DAY ONE: Combine three tablespoons of rye flour and about 150ml of mineral water in a non-metallic container with a lid. You could use Tupperware or a preserving jar with a rubber ring on the lid.
The flour should be organic if possible (health-food shops are the best source as their turnover is high). The water needs to be mineral as opposed to spring water. It needs to be really pure, and tap water is laced with too many yeast-inhibiting chemicals. Place the sealed jar in a warm, draft-free place.
DAY TWO: This can be encouraging, a few air-bubbles may be visible, if you are lucky, but it can also look as if nothing at all has happened. Add another tablespoon of rye flour and a couple of tablespoons of mineral water.
DAY THREE: Hopefully, you will be seeing lots of bubbles, with an enjoyable aroma of biscuits. If this is not happening, do not despair. Even if the mixture has separated, add a tablespoon more of flour and two of mineral water and mix it in. Continue for a day or two. If things don't come right, something is wrong with the ingredients, or with your container, and the only option is to change everything and start again. By day five, your container should be a mass (and a mess) of frothy, active matter, giving off a smell similar to the Guinness factory; sweet, sour and very delicious. The starter needs to have reached this level of activity before you start baking. If there is too little action, carry on feeding it for a day or two..
SOURDOUGH BREAD
200g strong white flour
200g wholemeal flour
100g starter
100ml water
Combine 100g each of the strong white and wholemeal flours with the 100g of starter and 100ml of mineral water. Mix well in a bowl and cover. Leave overnight. The mixture will bubble and rise up.
Add a further 100g white flour and 100g strong white flour to the batter and mix well. It may be a little loose, in which case add more of the white flour to dry it out.
Knead this for at least 10 minutes. This is the stage many people cut short, but it is a vital step. You want the dough to be warm, tight and glistening, with a pleasant sheen. Kneading involves pushing the dough away from you, using the balls of your hands and then gathering the mixture in on itself, turning and then pushing back out again. It can feel odd at first, but you soon get into quite a rhythm. What you are trying to do when you knead is stretch the dough so the gluten becomes like glue, holding it all together. If everything gets sticky, just dust with a little of the strong white flour.
Mould the dough into a mound and place on a well-floured baking tray. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size. This will take two to three hours. Cut three or four slashes in the top of the loaf, dust with more flour and transfer to an oven which has been preheated to its highest temperature.
Place the loaf in the middle of the oven and close the door. Bake for 30-40 minutes, and then turn the loaf over and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, or until the base sounds hollow when tapped. Use this, rather than the colour of the bread, as your guide, even a loaf which is not cooked in the centre can look wonderful.
Transfer the bread to a wire rack and leave to cool. Sourdough bread keeps for much longer than a standard yeast loaf. Simply wrap it loosely in a plastic bag once it is cool. The crust will go soft, but it still makes fantastic toast.
This recipe is based on one by Tom Norrington-Davies. It is intended as a guide, there are too many variables to make it more than this, and if your first loaf seems a little heavy or unexciting then do not despair; you simply need to experiment further.
FEED ME: You need to add 100g rye flour and about 100ml of mineral water to the starter to keep it alive after you have extracted what you need for your loaf. Starters live for years. Provided you keep it in the fridge and feed it every 10 days or so, it will keep indefinitely