The Mad Cow Meets Some Wild Yeast .... did somebody say bread????

For many years, I have entertained the idea of trying my hand at making sourdough bread. However, back home in New Zealand there isn't a lot of incentive as there is a ready supply of fantastic genuine sourdough from my foody happy zone; Moore Wilsons.

Moore Wilson = Foody Heaven!

The best thing about real sourdough is that Geri can eat it without it setting off her GI symptoms. I can eat a bit of it too with fewer problems than I have with commercial bread, but I still have to be a bit careful. After we found ourselves in Melbourne, I never managed to find a decent source for sourdough, although I have to admit I didn't look very hard. I'm sure there is some there somewhere but without a car and with a sick Geri in tow it proved to be too difficult and was relegated to the 'too hard basket'.

I have - in the past, dabbled in the sourdough pond a little using a recipe that employed dried yeast to get the bug going. The results, both in taste and GI reactions were far from desired - especially when compared to the wonders available at Moore Wilsons! There was simply no contest - or rather, the competition was way too steep.

On arriving in Gurgaon I found that the local bread did indeed live up to my expectations - or lack thereof. Hmm, how can I describe the bread made in many Asian countries? Ok, picture this - hang on, quick note here - I am not talking about traditional Indian breads here. I adore these and skoff them often. Here, I'm talking about Western style bread made in Asian countries. So, to continue... the slices are dry and stale tasting; even when fresh, with a texture is akin to a thick kitchen paper towel. A loaf weighs about as much as one of those paper towels and the taste? Well dry is the only way I can think of to describe it... It is a very far cry from the aromatic, chewy, dense (but not heavy and doughy) offerings from Moore Wilson. With my thoughts once again turning to sourdough due to lack of acceptable alternatives, I started researching - yay for the internet, and found a lot of informative and useful websites. Top of my list to date would be these -

Soudough Companion

Catching Wild Yeast and Making Sourdough

Wild Yeast Blog


 Now there was just one little hurdle standing in my way before I could embark on this adventure ... I needed something to actually bake my bread in. For the low down on that little saga, see my 'Appliance Adventures'  post. Long story short, after a month of frustration my oven duly arrived - and it is indeed a thing of rare beauty and wonderful baking abiltiy! With the oven duly installed on the bench and daring me to make good use of it, I no longer had any excuse not to get on with it so I decided to stop procrastinating and started my sourdough bug.

Which brings us to the subject of flour. Most of the instructions for sourdough starters are pretty specific about the sort of flour and flour combinations that should be used. Now, that's all well and good when you live in a country where you have choice and selection. This simply isn't the case here in India. As far as wheat flour goes, one gets to choose from two that are on offer - that I've found so far that is.

The first is called Maida. This is an extremely finely milled white flour and would be classed as a pastry flour I think. It is very light and seems to substitute well for the white flour I am familiar with using at home.

The other flour; and the one that is most commonly used here, is called Atta. This 100% wholemeal flour differs quite considerably to the wholemeal flours I am accustomed to. It is most similar to the finely ground stoneground flours available back home and is employed in the making of many of the traditional Indian breads which are made in the homes all over India. I am surprisingly impressed with this flour and am looking forward to experimenting with it further.

 So, the morning that my sourdough bug was conceived dawned dusty and hot. I had decided to go with 100% Atta and having found a mostly suitable pyrex container for the bug to grow in (yes, this had been another of those 'almost mission impossibles' that I am getting used to going on here in Gurgaon) I mixed the flour into some filtered water, put the lid on and left it to it.

The following morning I scuttled into the sweatbox and lifted the lid off the pot. To be honest, I hadn't expected anything to have happened but was amazed to find the bug was bubbling away most gratifyingly. WOOT WOOT! Maybe this was going to work! I continued to feed my bug over the next few days, following the  instructions I'd printed off from the net. I have to make a confession at this point ... I also fretted away like a mother with a new baby about feeding times,  'meal' quantities, discard rates and temperature. With all of this burbling away in the back of my mind; just as my bug was burbling away quite happily on the bench, I watched it with baited breath for any signs of imminent death.

On days 3-4 things started to look a bit grim. The bug went very quiet and I panicked. Had I committed bug-a-cide??? I consulted a few more blogs and web sites and decided to just keep going, although I couldn't resist fiddling a bit with the type of flour; I changed over to Maida, and the discard rate; which i reduced. Keeping my fingers crossed I hoped for the best. Over the next few days my bug-baby slowly seemed to come back to life and also started to smell pretty good too - it had a slightly sweet/sour/yeasty smell; which while it was unusual, wasn't unpleasant in any way.


I may have had a hand in the day 3-4 crisis ... but I'm not sure as some websites report that this slow down does sometimes happen. I had been concerned that the kitchen would be too hot for the bug as the temperature sits between 30c and 45c most days, so on the night of the second I put the bug in one of the rooms that the A/C would be running in overnight. Now, it's not cold in these rooms by any stretch of the imagination as they sit at around 24-25c. However, the big slow happened the next day so who knows...

The whole issue of temperature is interesting. People have been making sourdough for a very long time, and very often in quite cold climates. It seems that the process will still happen, but that it simply takes longer. According to one blog, around 30c is the optimal temperature for sourdough development - if that is the case then my kitchen should be the perfect sourdough hot housing environment. Perhaps my bug-baby decided to punish me for putting it out in the 'cold' by having a big sulk. I have since left it in the kitchen full time and dared it to do a repeat performance.

Finally on day 9 it happened! My bug-baby reached a major developmental milestone - it doubled its volume in 12 hours. This was apparently an indication that my nurturing; and fretting, had paid off and that my bug-baby was ready to start the weaning process - having matured enough to be ready to go to work for me. I elected to give it another few days of growth just to be on the safe side and began a search of the net for loaf recipes that looked like they'd fit the bill. Remembering an episode of River Cottage- where they'd made a simple sourdough loaf, I went in search of the recipe.

River Cottage Sourdough

D-Day - or evening, arrived and I took the first step which was to make the sponge. This simply involved mixing water, flour; I used Maida, and some of my bug-baby together and leaving it to it overnight.

Another quick trot to the sweatbox ensued the following morning and the sight that awaited me was wonderous to behold ... my little bug-baby had done a stupendous job during the night and the sponge was a mass of lovely yeasty bubbles all of the way through.

All that remained to do was to mix in the rest of the flour; Atta this time, some salt and a little Olive oil. The mixture was fairly wet and gooey but improved upon kneading. Then I put the ball of dough aside to have a think about rising, which it proceeded to in a stately but steady manner. My bug-baby hadn't let me down so far and I hoped it would continue to produce the 'goods' as the day went on.

The first rising took around 5 hours, after which time I punched the dough down and tipped it out onto the bench to shape into its form for baking. As I don't have any proper proving baskets (or any other western bakeware for that matter) here I improvised with an Indian dish which is sort of like a small shallow wok. I lined the bowl with a clean tea towel which I floured then popped the dough into its nest to prove  before putting the whole lot into a plastic bag.

Bug-baby's rising rate during proving was a bit faster than the first rising and within 1 1/2 hours it was looking pretty darn good. The aroma of it when I took it out of its plastic bag to check it was amazing - it was yeasty but also smelt distinctly of yoghurt. I couldn't wait to see if the finished bread tasted the same as the smell. Erring on the side of caution I decided to leave it for another hour as I felt it had more rising to do before it was ready for baking.As it transpired, I got busy with dinner so the loaf proved for a total of 4 1/2 hours before I got back to it.

 And so, look at this!! Just like a real one! I am still a bit surprised that it worked so well ... what shall I make tomorrow???? Grisini anyone?

Oh, and yes... it tastes amazing. Very tangy with heaps of flavour. YUM!

A final thought ....

The sourdough process is certainly one that can't be rushed. I think this is a big part of its charm. It is a true member of the slow food movement.