Chookie's Sour Dough recipe and process.

[troupie]

Just reading all this again and I noticed that this recipe has 220 of culture and the on the All About Sour Dough thread has 400. Is this flexible or just a different recipe. It gets a bit confusing in the beginning but I am sure once the first loaf is produced it will seem clear. Thanks for all the help here.

[achookwoman]

Groupie,  different recipe.  The 400 starter one is probably a better one to start with.

[troupie]

I have made the bread with the 400g starter a few times now and we absolutely love it so I thought I would try this one. All I can say is WOW, WOW, WOW! it turned out so good. I made it in a small dutch oven and stuck to your recipe. This will be made over and over again. Thank you so much Chookie for all your help. I just want to keep using the sour dough culture rather than yeast.

[cookie1]

That's very exciting troupie. Congratulations.

[achookwoman]

Groupie,  I am so pleased for you.  The SD is so much better for our health so go for  it.  I will try and post an item that I read recently about SD.  Also if you want to glaze it,  you can brush with egg wash when it comes OUT of the oven and is still hot. 

[Cuilidh]

Having just read this thread again I am getting enthusiastic about trying sourdough again, but not too sure.  Even with Chookie's wonderful help and advice, I have had to attend lots of SD funerals which I have killed over the past year or two and so think that I have got a SD jinx! 

[achookwoman]

[ElleG]

My Sour Dough starter is still going strong. Tomorrow I am going to try making baguettes - have bought a baguette tin so want to try it. I have given away three  sour dough 'babies' - waiting to hear back how they are going.

Thanks Chookie, we love our sour dough.

[troupie]

Thanks for the information Chookie. I met up with a friend at our club the other night and out of the blue she brought me a book on sourdough she thought I might like to read (she must have been reading my mind). It is just called The Sourdough Cookbook and has lots of recipes for using it including cakes which I didn't know you could do. It used the immature culture for them. I now have to be brave and have a go. In the future of course.

I want to start adding wholegrain flour into my sourdough bread and will try your recipe first. Thanks again Chookie, without your help I would never ventured into the sourdough area.

[achookwoman]

Marina,  no jinx.  Think we had better have a go together.  Will contact you when we get home. 

[Cuilidh]

Looking fowrward to that, Chookie.

[meganjane]

Just began my third loaf of sourdough from my rye starter. I like your recipe better than Yoke's, Chookie as it's simple and the dough isn't as wet. This loaf isn't going to have a lid on it, so we'll see how it goes.

Next time, I'm going to add some of my homegrown wholewheat flour.

[cookie1]

All of the Yoke doughs I have made are quite wet. She now has an e book too. I have been using Chookie's starter with some of Yoke's recipes, however I like the breads with lots of starter in them and most of yoke's only have a small amount.

[Bedlam]

Cookie, my starter has been hiding in the back of the fridge for a while. It now has a "pretty" purplish growth.  Have you seen this before and  will it be ok to scrape and resurrect?

[Bonsai]

Yoke's sourdough  starter is 'fed' at a mix of 1 flour to 1.5 water, whereas Chookie's sourdough is a 1:1 mix, which may explain the difference if you are using Yoke's starter with Chookie's recipes.  I find that I need to reduce the amount of water in the recipe if it's one of Chookie's and I'm using Yoke's starter. Maybe about 200g water in a loaf using 400g  Yoke's starter and 500g bread flour plus usual amount of salt and sugar. Hope this makes sense.

Having said that I have found some of Dan Lepard's doughs very wet too, so maybe some chefs like this approach