Make your own stiff sourdough

EN FRANÇAIS :-)

Active stiff sourdough

Thank you ever so much to the following blog (the link is in french) 

http://aulevain.canalblog.com/archives/2008/08/13/10218608.html

Two advantages to preparing stiff sourdough:

1. I personally prefer the taste. It is not as acidic and more interesting because it was left to ferment that little bit longer.
2. Adding liquid sourdough to plain flour and some water is in fact refreshing your sourdough yet again. It will reinforce it and should triple or even quadruple in size in less than 12 hours. (no need to put it by the radiator, in fact by the window in the winter works just fine for me)

One downside...

You have to be more organised and plan from the last time you refreshed your liquid sourdough (see post on liquid sourdough) to cooking your bread. The whole process takes me 2 days... 

Here's a brief timeline I follow to bake bread on a saturday morning:

• Thursday morning: refresh your liquid sourdough (40g or 50g of wholemeal flour with at least the same amount of water to get a gloopy consistency).
• Friday morning: make the stiff sourdough.
• Friday night: Add the stiff sourdough to the rest of the ingredients to make your dough.
• Friday night to Saturday morning: the dough ferments in the fridge, cling film on.
• Saturday morning: pre-shaping, shaping, last proving, slashing and baking
• Saturday lunch: Yummy bread!

Recipe for stiff sourdough:


90g plain flour
40g water
80g active liquid sourdough

Mix everything in a bowl.

You will get a firm dough. Knead it for half a minute.

Push the dough down in a transparent jar.
Put a sticker on the outside to check the level as it grows.
Leave it in a fairly cool area.
It needs time to ferment for some time without growing too fast.
Between 8 and 12 hours should do it

Between 8 and 12 hours later, depending on the temperature,
your stiff sourdough is ready!