Day 1 – mixed 120g plain flour with approx half a cup of (cooled boiled) water & left at room temp for 24 – 36 hours. Sterilised jar in oven and lid with boiling water in saucepan – both for ~15 minutes, Calling the starter – Edgar.
Day 2 – Transferred half to new clean jam jar & lid and added 120 g more flour and another 1/2 cup of cooled boiled water and mixed.
By late afternoon on Day 2 – about 30 hours from starting, the sour dough starter is expanding considerably. Edgar like a dormant volcano – is active. Read the thing to watch for is ‘slide’ marks on the jar – usually on day 3 and indicates sour dough starter is hungry and needs to be ‘fed’. Just a little bit worried that ‘Edgar’ might blow up and have now moved the sour dough starter to a cooler part of the kitchen away from the boiler and wrapped a towel round the jar for warmth (and safety). Looked at You Tube videos to see what other people do when making sour dough starter’s on day two – and some don’t feed only stir and use cellophane instead of jam jar lid. Have opened the lid a few times yesterday and shook the jar, a little (this with heat – could explain what happened).
Day 3 – By this morning level of activity of wild yeast had dropped and hungry. Fed with 120gs of flour and 1/2 cup of cooled boiled water – added to half the content transferred to a new sterilised jam jar and lid. Marked level of sour dough starter with a rubber band. Second daily feed begins from this evening. Left jam jar on counter. Noticed distinctive smell when opened the lid but for now following instructions. Advice if yellow or orange streaks appear on sour dough, mold or brown liquid – discard but so far not seen this.
Repeated above with second feed in the evening. about 9pm. Discarded half the starter in the evening as well before feeding. Noticed the starter wasn’t as active as Day 2 when it was in a warmer place but still doubled in size during the day.
Day 4 and 5 – Same routine as Day 3. On Day 4 – Edgar was fairly quiet but on Day 5. like Day 2 sour dough starter rose to the top of the jar. Not really sure what is controlling this – as using same amount of flour and water to feed . keep in same location and use new sterilised jar and lid each time transfer the starter before feeding. Could be amount of starter varies a little or possibly how much stirring the starter?
Day 6 – Fed in the morning. Carried out float test (a teaspoon of starter should float in water if ready). After about 7 hours (couldn’t wait any longer) should be 8-12 hours, removed about 1/3rd of a cup from the starter for making bread and fed what remained as before and placed in new sterilised jam jar and lid in the fridge – for another week and another loaf.
To make a Sour Dough Loaf – added 520g plain flour to one bowl with 2 teaspoons of salt while to another bowl added 1 7/8 cup of cooled boiled water to the sour dough starter (taken from the sour dough starter mix) – mixed and then added this to the flour in the bowl and gently mixed together.
After resting for 15 minutes, ‘stretch and shape”the bread dough in the bowl, turning. Repeated twice at 20 minute intervals. Then left to proove for about 8 hours on top of the boiler covered with a damp tea towel. Then carried out one more special ‘stretch and shape‘ as per instructions and moved into another prepared bowl lined with baking parchment paper and left overnight to continue to proove in the fridge covered with clingfilm.
Day 7 – Early, took the bowl of bread dough out of the fridge and left on the boiler top – for another hour (could be 3) while our fan oven warmed to a temperature of 210 degrees C . Transferred the bread dough on the baking parchment to a round cake tine, made 3 cuts across the top of the dough for decoration – could have been deeper and there are many designs and then baked for 35 minutes and left to cool. (NB. Temperatures and times are from the BBC website to make sour dough loaf as dont have a Dutch Oven.)
Then slice and finally, eat!
To be honest , forgot to add the salt but still very nice with dark cherry jam . Many things could improve on and be less impatient at the end. The bread had a good crust, open texture and not too heavy and gentle flavor of sour dough. Next time will add some spelt to the flour for flavor – you can add honey and/or seeds.
sunnypolarbear 
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