- The legendary Tomik the sourdough. View from above
Followers of this blog may recall that back in April I “gave birth” and started experimenting with sourdough. Tomik is how I christened it (apparently master bakers give names to their sourdough starters. Not that I’m a master baker of course but I liKed the idea!) Some of you might wonder, after all these months, whether the love affair has continued or if I managed to kill the baby sourdough off….. WEEEELLLL, you’ll be happy to know that Tomik is alive and kicking and has never been healthier. It (he?) even survived being put in the freezer during the summer while we went on holiday (Yes! can you believe it? You can freeze sourdough!) Since it was born I have made lots of things with it: pizza, pancakes (blogged) and obviously different types of bread ( not blogged as I don’t want to become a one trick recipe pony). I won’t lie to you: it is a bit of a faff to keep it alive. You have to feed it regularly (only with flour and water, don’t worry. I wouldn’t want you to think I have a strange beastie lurking in my house!). Definitely a labour of love then! BUT don’t be put off: the results are very pleasing indeed. And let’s not forget that sourdough is all natural stuff and that the bread made with it is much easier to digest?So how do I know Tomik is a happy chappie at the moment? Very simple: after a feed it more than doubles in size and that’s a sign of a good, active fermentation. I have definitely been on a steep learning curve with this sourdough palaver. I have done quite a bit of research and discovered some interesting facts for instance. To put you in the picture ,for example, there is no agreement out there as to the flour/water ratio when it comes to feeding it. Some people put same amount of flour and water in every time they have to feed it ending up with a dough the consistency of thicK batter. Others only put half the quantity of water (achieving a much harder dough that you can actually knead). Who is right and who is wrong? Nobody I guess! I am kind of in between at the moment. I used same amount of water and flour for many months but I have now moved to a less water than flour ratio (150 gr of flour to 100 ml of water). You will have gathered that I am having fun and games taking care (and using and abusing) Tomik. Why not, eh? So now you know…..Soon I will post a focaccia made with sourdough I was particularly happy with. Stay tuned you bread fanatics!
straight after a feed
a few hours after (spot the difference)
Finalmente posso tirare un sospiro di sollievo! 😉
E ritieniti fortunata che non ti ho mai chiesto di dargli da mangiare…ha ha!
ma il signorino ha preferenze? farina O? farina integrale? e ogni quanto mangia il golosone?
Io gli do la farina Manitoba che sarebbe quella che qui si chiama strong flour ( vale a dire la farina ad alto contenuto di glutine che si usa per il pane) . Se lo tieni in frigo il golosone resiste anche una settimana senza pappa!
L’unica cosa è che prima di usarlo deve ritornare a temperatura ambiente perchè si svegli e diventi bello attivo…:-) Candi te ne devo dare un figlio!!!