Sour Dough

Thanks to the inspirational Paul Hollywood, and the gift of a 'Herman The German'  yeast culture, we've been experimenting with sourdough bread....

The result - absolutely fantastic!

To mark May Bank Holiday, we decided to share our experience with visitors to the gallery.

This afternoon we'll be baking and tasting sourdough loaf, all welcome.

Due to the unique nature of sourdough cultures, and the time in takes to prove, this entailed some difficult decisions this morning!

Dawn - well almost

Tiggy out on the prowl

washed dressed walked the dog - and it's still only 6:25 am - NOT bank holiday timing at all!

simple ingredients: strong white flour, yeast culture, salt water and oil for kneading

our 'Herman' yeast culture: modified as we do not feed him sugar

375g flour &  250g culture

see the bubbles of carbon dioxide - the raising agent

mix together with about 150ml tepid water

knead well for about 15 mins

becoming smooth and elastic

place in an oiled bowl and leave for 2 hours

doubled in size, lovely and shiny!

knocked back down to it's original size to remove the air bubbles

back in the bowl for about 6 hours rising

All set now for this afternoon - if you've never had sourdough bread - straight out of the oven - come on up. You're in for a treat!

approximate times:

2 pm - making and kneading another batch

3 pm - baking the one we made earlier

4 pm - tasting - yum!