My First Real Sourdough Success

Hi Charl,

I am happy to assist if I can but be warned ... I only started making sourdough bread about 4 weeks ago so I am very much a novice. My recipe was from Paul Hollywood (scaled down slightly) 375g white bread flour, 7g salt, 250g starter and 210ml tepid water.

When you say that your first starter is just a week old I assume that you are completely new to all this so I will include some very basic stuff - Firstly, try to make your bread when your strater is at its most active. Following advice from thers on the website I feed my starter about 4 hours before I intend to make bread. By the time I come to make the bread my starter has roughly doubled in size and is going "crazy". Secondly, do you know how to deal with a fairly wet dough ?? I "slap and fold" (also known as French kneading)(If you struggle with this watch a video on Youtube - French Kneading with Cocina Babette) I slap and fold for about a minute then let the dough rest for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then the same thing again and another 5 minute rest. The the same again for the third time and then I put the dough into an oiled glass bowl, cover it, and leave it for about an hour at room temperature (19c ishh) I then take it out to stretch it one last time but this time I only slap and fold it about 4 times and put it back into the glasds bowl. I then leave it for a further 4 hours at room temperature. At the end of this period the dough has visibly grown (almost double) I then shape it and put it into a floured Banneton (I use a 500g circular Banneton) and into a sealed plastic bag and into the fridge. Between 9 and 12 hours later. I place a large cast iron casserole dish with lid into the oven and then turn on the oven to 210c. Get the dough out of the fridge and remove it from the plastic  bag. I pre-heat my oven and casserole dish for 40 minutes. This seems quite a long time but the cast iron casserole dish is slow to heat up. after having waited the 40 minutes I then tip the dough out of the banneton onto a floured flexible plastic board. Slash the top. I then lift the hot casserole dish out of the oven, removed the lid and slide the dough into the casserole dish. This is tricky but with practice not too bad. Spray the top of the dough with a couple of mists of water and then replace the casserole lid. Put it in the oven for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes remove the lid of the casserole but continue to bake for a further 15 minutes or until you are satisfied it is cooked.

I got the idea of this from watching the following video :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwv89Vjw5yw

Have fun. If I can help further just ask. Chris