Organic spelt sourdough

Making spelt sourdough

For the mixture, it is best to use a 1 liter jar with a lid that you simply place on top and do not tighten. The easiest way to mix the dough is with a butter knife.

Our Stöber spelt sourdough and our Stöber spelt flour are ideal for making bread.
It is sufficient to leave the mixture at normal room temperature. It can
of course it should also be kept warm, then it will be ready in 4-5 days.

1 day:
Take a large, clean glass jar or plastic container with a capacity of at least 600 g and a lid. Measure out 50 g of light spelt flour, 1 tablespoon of spelt sourdough and 60 g of tap water. Mix with your fingers until the mixture resembles a thick paste. It is important that you mix the mixture with your fingers for the first two days, as this will create lots of wild yeast and natural bacteria so that the starter ferments well. Then put the lid halfway on the jar (do not screw it on) and leave the starter to stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

2 day:
The starter has probably developed some aroma overnight and a slightly sweet smell. Place the container back on the mixing bowl lid and lift the lid off your container. Now weigh in another 50 g of light spelt flour and 50 g of water. Mix the mixture with your fingers until it forms a slightly creamier paste than the day before. Put the lid back on halfway and leave to stand at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Day 3:
Today you can already see that the dough is starting to work. The starter should now smell slightly sour and like yoghurt. Weigh in another 50g of light spelt flour and 50g of water. Now mix the mixture with a spoon until it forms a creamy mass. Put the lid on halfway again and leave to stand at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Day 4:
On day 4, the starter should already have visibly worked. It should now be bubbling and smell like sour apple cider. Weigh out another 50 g of light spelt flour and 50 g of water. Stir the mixture with a spoon until it forms a creamy paste. Put the lid back on and leave to stand at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Day 5:
The starter should now be really active and "alive" and almost ready for further processing. Today it will be fed for the last time before you can use it for baking. Weigh in another 50 g of light spelt flour and 50 g of water. Stir the mixture with a spoon until it forms a creamy paste. Put the lid back on and leave to stand at room temperature for another 24 hours. The starter is ready when it is bubbling a lot and smells very sour.

Day 6:
After 24 hours, feed it with 50 g flour and 50 g water again, stir well and leave to rise for another 24 hours. If the mixture has no bubbles yet, you should feed it with wholemeal spelt flour and keep it warm. Around 28 degrees is ideal, but it shouldn't be over 32 degrees. This can be done on or next to the heater, in the oven with the light on (this doesn't work for everyone, always check how warm the oven is first), in a fermentation box or simply wrap it in a towel and place it on a hot water bottle.

When recipes talk about sourdough starter, they are always referring to your starter in the fridge. It only becomes sourdough when you mix it with the same amount of flour and water and leave it to rise for 20-24 hours.

Amount of starter for sourdough
For sourdough, you use about 10-30% of the flour quantity, i.e. for every kg of flour in the ingredients list, use 100-300 g of flour with the same amount of water and 10-30 g of ASG (starter). For doughs that require a long fermentation time, ASG can also be added to the dough directly from the jar without feeding it first!

Feeding and refreshing
The ASG should generally be fed once every 10-14 days. After feeding, the ASG is always left outside until it has doubled in size and then returned to the refrigerator.
To feed it, take 50 g of the starter in the fridge and mix it with 50 g water and 50 g flour. Leave this starter until it has doubled in size, then put it back in the fridge. Sourdoughs have very different levels of rising strength, so it can take 3-4 hours for one, 6-8 hours for another.
If you need a larger amount of starter or sourdough, you can feed it with more water and flour. So you can easily turn 50 g of starter into 500 g by feeding it with 225 g of water and 225 g of flour.

Using sourdough
The sourdough does not have much leavening power at the beginning, so you should use more yeast when baking bread. The older the sourdough gets, the better it becomes and the more leavening power it has. The really good, long-established bakeries sometimes have sourdough that is decades old. The only important thing is to feed it constantly.
For a pure sourdough bread without additional leavening agents, it is necessary to have particularly active sourdough. To do this, refresh the sourdough once or twice, leave it to stand until it has doubled in size, and then use this active sourdough to make the sourdough.
If you want a really sour sourdough bread, the sourdough should rise at room temperature. If you want it milder, let it rise warm at temperatures between 28 and 32 degrees. This way, the starter and the finished sourdough will be much milder.

The Bake Affair team wishes you lots of fun baking!