Sourdough homemade

Finely fragrant, gentle in taste and very powerful

The Story

Sourdough – For me, this was always a book with seven seals. Wherever you look, you read something different everywhere when it comes to how best to make it. But in turn.

What is sourdough anyway?

Actually, what the name already says. Acidified dough in which vinegar and lactic acid bacteria have gained the upper hand. These bacteria ensure that everything we bake from this sourdough becomes easily digestible and tolerable for us, tastes delicious and lasts even longer.

In addition to the milk and acetic acid bacteria, there are also wild yeasts in the sourdough, which, when baking (like yeast), ensures that our bread is beautifully dissolved.

And the best thing is that all these bacteria and yeasts are already contained in the flour. They just need a little help from us so that they can multiply properly.

A few basic rules

Sourdough needs constant conditions and a warm environment

In order to make sourdough we need nothing more than flour, water, a constant temperature of about 26°C and time.
I tried a lot to ensure a constant temperature, but I always failed. Eventually I gave it up and made a simple fermentation box with which I can keep the temperature constant. You can find the link on how to do this here: For instructions

But maybe you also have better conditions with you in the apartment, where it doesn't cool down at night or something like that. Then, of course, you don't need to do the effort. The only important thing is that the temperature is relatively constant between 25°C and 27°C.

Why does everyone say something different when it comes to sourdough?

I believe that all roads lead to Rome. There are many different descriptions on the Internet of how to make sourdough. I think they're all going to work. Just choose the method that you like best, or even better, the method that best fits your daily routine.

Let's go – Day 1

Provide a clean screwed glass, a digital kitchen scale, rye flour, lukewarm water (approx. 26°C), a fork to stir through and a spoon to fill in the flour,

Now fill 50g of flour into the glass and add 50g of the lukewarm water and stir it with the fork until a homogeneous mass is formed. Then place the lid only loosely and then place it in the fermentation box or another place with a constant 26°C.

Our sourdough base now stops there 24 hours until it is fed again.

Day 2 – Day 7

After 24h, the dough is fed. To do this, add 50g flour and 50g lukewarm water to the glass on the existing sourdough and stir well.

We repeat this every 24 hours. After a few days we will reach the limits with the capacity of the glass. We now have several options here;

We refill everything into a bigger glass and do everything the same way.
We take off some of the already existing sourdough and bake it in a yeast bread (for a pure sourdough bread the driving force is not yet sufficient) We continue to feed the rest as usual, so that we always have 300g – 400g active sourdough.

The sourdough now slowly starts to blubberate more times less and increase its volume (within the 24h). It can also smell unpleasant, which is all normal as long as no mold forms.

Day 8 and more

On the 8th day your sourdough should smell nicely bubbly and beautifully sour fruity. If it now smells unpleasant or is greenish or dark, then throw it away. Then the wrong bacteria gained the upper hand.

Now you can start baking your first bread. To do this you need about 200g – 300g of the active sourdough. With the first bread with the new sourdough I recommend you add 1-2g yeast to give the sourdough a little support.

A recipe for a beautiful sourdough bread I link you here: Sourdough rye bread

You either fill the rest in a jam jar and put it in the fridge or you feed it so regularly according to the previous plan, making it more powerful. Because it is true: the more often a sourdough is fed, the more powerful it becomes.

Picking up or continuing to feed the work goods?

If you have something left of the active sourdough from baking, it depends on you how you want to deal with it. If you regularly want to bake a bread at least once a week, then you should continue to cultivate the sourdough as described above and add flour and water every day (every 24h).

Store the stored goods in the refrigerator

If you only want to bake a bread every few weeks, that would be too much effort. On the other hand, you don't want to wait 6-8 days for the next bread until you have a powerful sourdough.

So we take about 30g off the active sourdough and fill it into a jam jar. This time, the lid is tightly closed and put in the refrigerator.
In the refrigerator, the bacteria in our plant feed on the flour that is still sufficiently present in the sourdough and is sufficient for about 10 to 14 days to feed them.

So we can leave the equipment in the fridge for up to 14 days without having to do anything. Ideally, we should refresh the work every 8-10 days.

An-based goods Refresh

To refresh, we take about 20g of our attached goods from our cow cabinet and add 50g flour and 50g lukewarm water. This then comes back for 10 – 15h in a fermentation box at 26°C. After that, it can be put back in the refrigerator. The rest of the old work item is no longer needed and unfortunately has to be thrown away.

If you want to bake a bread with the attached goods, you do the same. Refresh and work with the newly won sourdough, which you received after 10 – 15h, then continue to work, as in the recipe.

Here, too, of course, the following applies: With each refresh, the sourdough becomes more powerful.

So, I hope you're diligent in trying.
Please leave a comment on how you liked it.

See you.
Your Tom

Ganz unten auf der Seite habt Ihr die Möglichkeit den Beitrag in den sozialen Medien zu teilen und die Seite zu "liken".

Hinterlasst mir auch gerne einen Kommentar, wie es Euch gefallen hat.

0 Comments