In my first step of embarking on the journey of sourdough bread making or wild yeast bread, I first need to cultivate a batch of my own homemade, home growth wild yeast. Growing your own wild yeast is a easy but 4 days or more process, mine too 4 days exactly. Basically the concept is to let your dough ferment at room temperature to grow the bacteria that we want and this will then be made in to a BARM that will become the starter for all our sourdough bread.
Seed Culture
DAY 1
1 Cup Dark Rye flour
1/2 Cup Unsweeten Pineapple Juice
- Mix the flour and juice together till then form a ball of dough. Do not worry if the dough is stiff or soft but ensure that the flour is properly hydrated. Press this dough into a 4 cup measuring beaker and place a piece of tape to mark the top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
DAY 2
1/2 Cup Bread flour
1/4 Cup Unsweeten Pineapple Juice
- The dough would not have risen much if at all. Combine day 2 ingredients with day 1 sponge. Mix until evenly distributed. Return to beaker and press down. Make the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
DAY 3
1 Cup Bread flour
1/2 Water, at room temperature
- Check to see if there has been a rise in the dough. There will probably be some but not alot. Maybe a 50% rise. Regardless, discard half of the starter or give it to a friend to continue. Mix the remaining with the 3 day ingredients and return it to the beaker, press it down and mark the top. It should press down to the same height as on day . Ferment for 24 hours.
DAY 4
1 Cup Bread flour
1/2 Water, at room temperature
- The sponge should have at least double in size; more is even better. If it is still sluggish and hasn't doubled in size, allow it to sit out for another 12 to 24 hours. Otherwise, discard half of the starter and mix the remaining half with the new ingredients, returning it to the beaker as before. Cover the ferment until double in size. This may take 4 to 24hours. It is okay if it triples in size but because it is now fairly soft and spongelike, it will not be able to sustain that large of a rise without falling. IF it falls easily when you tap the beaker, that is the sign that your seed culture is ready to be turned into a barm or a mother starter.
BARM
Makes 6 cups of barm
3 1/2 Cup Bread flour
2 Cup Water, room temperature
1 Cup Seed Culture
- Stir together the flour , water and seed culture. Ensure all the flour is evenly hydrated. It will become a wet and sticky sponge.
- Transfer this to a clean plastic, glass or ceramic storage container as least twice the size of the barm.
- Cover and ferment at room temperature for about 6 hours or until the barm is bubbly. Open the lid to release the gases and replace cover. Place in fridge overnight before using.
- The barm will be ready to use the next day and will remain potent for 3 days. After that, you will need to refresh the barm.
Saving and Refreshing the Barm
You can store the barm that you do not wish to use in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months and then refresh it when you want to use but discarding all but 1 cup of the barm and built up from there.
You can also freeze it in the freeze for up to 6 months and then defrost it in the refrigerator 3 days before you need it. When it is thawed enough to use, discard all but 1/2 cup and refresh accordingly. Then refresh it again the next day building back to 4 to 6 cups of barm
The standard refreshment for barm is to double it at least, measure out the weight of the barm and then to double the it, measure out equal amount of bread flour and water by weight and mix to the barm. eg. for a 500g Barm, to double it, you add 250g of flour and 250g of water to it.
Leave the refreshed barm at room temperature for about 4 to 6 hours until it become bubbly and foarmly again. Cover and place it in the fridge overnight before using to allow the flavour to develop.
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