The Dusty Knuckle’s sourdough starter
- Published: 29 Sep 22
- Updated: 25 Mar 24
Make a healthy and lively sourdough starter from scratch with our step-by-step starter recipe from The Dusty Knuckle Bakery. This stiff starter is perfect for making the bakery’s linseed baguettes.
Recipe from The Dusty Knuckle: Seriously Good Bread, Knockout Sandwiches and Everything In Between by Max Tobias, Rebecca Oliver and Daisy Terry (Quadrille £20).
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Makes 1 healthy sourdough starter -
Hands-on time about 20 min, plus 7 days fermenting
delicious. tips
Start a discard pot for any starter you need to throw away and keep it in the fridge. You can make all sorts of good things with starter discard…try adding a few tablespoons of sourdough starter to brownies, cookies or chocolate cake, where it’ll have a similar souring effect to buttermilk or yogurt.
“We keep our starter stiff. A stiff starter has several benefits: it ferments more slowly, so it doesn’t go as wild if the temperature changes. It also gives you a more subtle, sour flavour without too much acidic tang. Smell and feel are the best ways to tell if your starter is on point. A happy starter will be bouncy and light. When you take the lid off it should smell acidic, but in a good way. We feed our starter with strong white bread flour, but you can use almost any flour – be consistent while you get the hang of it. Try wholewheat to begin with as the extra bran is nutritious and delicious for the bacteria, and helps to get things going.” The Dusty Knuckle