So you have our sourdough. There should be 50g in your container. It’s well overfermented and will be very watery and thin. I’m afraid there’s nothing we could do about that as it’s been sitting around waiting for you for a number of hours. However, all is not lost. It will be fine. You just need to feed it. It’s hungry.
Sourdough is a living culture of lactic acid bacteria and yeast and needs to be fed regularly to work and thrive so first thing to do is get yourself a glass/plastic/see through jar, container of some sort, a bag of bread flour (or a mix of wholegrain and white flour) and a scales. Scrape your sourdough into its new home.
Now add 100g flour and 100g tepid water into your container, mix and leave it somewhere warm (by a heater, hot press, living room, etc). It will take anything from 2 – 3 hours to mature depending on when you picked it up from us, how warm your home is and what temperature the water was in your mix.
Easiest way to keep looking after your sourdough without wasting large amounts of flour is to use a ratio and similar temperature (22 – 24C). We suggest the following:
1:2:2 (starter:water:flour) up to 3 hours
1:3:3 (starter:water:flour) up to 5 hours
1:4:4 (starter:water:flour) up to 7 hours
1:5:5 (starter:water:flour) up to 9 hours
You’ll know when its done by how much it has grown, a bubbly surface and it’s sour taste. If you want to start your sourdough adventure at a later date refresh it (feed it flour and water), leave it out for an hour or so (to give the yeast a chance to start feeding) and put it into the fridge until you’re ready. We suggest keeping your sourdough (the mother) in the fridge and feeding it once a week.
Sourdough is like a tamagotchi. You have to treat it like a pet; feed it, keep it warm, respect it and it will work hard for you.
Most importantly, this sourdough is very resilient. don’t worry. If it all goes pear shaped we’ll give you more. Above all don’t rush it. This is all about slowing down and letting natural processes do their work.
When you want to make bread look at your recipe, see how much levain/starter/sourdough you need, take some of your sourdough out of your existing container (we call it our mother) and make up a fresh sourdough (we call it a levain) in preparation for baking.
As bakers our levain is constantly being refreshed in the bakery however you’re best keeping yours in the fridge and refreshing it once a week or so. Make it part of your routine.
how it works
sourdough is simply a mix of water and flour that is fermented by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and wild yeast.
Enzymes in the flour convert starch into simple sugars providing food for both yeast and bacteria and allows yeast to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol. This byproduct is what makes our bread, beer, wine and all other fermented foods. In bread the CO2 gives lift. Ethanol the flavour.
Bread & Roses sourdough is a mix of mostly white bread flour, with a little wholegrain flour and water.
We feed our sourdough 1:2:2 (one part sourdough, 2 parts water, 2 parts flour).
Our sourdough is over 5 years old and very reliable. punctual even. Left in a warm place it will need to be fed on a regular basis. If kept in the fridge the yeast and bacteria will go to sleep. Neither like working in the cold. If left in the fridge you only need to refresh your sourdough once a week.
To know when your yeast needs to be fed look at your sourdough: is it bubbly? Is there a sour smell? Has the colour changed? If you’re not sure do a float test. A float test requires you to fill a small glass with water. then get a teaspoon, wet it and carefully scoop a little sourdough out of the container and slip it into the water. If it floats there’s lots of CO2 in it. you’re ready to go. If it sinks just leave it a while.
This is not a guaranteed test as its easy to knock the gas out.
Pretend you’re adding cream to the top of an Irish coffee.
Last thing. if you have a problem email us.