Woot woot! My first sourdough loaf!

supercook, Oct 29, 12:01am
That looks perfect ! Where did you get starter from is that the one that you have to feed!

craig04, Oct 29, 12:13am
I made my own starter from scratch and fed it up over 9 days. I started with rye flour and then converted it to white about 4 days in because I wanted to try making San Francisco style sourdough which is a white bread.

babytears, Oct 29, 12:19am
OMG that is gorgeous - well done - I've often thought of making it, it sounds complicated. would you share your recipe (starter etc) and method, please! :)

elliehen, Oct 29, 1:53am
I tried my first white sourdough a couple of decades ago in Amish country Iowa, and while I now choose to eat rye sourdough I still hanker for that old style occasionally.

buzzy110, Oct 29, 3:01am
Congratulations craig and so happy to have another convert to sour dough bread. You did very well on your own, following the simple instructions from the link I gave. In fact your bread is far superior to my first few and even from several months down the line but once I learned all the kneading and forming tricks my bread is so good.

I am curious to know just how long your bread stays 'fresh'. Mine is still edible as bread only for 4 days then it becomes 'toast' bread. I bought an onion bag from Briscoes. It has a black lining and a pull string closing top and is ideal for storing loaves and keeping them fresher. I also have a set of those stretchy silicone lids and I put one over the cut end so that it is nice and snug so that the sliced end doesn't go stale. Brilliant.

buzzy110, Oct 29, 3:05am
I have been musing on the practicalities of making crackers from my sour dough. I am going to make the dough up as per usual with one knead, one gentle knock down and 30min rest then I will form into a ball and put it back to prove in the original bowl until the yeast has completely spent all the food. I suspect that will take about 24hrs. After than I will roll it out into thin sheets, cut into uniform shapes with a cutter and bake. I reckon it will make awesome, sour crackers. Flavours can be sprinkle on just before cooking.

craig04, Oct 29, 4:27am
I'll let you know about the freshness buzzy - just as soon as I can get my family to let me keep a loaf longer than a day! This first loaf was devoured by the afternoon. My second loaf looks even better actually and DH is already wanting some for dinner *sigh* I'm going to be a busy little baker!
I found a really great website about sourdough which was very helpful to me too as a complete novice - I used one of the recipes off there to make my starter and it worked a treat - I wasn't expecting such good results the first time but 'Roger' my pet seems to be quite vigorous! You kneading tips have been foolproof too by the way - I get a lovely lively dough every time

craig04, Oct 29, 4:31am
Very keen to know how you go with this - I'd love to make my own crackers and I love the versatility of sourdough, I'm thinking of ways to use my starter all the time now

buzzy110, Oct 29, 4:39am
In a pizza thread uli suggested leaving the dough for 24hrs as well and then rolling it out. You get a lovely, crisp, thin dough. I'm absolutely certain that recommendation will work just as well with sour dough. I'm more of a low carb sort of person so don't eat a lot and would never use the 24 hr proved dough as a pastry for things like meat pies or pasties but I can see it would work perfectly for those things as well but I'll let you know how easy the dough is to work once it is not longer producing gas. I will probably start a sponge tomorrow night and set to work on Monday. Maybe I'll be able to let you know by Tuesday how it all went.

skippie1, Oct 29, 5:13am
Yummy looking bread craig. I also have converted to baking sour dough, but being just by myself most of the time, I try not to bake to often as I eat to many carbs. The last two loaves I made have been rye, as I prefer the heavier rye breads. Keep up the good works/baking.

beaker59, Oct 29, 5:34am
Nice looking loaf Craig :)

elliehen, Oct 29, 7:28am
Is it Craig or Kate doing the bread-baking!Not fair to praise Craig if it's Kate doing all the work ;)

jazzryn, Oct 29, 7:42am
what was the website where you got some good tips craig/kate, havent had much luck with my starter and am keen to try again. Thanks

uli, Oct 29, 7:53am
All you have to do is take a spoon full of the rye sourdough and do a three step feed with wheat flour - and you have a wheat sourdough.

deus701, Oct 29, 3:46pm
Looks great! Well done. Just a bit of info.no matter what you do (eg buying san francisco starters online), the starter will convert into 'NZ style sourdough'. It has something to do with the enzymes in the air & flour.

craig04, Oct 29, 10:06pm
Haha, yeah it's Kate not Craig doing the baking - Craig does the eating! And talk about carb overload - I think my mistake was baking on Friday night instead of Sunday night, we had too much yummy bread lying around over the weekend! Hopefully the next lot lasts a bit longer and I can answer buzzy's question about freshness

craig04, Oct 30, 4:27am
I'll let you know about the freshness buzzy - just as soon as I can get my family to let me keep a loaf longer than a day! This first loaf was devoured by the afternoon. My second loaf looks even better actually and DH is already wanting some for dinner *sigh* I'm going to be a busy little baker!
I found a really great website about sourdough which was very helpful to me too as a complete novice - I used one of the recipes off there to make my starter and it worked a treat - I wasn't expecting such good results the first time but 'Roger' my pet seems to be quite vigorous! Your kneading tips have been foolproof too by the way - I get a lovely lively dough every time

uli, Oct 29, 7:09am
waves to Kate - not Craig LOL

carlosjackal, Oct 29, 7:19am
Hee's a recipe for Sourdough Pancakes - they are light and fluffy and to-die-for!

SOURDOUGH PANCAKES:

Ingredients:
2 cups sourdough starter, room temperature*
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon warm water
* if sourdough is kept refrigerated, the night before using your sourdough starter, remove from refrigerator and let come to room temperature.

Preparation:
In a large bowl, add sourdough starter, sugar, egg, olive oil, and salt; mix well; set aside.
In a small bowl, dilute 1 teaspoon baking soda in 1 tablespoon of warm water. IMPORTANT: only add baking soda/water mixture to the pancake batter just before you are ready to cook the pancakes.
When ready to cook your sourdough pancakes, fold the baking soda/water mixture gently into the prepared pancake batter (do not beat). This will cause a gentle foaming and rising action in the batter. Let the mixture bubble and foam a minute or two.

elliehen, Oct 29, 9:21am
Was wondering why I didn't remember posting just a few days ago and then spotted the giant leap between posts #18 and #19 from Sun 30 Oct (2011) toMon 29 Oct (2012).

Woot woot!Wonder if craig04 aka Kate is still feeding her pet Roger ;)

uli, Oct 29, 11:27pm
I am often wondering too which is why I sometimes revive an old thread :)

buzzy110, Oct 30, 2:45am
I see I never got back with my cracker results. They worked perfectly and I was rewarded with lots and lots of crispy, sour crackers. I divided the dough up into 3 batches. I did it twice and then I've never bothered to repeat the process because I still haven't eaten all I made. I stored them in polycarbonate vacuum sealed containers and haul them out when we go camping to eat with cheese and wine. They are still crispy crunchy.

I also put different flavours on the batches - plain, sesame seeds, rock salt, chilli flakes and cumin.

village.green, Oct 30, 2:58am
Here's an interesting site for those of you who enjoy making your own bread. www.breadtopia.com

makerealbany, Oct 31, 9:42am
Thanks just had a peep. This is really informative for a newcomer to sourdough.