Make your own Liquid Sourdough

EN FRANÇAIS :-)

If you understand French, you can also read the following blogs. They were really helpful in getting that bubbly texture that liquid sourdough should have:

http://enfourner.free.fr/levain.php 

http://fairesonpain.free.fr/Recettes/levain.htm

http://www.cfaitmaison.com/levain/crea-levain.html 

And here is one in English, I have not tried it but it looks right to me and it is a great website, worth checking out:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10251/starting-starter-sourdough-101-tutorial

There is not just one way to achieve this and there are lots of recipes out there. I would say that it is more important to understand the chemistry of it rather than following a recipe without thinking. When you manage this, making your own sourdough and keeping it alive should become quite natural. So have a go and try different ways. Take the time to read blogs about it.

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I chose to use sourdough made from wholemeal wheat flour and a pinch of sugar with 100% humidity: that means mixing the same amount of flour and water together.

1. Use a Le Parfait type jar or a tupperware. I prefer the tupperware because the surface of contact with the air is greater, which enables the sourdough to develop more rapidly.
2. Mix 50g of wholemeal flour with 50g of water. Add a pinch of sugar. Leave it until small bubbles appear. It could take between 24 hours and 48 hours depending on the temperature. An ideal temperature is 25 C. Make sure to let the air go through by keeping the lid ajar. The sourdough is also feeding from bacteria in the air.
3. Discharge half of your mix to keep only 50g and add 50g of wholemeal flour and 50g of water (some recipes recommend mixing twice a day for 2 or 3 days, try it. I am happy with just "refreshing" the sourdough, ie add an equal amount of flour and water)
4. Do this again once or twice, refreshing the sourdough every other day or as soon as the mix becomes bubbly. IT IS IMPORTANT TO ADD X AMOUNT OF WATER WITH X AMOUNT OF FLOUR TO X AMOUNT OF MIX)
5. Your sourdough, or "Levain" as the French call it, should be ready. The mix is full of bubbles, it must have doubled in size and it is quite light and fragile. The smells vaguely reminds me of a banana smell and it is quite acidic.
6. Use what you need (see post on stiff sourdough) and keep the rest by refreshing it regularly, every two or three days...

Active liquid sourdough after refreshing 3 or 4 times

Active liquid sourdough. The surface is light and fragile.

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NB:

• Every time you refresh, and especially if the room temperature is around 25C, your sourdough's 100% humidity will have gone down to 90%-80%. Therefore it is quite important to take this into account when you add flour and water again by adding a little more water. Make sure you get the same kind of gloopy consistency.

• GOLDEN RULE: SAY YOU USE X GRAMS OF SOURDOUGH TO MAKE SOME BREAD, REFRESH IT WITH X/2 GRAMS OF FLOUR AND X/2 GRAMS OF WATER.

• If you are in a hurry or your timing is not ideal, put the jar or tupperware on a warm radiator and it should rise fairly quickly.

• A sourdough mix can live for weeks, months... even years! Just refresh it every 2 or 3 days. If you are going away or if you do not intend to make bread for some time, leave it in the fridge and feed it once a week.

• UPDATE: it is in fact very handy to leave your sourdough in the fridge if you make bread once or twice a week. Just use what you need and follow golden rule above.