Sourdough Starter – Day 11

I haven’t been updating on Lawrence because there hasn’t really been much to say. He’s been drying out on top quite a bit, so I’ve been stirring that back in every morning and feeding as necessary, but there really has been quite a lack of bubbles to speak of. What’s stopping me from just giving up is that he still looks healthy, and he smells FANTASTIC! Really yeasty and almost alcoholic (though there’s no visible sign of any “hooch”).

This is what he looked like this morning, with the crust on top broken:

I stirred him around, then moved him into a new, larger jar where he’ll have a bit more room:

I punched a few holes in the lid, so his fetching headdress is now gone:

But after feeding, he looked rather well, I thought – still not exactly over-bubbling, but maybe he’s the strong, silent type?

I’ll give him a few more days and then have a go at baking some sourdough bread.

 

Sourdough Starter – Day 4

Well look here:

Who’s a handsome sourdough starter, then? It’s Lawrence, that’s who!
When I checked on him this morning, he was fizzing and bubbling like you wouldn’t believe. I am trying not to get my hopes up too much (I’ve been here before), but that does look like a healthy sourdough starter, doesn’t it?
After his feed and mix, he looked like this:

I just checked on him again (it’s a couple of hours after his feed) and he’s still looking good: slightly more bubbles than on the photo above. I’ll give him a couple of more days, and then see if we can’t get a nice sponge going, ready to bake some bread!

 

Sourdough Starter – Day 3

I’m not at all sure about this. Lawrence was looking very split this morning – water on top, thick flour sludge at the bottom and not a bubble in sight:

I mixed him up again before feeding and was a bit worried that the texture was very stringy and elastic.
However, after the feed of flour and fresh water, we had a nice thick batter again, and lots and lots of bubbles:

So now I’m not sure what’s going on. The smell has definitely changed, it’s more yeasty or bready. But the texture is worrying me, as is the lack of bubbles before feeding. I think I need to do some more research to see if this is normal!

 

Pretzels – Part 1

You may be wondering why I am baking my own pretzels when, living in Southern Germany, I can buy them in every single bakery, not to mention the extra Brezel booths which pop up all over the place. Well, yes, I can buy them everywhere, but they aren’t always very good. In fact, the most consistent thing about pretzels here is their inconsistency. Plus the fact that they are almost always covered in so much coarse salt that you first have to spend 15 minutes picking it all off.

So my main motivation in baking my own pretzels was that I wanted small pretzels that tasted how I thought they should – every time I baked them – and that didn’t have any salt on them, as I wanted to give them to Henry to snack on.

I did a bit of research before starting and as with almost anything else, opinions vary as to how exactly a soft pretzel should be made. In the end, I went with a recipe which was pretty much how I usually make bagels, except that I boiled the pretzels for a much shorter time in water which contained “Haus Natron”, rather than the rather dangerous lye which would be in the original recipe (it gives the pretzels their characteristic colour and crust, which is why they are known as Laugenbrezeln ie lye pretzels).

I’m not that great at forming the actual pretzel shape yet, so they looked a bit wierd, but I’m sure that will get better with practice.
Here is the batch before going in the oven:

 

And this is what they looked like about 12 minutes later:

 

Most importantly of all, they tasted fabulous!!!!

The recipe is as follows and makes 6 mini pretzels:

Ingredients

• 250g flour
• 1 pack dried yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• approx. 150 – 200ml warm water
• 2 packs Natron (I actually think 1 pack would have been enough, and if you can’t get this you can substitue 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda instead)
• oil for greasing tray

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar with enough of the water to make a smooth and stretchy dough, then cover it and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour.
2. When the dough has about doubled in size, put on a big pan of water to boil. add the natron and preheat your oven to 225°C.
3. Divide the dough into 6 equal sized pieces and form each one into a long, thin rope with the ends being slightly thinner than the middle. Mine were about 30cm long.
4. Form the pretzels like this:
5. Boil the pretzels 2 or 3 at a time for 30 seconds, making sure you turn them a couple of times. DO NOT boil for any longer, or they will go very chewy and rubbery!
6. Take them out of the water with a slotted spoon and place on an oiled baking tray. If you want salt on them, you should sprinkle it on now.
7. Bake in the oven for 10 – 15 mintues until well browned.
8. Take out and allow to cool slightly before eating.

 

Sourdough Starter – Day 2

Well, after that little emergency rescue last night, Lawrence was looking good this morning:

I’m trying not to get too excited, but don’t those look like bubbles to you? They sure look like bubbles to me!
Anyway, I fed Lawrence his spoonful of flour and a couple of spoons of water, mixed him up and he looked like this:

Now, those are DEFINITELY some bubbles we see there, but realistically, they probably come from the air that got in when I stirred.
I should mention that due to some rippage, Lawrence now has a new headdress, which is even more fetching than the last one:

 

Sourdough Starter – Day 1 – Update!

Just went to check on Lawrence and he was looking a bit peaky:

You can see he’s separated, floury goo at the bottom and water at the top, but no  bubbles. Not a good sign.

So I mixed in a bit more flour and a tiny bit of water until I had a nice thickish batter again:

Fingers crossed that Lawrence makes it; I know it’s only been a short time but I’ve kind of got attached to the little guy…

 

Sourdough Starter – Day 1

 A couple of years ago, I made my own sourdough starter and baked lots of very nice sourdough bread with it. I managed to keep it going (the starter) for ages, even taking some to England with me to pass on to my sister. And then I sort of stopped looking after it and it went a bit horrible and I had to throw it away.

Anyway, I thought to myself that it was about time to start a new one and see how that goes.  And this time, I’m going to keep a record of how I’m doing.

So, this morning I mixed a tablespoon of flour with a few tablespoons of warm water :

sourdough starter

to make a thickish batter (I stirred with a plastic baby spoon of Henry’s that he actually never used):

then I covered it with some baking parchment with a few holes punched into it:

and put it on the kitchen windowsill. Now all I have to do is wait. Well, wait and feed, which I will be doing tomorrow morning.

(Incidentally, due to its uncanny similarity to Lawrence of Arabia:

this Sourdough Starter will henceforth be known as “Lawrence”)