Can any one help? I have got a leaven on the kitchen shelf. It was fed this morning, half white, half brown bread flour. Tonight I will make the sponge and tomorrow I will attempt the sourdough loaf. My question is - shall I feed the leaven again late this afternoon/early evening? My kitchen temperature is around 16/17 degrees centigrade at the moment.
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Hi Clarabba,
If I assume by 'make the sponge', that this is for your loaf and will consist of some of your leaven plus flour and water with more flour water and salt tomorrow to make the dough, then if that is the case, then I would replace what you remove with the appropriate amounts of flour and water.
If, however, what you have will be going in to make your dough for the loaf, then I don't think it would need any more feeding before going into the dough mix.
Hope this helps.
Farinam
Hi Farinam
Thanks for that. I didn't see your reply until today by which time I had got the dough underway. What I did was use all the leaven (which consisted of starter plus extra flour and water) to make the sponge overnight (by adding extra flour and water). Four hours after I had gone to bed I woke to find the whole house smelt wonderfully of sourdough. I added extra flour and salt this morning. But alas, I misjudged the amount of water in the sponge I think because I found it beyond my expertise to work with. The loaf is baked now, it tastes good, is very dark but the slashes barely opened and the bottom of the loaf burst.
Oh well - try again
Clarabba