My Own Sourdough- Day 1 to 3

I'm a HUGE fan of bread... It could be my Italian heritage or it could just be that I'm a fatty and I love my carbs! I really don't think there's anything sexier then fresh bread, still warm, smothered in salty butter. I'm salivating just thinking about it!

Going back to watching River Cottage Australia as I was speaking about in my earlier post Me and The Garden, I was inspired by Paul's homemade sourdough.

He mixed three different kinds of flours- Whole Wheat, Spelt and Rye Flour, about a cup of each with about a cup and a half or so of water and thats it!! 'Where's the yeast?' you say? Well that's the best part! He covered it with a damp cloth and left it in a warm spot to let wild yeast from the air permeate the dough making a sourdough that is literally taking in its surroundings to make a truly unique dough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jr-OL16ziE  If you skip to about 7 minutes in this video you'll see Paul making his dough :-)

So I decided to go on the journey of creating my own sourdough. This really is a new thing for me as I've only actually made proper bread a handful of times, but I think it's silly not to give something thats so simple a go. I'm hoping that the wild yeast around my neck of the woods will cultivate a beautiful dough but only time will tell!

I'll do a few different posts of the progress of my bread, so hopefully it turns out and I don't end up looking like a schmuck, but I'm willing to learn through trial and error! I'll also welcome any handy hints that anyone is willing to give me :-), you can either comment or email me**!

Well the recipe I used was...
1 Cup bread/strong flour
1 Cup Organic Spelt
about 1 cup water.
I'll be feeding the dough with Rye flour (I didn't put it in at the start because I couldn't find it at my local grocer and had to go to a Health-food store on the weekend) and obviously tap water. I'm not sure if I should have used filtered water but I like to think the tap water where we are is pretty great, so we'll see how that turns out!

Day 1


So, seeing as I was a bit busy over the weekend it's actually already been 2 days since I started the dough, and I think it's already showing signs of life! I lifted up the damp tea towel this morning and this is what the dough looked like, it had little air-bubbles and was starting to change a little bit! 

Day 3
I fed my new little pets some rye flour and water, replaced the tea towel with a new clean, damp towel and set it back on the bench next to the open window with the sunlight streaming through. I'll probably check it again tomorrow and if there's been any more significant progress I'll share it :-) I can't wait till I can use this mother dough to make delicious bread of my own! I'm so excited!

**Email adress at the bottom of the page :-)


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