Many years ago now I made a sourdough starter and used it for making bread. Though I still make my own bread, I now use bought dry baker’s yeast to leaven my bread. When my daughter mentioned making a sourdough starter I found my old recipes and decided to share them here. I have no idea now where I got the recipes from. Thank you to the person who shared them with me.
Sourdough starter
- 4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 14 dl cold water – add to the potatoes. Bring to the boil and cook the potatoes until tender.
- Mash the potatoes in the water, and make a smooth mixture.
- Add 1 dl sugar and let stand until lukewarm.
- Stir one package of active dry yeast into 2 dl of lukewarm water. Add 1 tsp sugar. Let foam for 10 minutes.
- Add to the potato mixture. Cover with a cloth. Let stand overnight in warm room temperature until slightly sour or for two days for a tangy flavor.
- Refrigerate in a sterilized jar.
To use sourdough starter
- Take out 2.5 dl of starter and let it warm up to room temperature, about 1 hour
- To the remainder, add 0.5 dl sugar dissolved in 2.5 dl lukewarm water. Stir well.
- Any time you use some of the starter, you must replace it with sugar and water to keep it going.
- If the starter is not used at least once a week, feed it with one teaspoon of sugar.
Sourdough bread – 4 loaves
- 2.5 dl sourdough starter
- 1 liter lukewarm potato water
- 0.5 dl sugar
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 kg whole wheat flour
- appr. 1.5 kg white flour
Use a bread mixer if you have one as it will save you a lot of hard work. Mix the sugar and salt into the warm water, then add the starter. Add the oil, and the whole wheat flour. Mix quickly by hand then do the rest by machine. Add as much white flour as is needed to make a dough that stays together, is smooth, and comes away from the edges of the bowl. Place in a large bowl and let rise until double in size, usually about one hour.
Turn out the dough onto a floured baking board. Divide the dough into four equal parts. You can make four loaves, or perhaps you would like some buns out of one of the parts. You can shape the loaves as round bread and place on a baking sheet, or you can use loaf pans. Let rise until double in size.
Bake at 190 degrees C, 45 minutes for bread, about 25 minutes for buns. Cool thoroughly on a rack.