STOP OVERTHINKING YOUR SOURDOUGH AND STARTER

Homemade Anna

5 days ago

5 min read

Updated: 15 hours ago

My Lazy Sourdough Process with NO Starter Discard

If you're stressing about your sourdough, don't. (Doughn't).

The stretching and folding process is fairly forgiving. I've often forgotten about my dough and it's been absolutely FINE.

Don't panic, it's just bread.

Starter - Day 1

I keep a jar of starter in the fridge. When I want to make sourdough, the day before I take a bit out, and make a levain.

My recipe needs 100g of active starter. So, that means, in a separate jar, I put in just over a third (35g) of my fridge starter, another third of water, and one third rye flour.

Mix it up in your new jar, leave it for 24 hours.

two jars of sourdough starter next to each other, one with more than the other — **On the left is my active starter, what I will use in my dough tomorrow. On the right, is my master jar, which always stays in the fridge, and never has much in it.**

When cleaning your utensils or jars, always wipe them first with a kitchen towel. You absolutely do not want your pipes clogged with sourdough starter or dough!

Dough - Day 2

By now my active starter should have doubled in height, and is looking nice and bubbly. I don't wait until the 'perfect' time, it usually doesn't fit with my schedule and I don't want to be making sourdough at 2am. If it looks alive and well, that's good enough for me.

someone holding a glass jar with sourdough starter inside , bubbles visible, more than double or triple the height with elastic band — I don't do a float test. I don't wait until the top begins to flatten. The bread will be delicious anyway.

I put 100g starter into a bowl - and any that's left over in the jar, I put back into my fridge jar. I replenish my fridge jar when it gets to low, like this, or with a big feed, depending on how I feel.

I pour 350g tap water (I have a filter on the pipe) directly onto the starter, and chop and mix it up in there.

Then I add 550g bread flour.

I mix it up with a dough scraper, until it's more or less combined, without big patches of flour or water.

Then I tip it directly onto the counter, and mix it a bit by hand, using the 'slap and fold' method. Basically, lifting it up by the middle, rotating it 90°, stretching it towards you and then folding it over itself away from you.

I do this for 5-10 minutes, until it's mixed evenly, and the dough isn't ripping when I stretch it. My dough is quite tough, so it won't stretch that far.

By the end of the process, my hand should come away more or less clean (the dough shouldn't stick to it).

Then it goes back into the bowl, (with the dough scraper so I know where I've left it).

I have a bread proofer, which I cannot recommend enough, I genuinely use it for all my breads, both sweet and savoury, sourdough and yeast.

It stays there for 30 minutes. Sometimes I don't set a timer if I know I'm going to be in and out of the room anyway.

First stretch & fold

After 30 minutes, it gets 10g salt added to the top, and then and stretch and fold around it.

That is, 4 or 5 pulls around the edge, going into the middle.

Then I put it back in the proofer for another 30 minutes (ish).

Second stretch & fold

Another 4 or 5 stretches and folds from the edge into the centre. My dough is never super stretchy, and that's okay.

You'll see it's expanded and flattened a little in that half and hour rest, and I use the dough scraper to scrape around the sides to make it easier to grab.

Leave for 30(ish) minutes.

Third stretch & fold

Same again.

Lovely ball of dough. It shouldn't be sticking to your hands loads.

Leave for 30(ish) minutes.

Fourth stretch & fold

This final one is where I like to add my mix-ins, usually seeds (caraway seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or mixed).

It always looks like too much when I pour them on top. And no, I never weigh them.

So, that took 2 hours total, where I had to stay nearby. Now I can leave it for about 6 hours (or until it's convenient for me) to do my final stretching and folding and shaping on the counter.

After the long rest, I often start to see some bubbles. If I leave it for too long, there will be more bubbles, and it will have less structure on the counter and be a bit more difficult to handle. But it still makes good bread.

I plop it onto the counter, stretch and fold about 5 times into the centre, then ball it up - scoop with my hand from the bottom, then bring both hands down from the top.

Then I cover leave it on the counter, covered by the same upside down bowl, for about an hour.

It will have flattened a little under the bowl. That's fine.

I sprinkle some rye flour on the top of the ball, and around it on the counter. Then I flip it over, (using the dough scraper if needed), I stretch it out into a rectangle (ish), not bigger than A4.

Here, I add some more seeds if I think I put too few in earlier, but these will be less distributed throughout the bread.

I pull one of the longer sides up and over about two thirds of the rest of it (maybe adding more seeds), then the same for the opposite longer side.

I pull one of the shorter sides up and over, again to about two thirds of the dough, then rotate it so the fold is toward me.

Then I roll the dough, stretching that last side as I go.

(Forgive me, the photos below are from a future loaf, because I forgot to take photos at the time. This one I added caraway and sunflower seeds).

Finally, pinching the seam, which sits on the top, in the banneton (floured earlier).

I cover it, and leave it on the counter for 30-60 minutes, depending on when I remember I left it out.

Then I put it in the fridge for overnight.

This is usually around 5 or 6pm.

Bake - Day 3

In the morning, it's baking time.

It'll look a bit flat in the banneton, that's okay.

I put my silicon baking mat (used exclusively for my sourdough) over the banneton, then flip it, leaving it on the counter to let it fall out nicely onto the mat.

Then, I score the dough (S for Sourdough), making sure it goes nice and deep.

I put it into my casserole dish (used exclusively for my sourdough now), and put the lid on.

This goes into my cold oven, at 240°C for 55 minutes - this I DO set a timer for.

Then, I take the lid off the dish, and put it in for another 10 minutes.

Done!

It's not perfect, but it's more than good enough for me.

And have a look at all these crumb shots, posted on my socials!

It's usually a little different each time, but always delicious.

DOUGHN'T STRESS.

And one final thing, we usually don't manage to finish one loaf of sourdough before it goes stale. We learnt the hard way. BUT it's easy to freeze, pre-sliced, or just half a loaf. It freezes well, and if you put a full loaf in there, (I sometimes do for a gift), just spray it with a good amount of water and put it in the oven so it crisps up and freshens up.

I LOVE BREAD.