm making another loaf today but not sure what sort yet.  Stop worrying about your kitchen temp being cool.  I've left doughs to rise overnight and they rise wonderfully.  It's all in the sourdough!     The taste develops during the slow rise process which is sadly lacking in much modern fast factory bread, so embrace slow bread 

[allotmentann]

Oh,  I am not worried about the cool temperature for making bread, I have done many yeasted breads over long periods, leaving them in the fridge over night etc, so I know that it will rise eventually. The thing I am not sure of, and probably what I have really been trying to ask, not very clearly, is whether it is possible to start a starter at low temperatures?
Dan L's starters look complicated compared to just the basic flour and water that I am trying with. Which one have you used? I have the Baking With Passion/ Exceptional Breads book and may try one of the starters.
On the plus side my sourdough with 'handed down' starter is definitely working as the bread is rising nicely,it is back in the fridge now and I don't think it will be baked until Sunday. If it comes out looking half as good as the beautiful breads in the photos on the other thread by all of you 'old hands', I shall be very pleased!

[compostqueen]

I started with the Real Bread site's one I think.  I then did Dan's starter featured in his book. It's actually dead easy and it's been working beautifully. I made another loaf with it today
You keep it at room temp if you're using it, which I am almost on a daily basis.  You make the starter over 7 days (I think it was) and keep it at room temp while you're doing so. Then, once you've made it, you can either put it in the fridge if you don't need it straight away, or leave it out on the worktop and the use, feed, use, feed ad infinitum 

[allotmentann]

The Real Bread site is a good one, I got the link to the local baker via that. Perhaps I will give a more adventurous starter a go.

[compostqueen]

I followed Dan's and it's a doddle as it's laid out in photographs mostly.  My loaf last night turned out well