Sourdough - Round Two Part Two

This morning's starter has revived nicely, but nowhere near doubling in size, so it's had a feed along these proportions tonight:

2:1:1 ratio of starter:flour:water

It's less than I had this morning which is good as I don't like chucking all that lovely organic rye flour away!

Later
I've just got back from collecting Peter from the station and find that I didn't publish this post and since then (about 8pm I think) this is what I've got:

Some serious bubbles and growth. I think that I'll be able to start the final build up to baking tomorrow. I'm a bit confused bout the timings as the recipe I wanted to follow is asking me to make a 'sponge' tonight, but I've already fed it once and I can't decide if the 8.00 feeding will last to when I get back from the gym at about 11am tomorrow. If I do that, the shaping and proving process will take up to seven hours so I won't be baking until late. Hmmm, what to do?

Fresh, Bright, Green and a little Damp.

The weather's been terrible here lately - a weekend in the Derby Dales was in weather terms, a wash out. Only the stunning scenery saved a disaster!

I've made a new print today to express the more romantic side of the lousy weather! Shot in Parsonage Gardens in Didsbury a couple of weeks ago after a(nother) rainstorm I give you:

Fresh and Green

In relation to my previous sourdough post, my starter's risen about 5mm above the red rubber band marker. It looks like we're in action!

Sourdough - Round Two

It's time for my second round of sourdough. My rather obsessively documented first time was, to some extent, a success, but now I want bubbles, big airy air bubbles.

My starter has been languishing, ignored, in the fridge for about 10 days and it was looking a bit dull with a very thin layer of hooch, that's sourdough jargon for the clearish, yellowish, brownish water which collects on the top of an inactive starter, it's not a bad thing on a refrigerated starter and it can just be stirred back into the starter so long as it's not smelly or moldy.

After consulting many sources about the best way to revive a starter from a fridge this is what I did.

I poured the starter and it's hooch into a clean glass bowl and gave it a good beating with a wire whisk to blend back together and to get extra air throughout.

I added twice the starters' volume of rye flour and twice the volume of warm bottled water and mixed throoughly with a spoon to get rid of any lumps and then whisked again.

Poured into a clean container, lidded and level marked with red rubber band (thank you Mr Postman). It now sits on my shelf at about 22 degrees and I'll watch with interest.

Sorry for the lousy photo, but I used my iPhone....I've angled it down slightly so the top is visable, there are a couple of blips on it which are either residual from the whisking or it's leaping into action already!

The revived starter from the fridge - 9am.

Another Chicken Print

I'm not sure why I'm revisiting my chicken photographs from a couple of years ago, but I am enjoying them. Here's another to go with yesterdays:

Amongst the Churns $35

New Facebook Fan Page

I've been on Facebook as a real person for ages now and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it but after much consideration I've decided to set up a 'Fan Page', which I hope will be a valuable marketing tool for me.

I'd love everyone who reads my blog to click this link http://tr.im/l7ND and become a Fan!

I'll be featuring any Treasuries I'm featured in, any new listings, any news, promotions and general stuff!

Here's what it looks like at the moment!

I Love Roadsigns!

Here's a great Treasury full of lovely roadsigns!

There's your Sign
by Rozzy Toz

Rozzy's got a great shop with some lovely fresh and clean jewellery but what really caught my eyre were these Appetizer Picks. I've never seen such a thing before, we just use wooden toothpicks or fingers!

Black and White Swirl Appetizer Picks - Set of 8 $12

I've made a sweet new print today featuring the sweetest chicken/hen/bantam - almost good enough to eat!

A Gorgeous Hen

Delicious and Easy.

It was miso soup for my lunch today. There's always a jar of thick brown savory Miso paste lurking in the fridge. It can be forgotten about for months on end, but it's quite happy sitting there being ignored. Today was most definitely a Miso day. Peter had gone out and I didn't want any more bread, it was cold and I was hungry. So the Miso called.



Here's what I did:
Put cold water in saucepan.
Add liberal sprinkling of dashi stock.
Add handful of thin soba noodles.
Add sliced garlic and ginger.
Simmer until noodles are almost cooked - they always take longer than I expect.
Meanwhile - chop any veg you fancy, I had a couple of carrots and a few sugar snaps.
Chop some coriander.
Add vegetables to stock.
When veg are as you like them, put a spoon of Miso paste into a cup, bowl or whatever you're going to eat from and add a ladle of the stock.
Mash until mixed and pour back into the saucepan.
Turn off the heat and leave for a minute.
Decant into suitable bowl, find your chopsticks and long Japanese spoon.
Slurp and enjoy!

New print set in store

I've made a new listing for small square prints.

The deal is that you can pick any four images from Eyeshoot or Eyeshoot Squared and I'll custom make four sweet little 5x5inch prints for you. Each print has a slim white border around and I'll sign the bottom right corner. The cost is the same as for a print on A4 paper.

Aren't they sweet?

Sourdough - Day 10 - we have bread!

The final day of Experiment Sourdough has arrived!
So it was with great anticipation that I launched into action this morning.


The dough sat quietly in it's tea towel lined and covered bowl in the fridge overnight.

This looks very domestic goddess!

You are aiming for 440F/230C or even 500F/260C, as hot as most domestic ovens can manage. Heat the oven at least an hour before you want to bake to allow time to stabilise, and for the heat to soak into the tiles or equivalent. I put the oven on at 230C as it's a fan oven so actually 20C hotter than that, and left it for about an hour.
If you have an oven thermometer, check the temperature of the oven. You are strongly advised to do this as oven thermostats are surprisingly inaccurate. My oven was hotter than I'd expected, so I turned it down a bit.
When ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge.

I love the tea towel impression - it's looks so beautifully soft!

Again, don’t worry that it does not seem to have expanded much. Most of the expansion will be in the oven (called oven-spring).
When ready to bake, turn the dough out onto a baking sheet covered with polenta or semolina and remove the cloth. It went on to a bread board coated with couscous as I have neither polenta or semolina in my larder. It worked fine and will do for next time too!

Put a pan in the bottom of the oven and let it heat up - this will have water in it for a blast of steam later.

Slash the top firmly with a very sharp knife. Professional bakers use a razor blade on a stick, called a “lame”. I used a scalpel which worked perfectly.
Slash quickly and decisively – it is a slash not a cut. Don’t mess the dough about.
The slashes allow the dough to rise in a defined way, and lessen the resistance to expansion by making weak points in the crust. In ancient times the pattern of slashes identified whose bread it was in the communal oven.

Slashed with a scalpel, four round the sides and four on the top.

When the bread has gone in to the oven put some already boiling water into the hot pan in the bottom of the oven and then shut the door quickly. Remove the pan after 10 mins.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until it is a good colour. You might need to rotate it after 30 mins.
Let the bread cool to warm before you slice it.
I baked it for 30 mins, turning it round after about 20.

It was much darker than I had expected.

Yummy! The air bubbles are a little tiny for sourdough, but I was very pleased!

Hard to resist the temptation to slice into the loaf too soon, but it needs time to finish cooking and for the structure to firm up as it cools.

The verdict

I was delighted with my first sourdough loaf, I wasn't expecting to look or taste like a Poilane but it had a definite sourdough flavour and a seriously crispy crust with a nice shine and chewiness. It was delicious with my home made marmalade, it was tempting to keep on eating, but we're out for dim sum in a couple of hours, so must resist!

My first satisfied customer!

What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6a
Day 6b
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9

Sourdough - Day 9. It's almost bread!

So after nine days of fun with starters, I'm getting down to the real business of making the dough which I'll be baking tomorrow morning.

This is what I've done today.

(Many thanks to Jack Lang for his wonderful instructions which I've followed to the letter - my annotations are in italics, the other words are his)

Just before leaving for my yoga class I refreshed my starter:

1/4 cup water
3/8 cup rye flour
1/2 cup starter
Mix together, cover, and allow to stand in a warm place for 4 hours.

A good, healthy bubbling active rye starter, ready to be put to work.

Got back from yoga, had breakfast, sorted out my recipe then got on with the dough:

After 4 hours or so, it should be bubbly - it was, more than twice it's original size - it's magic!

Make the Dough - at last....

1 cup refreshed sourdough starter - I just about had this much, so I'm very glad that I retained my excess starter from last night else I would have to start again from scratch next time.
3 cup Strong white bread flour - Doves Farm Organic Strong White Flour
1 cup water - Manchester Tap
2 tsp salt
The easiest way is to whizz together refreshed starter, flour and water (but not the salt yet) in a food processor for 20 secs - I did this with the knife blade, it was super fast!

Flour, water and starter before being ruthlessly whizzed into submission.

After being whizzed into submission.

Should make a softish dough. The wetter the dough the bigger the holes in the final bread. Different flours need different amounts of water – add more water or flour to get the right consistency. I didn't need to add any more.
If you are making the dough by hand then knead for 10 minutes by the clock. Be rough with it. Lose your temper with it. Take out your frustrations on it. Slam it about. When it is properly kneaded it should feel resilient to the touch. It has been described as feeling like an earlobe, but I describe it like feeling a soft breast or buttock.
You should be able to take a pinch of dough and stretch it so thin you can see through it – called the “windowpane test”. When kneaded the dough will stretch without breaking
You cannot over-knead by hand. It is possible (but quite difficult) to over-knead if you are using a mixer or a food processor, as the dough can get too hot, and if worked too long and hard the gluten will begin to break down.

I was going to use my mixer and bread hook, but it just seemed to be moving it around the bowl rather than giving it a good kneading, so I removed my watch and ring and got down and dirty with the dough for ten minutes. It was a bit sticky so I was adding small amounts of flour on and off, it would be lovely for a bit and then suddenly get sticky which was interesting. Anyway, it was very therapeutic!

Proof that I did the hard labour!

Doesn't it look lovely?

Gather it together, and wipe a little oil over the surface to stop it sticking, cover it and leave it in a warm place for 30 mins.
This pause, before the salt is added, is for several reasons:
- It lets the enzymes do their stuff. They begin breaking down starches into sugars to feed the yeast to make a better crust colour. Salt tends to retard this reaction.
- It lets the dough (and you) rest and relax after the exertions of kneading.
- It allows the flour to complete its hydration, High levels of salt can interfere with this.
- It allows time for you to prepare your “banneton” to receive the finished dough.
See Preparing Your Banneton below.
After 30 mins add the salt and whiz for another 20 sec, or knead for another 10 mins. Oil, cover, and leave for 2 hours or so in a warm (85F/29C) place. The exact time is not critical – anything from about 90 minutes to 3 hours will work. Temperature is more critical than time.

I use grainy Maldon sea salt so I measured out the two teaspoons which seemed like masses and gave it a scrunch with my fingers to break it down a bit, then I sprinkled it into the dough as I kneaded. It was softer and more elastic and sort of smoother. I had to put a little flour on my hands a couple of times, but it generally behaved very well.

After the second ten minute workout - now with added salt.

This is the size of the dough before it's nice long rest. And mine.

And this is the size of the dough after about 1 and a quarter hours

The dough will have expanded a bit. Don’t worry about whether it has doubled or not. I think it's almost doubled!

Straight out of the bowl.

Turn out onto a floured board.

After gently folding into a ball.

Now handle gently - don’t knock all the air out. The time for rough handling is over. Take the sides and fold to the centre.

Folding the dough like this (you can also fold top to bottom as well) gently stretches the gluten and the bubbles forming in the bread. Turn the dough over and shape into a ball. As you shape it try and stretch the surface a bit so it is taut.
Put it upside down into a cloth lined bowl. The top of the dough in the bowl will be the bottom of the finished loaf. Don’t worry if the top surface of the dough in the bowl is uneven: it will even itself out. Put into the fridge, covered with a cloth, overnight.

Off to sleep in the fridge. The crease will be on the base of the loaf.

Tune in tomorrow for the final thrilling installment!

What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6a
Day 6b
Day 7
Day 8

Sourdough - Day 8.

I'm planning to bake on Saturday - so long as my starter doubles in size overnight, so I've upped my feeding to every 12 hours. I'm trying another method tonight which is:

To half a cup of starter, add
1/4 cup water
3/8 cup of flour

I've put it all in a lovely clean Kilner jar - I've not sealed the lid though, I don't want any explosions above my desk, but I've covered the top with cling film again to avoid the crusty topping.

Time of feed 21.15

If I'm baking on Saturday as I would like to, I'll be following this schedule:

Tomorrow - Friday
09:00: Refresh starter - just before I go to my yoga class, guess what my mind will be on during my downward dogs and headstands!
- Starter ferments -
13:00: Make dough
13:15: Dough kneaded (by hand)
-Amylisation-
13:45: Add Salt
14:00 Finished dough
- Bulk fermentation-
16:00: Shape
-Retard overnight –

Saturday
Pre-heat oven, and bake for 40 minutes.

Then hopefully I'll have some edible bread!

I plan to follow these instructions by Jack Lang over on EGullet which are very clear and concise. I've practically no experience of bread baking, so I'm trying not to be too optimistic, but I really want this to work!

What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6a
Day 6b
Day 7

Sourdough - Day 7.

After the fabulous bubbling activity last night, it was painful to scoop out a large proportion of the surprisingly solid mixture and chuck it in the bin this morning. I've changed my measuring method to the less fiddly volume way and added one cup of rye flour and one cup of warm water, gave it a good mixing (it's a bit thinner than yesterday's, but still thicker than the earlier days) and marked the level with my red rubberband. It's now living in the kitchen rather than on top of my computer.....

I've covered it with cling film this time as a slight skin had formed over the bubbles which I didn't like.

So this is what the new gloop looked like at 10.00

I need to know how long to carry on like this for before I can actually make some bread! I'm in danger of forgetting what the point of this experiment was to start with....

What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6a
Day 6b

Look at the Bubbles on This or Sourdough - Day 6, part B

I've just come home from seeing Bernard Shaw's Widower's Houses at the Royal Exchange Theater and look what I found!


Considering how dull it looked this afternoon I'm amazed at the transformation just five hours later - I'm delighted and will look forward to reading about what to do with it tomorrow!


What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

Sourdough - Day 6.

I've taken drastic action today (but no photos, sorry).

Yesterday's little experiment bore no fruit at all, no bubbles, nothing.

I consulted Andrew Whitely's Bread Matters again and his solution for an inactive starter is as follows:

Discard all but 130g of starter (which is all I had anyway)
Add 180g flour
130g water

Mix into the old starter.

I emptied out the plastic pot and gave it a clean - no chemicals or detergents and gave the new mixture a bit of a stir. It's very thick indeed, not liquid at all which is very different from the previous consistency. I'm not convinced.

Anyway, it's back on it's shelf and we'll see what happens.


What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

New card designs.

I've been thinking about getting some cards printed properly.

Much as I love my home made cards, I do think that photographic note-cards look better on a lovely glossy card stock. I tried to find some to use at home which was glossy on one side with nice quality bright white smooth finish on the reverse so that people can write easily with any type of pen. I failed in this quest and settled for the super white, super smooth matte paper which I've been very happy with. But I still want the shiny! So I've been thinking about which cards I could use for my first experiment and I think that the florals would be the most universally popular - much as I like the graffiti cards, your average grandmother isn't going to buy those but she'll hopefully go for the pretty. To make the set up to six, I've added two new designs, I already had the begonia image in stock and I shot the freesia one when I got back from the gym this morning. Here are the new layouts - I've printed a test on my normal paper and they look very nice and clean.



Hopefully I'll be able to tag some layouts onto the end of a batch print run and get them done for very little money. I don't need many, just a few sets and then I'll have to pluck up my courage to tout them around the fairly abundant craft/arty farty/gift shops in the area.

Sourdough - Day 5.

I've reached the end of my Andrew Whitely Starter Recipe and mine's not done all it should so I have taken matters into my own hand....

This is what The Master said "...today you should have a sourdough that has bubbled up and subsided and smells fruity" it's certainly not bubbled up and I'm thinking it's to do with the cooler temperature. There are only small bubbles, but it doesn't look bad or smell off and it's certainly not dead so I'm not too disapointed.

I've been reading a lot on line and many people say it takes far longer than five days to have an active starter, so I've gleaned the relevant information from the most interesting posts and this is what I've done today based on that new knowledge.

After seeing the lack of action - but still looking better than yesterday:



I discarded a good dollop of the starter and scraped the remainder into a small bowl, I heated up the 50g of water to 40 degrees as previously and added it with the 25g of rye flour to the small bowl. I then gave it a jolly good whisking to get more air in which I've read is only a 'good thing'. Then I put it back into it's plastic pot and replaced the tight lid with a white muslin loosely tied with string as it seems a much more 'natural' way to cover the starter considering that it's meant to feed from airborne goodies which I'm pretty sure can't get through plastic.
The pot's back on my shelf at 20 degrees until I inspect it tomorrow.



What's happened up to now:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Joy Diversion - a great Manchester Band

I love my new print!

I'm always impressed and amused when I see graffiti like this, it takes so little sometimes to create something very clever.

Joy Diversion - $35

Sourdough - Day 4.

Hmmm, the lovely bubbles from yesterday seem to have vanished to be replaced by what looks like the 'greyish liquid' mentioned in yesterdays instructions. Perhaps I'm running a day behind schedule because of the reduced temperature?

Today's offering looked rather unimpressive, but I duly followed the instructions.


Day 4
25g Wholemeal (dark) rye flour
50g Water at 40 degrees C
225g Starter from previous day

Add the fresh flour and water.

Apparently tomorrow it should have bubbled up and subsided and smell fruity. I'm not convinced, but remain hopeful that the magic will happen!

It's now sitting on the work surface near the oven which currently contains a happily roasting duck so I'm hoping that a bit of duck influenced heat might give it a bit of a boost.


Progress so far
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

A Dead Box and a Pretty Treasury.

This is a really nice all photography Treasury, it's very well put together with complementary colours and a great mix of subjects:

Lens on Life
by South America Traveler

It's Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK today, so no work for anyone which is why I'm hoping that our local John Lewis will be open so that I can return our totally useless Digital Set Top Box by Thompson which finally gave up the will to live last night. After furious Googling I found out that it's a problem across pretty much all of the nasty little machines in the UK with them all showing the flashing lights of doom which signal an instant death. Apparently this untimely demise was caused by a new software download which basically cannibalised the machines and the company in charge are just saying to the customers who can be bothered to battle with their useless help line that the machines are dead and can't be fixed. Great. So I've lost the last four episodes of The Wire, two Damages and sprinkling of Heroes and possibly a Desperate Housewife or two. And that's just the dramas stuff, there's all the beautiful photography documentaries I was saving and the end of David Starkey's Henry VIII. I know it's only television but I love my television, it gives me hours of amusement and pleasure. So, fingers crossed that we'll get a refund and will come home with a brand spanking new digital recorder thingy. Then I'll have to spend the rest of the day getting it to work.

I've got bubbles!

Sourdough Starter Day 3

Feeding was about an hour later than scheduled this afternoon as we were having far too much fun out in Manchester to rush home. But there's no danger or spoiling anything at the rate that things are progressing!

When I opened the lid I was very pleased to see a good amount of bubbles and slightly less thrilled by the somewhat strange aroma rising from my rye starter. I can't even start to describe the smell, but I think it's doing the right thing!

Day three's activity!

Day 3

25g Wholemeal (dark) rye flour
50g Water at 40 degrees C
150g Starter from Day 2
225g Total

Stir in the fresh flour and water into the old starter which may show some signs of frothing. If there is a layer of greyish liquid on top, don't worry, just stir it back in with the fresh ingredients.

Progress so far
Day 1
Day 2

Sourdough - Day 2.

It's 4.30 so it must be time to feed my starter for the first time.

I've been observing the plastic tub of ash coloured nasty sitting atop my iMac with no great affection but with a great amount of speculation. It may be rather early in the game to be daydreaming about presenting delicious home made loaves of sourdough bread to friends when we visit along with a jar of my home made marmalade, but it has proved (seriously, no pun intended) to be a pleasant thought.

Things have warmed up a little on The Shelf this afternoon as the sun has come out and when I removed to lid to add today's feeding there were a few little bubbles, not very much, but a little is better than nothing especially as from my various readings, that's pretty normal especially as it's a bit cooler than the optimum temperature.

Day 2
25g Wholemeal (dark) rye flour
50g Water at 40 degrees C
75g Starter from Day 1

Stir the fresh flour and water into the ash coloured goo, cover and continue to let it do it's thing.

There's enough in the pot now for me to put a rubber band around the top of the starter so I'll be able to see if there's any action by tomorrow's feeding.



Progress so far
Sourdough starter Day 1

A Two Treasury Start to the Day.

I woke up to two lovely and cheery Treasuries this morning:

UK
By Quercus Silver

I've been in one of Quercus' selections before - do pop over to her shop to have a look at here beautiful and unusual pieces like these gorgeous resin and silver earrings:

Green Colourblock Earrings $42

Orange and Turquoise Thankyou
by Illusio

Another UK based Curator, Illusio is Lorrie from West Sussex which is one of my favourite places - my grandparents lived in Hove, Horsham and Worthing so I spent many long school holidays in the beautiful Sussex countryside and in particular loved getting my bike out after lunch and heading to the seafront to eat ice cream from my favourite ice cream van, sometimes I'd take my sketch book, I'd always take whatever book I was reading and stretch out my little outings for as long as possible! We almost moved to a tiny little village called Climping from our North London home when I was 14ish which would have been amazing as there was a fabulous beach literally at the end of the road with a posh hotel for teas and cocktails and the whole of the beautiful Sussex coastline at our fingertips. Unfortunately it didn't happen as the house needed major structural work, so we carried on our lives in London heading to the coast for visits instead.....Anyway enough reminiscing! Lorries shop is very eclectic with illustrations, canvas painting, photography. I rather like this piece:

Tribal $3.50

Thanks to both of you for featuring my art in your Treasuries!

Foxglove and Heart on Front Page!

FEtsy Front Page 5/1/09 jennreese7, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

I missed this Front Page at Etsy in real time but knew that something was up when I saw the eleven hearts on Craftcult. Thanks to the eagle eyed at the Etsy Frontpagers Group on Flickr, here's how it looked!

Mine is in the middle of the second row and you can see it in my shop here.

My first Sourdough starter has started.

sourdough

• noun 1 leaven for making bread, consisting of fermenting dough, originally that left over from a previous baking. 2 bread made using such leaven.

I love to cook, as you may have gathered from my blog, but I'm not a baker, in fact, I'm not really a pudding person at all. I think I've made one traditional Victoria sponge in my whole life. Despite this, I have dabbled with bread making on and off over the years with my most successful phase being the time of my chef training. I had to take my turn in 'pastry' and a really enjoyed the magic of bread, but I was dissatisfied with the inferior ingredients we used and so I took my new found interest home where I made brown, white, olive, cheese, walnut and more, all of which were yummy. I didn't try sourdough, I don't think it even crossed my mind to try and we certainly weren't shown how to do it at college. Fast forward sixteen years or so and I believe my turn has come to give it a go. I have the taste for sourdough which has developed over the years, I have the time as I now work from home and I have the lack of funds which stop me from buying the artisan breads of which I've become so fond.

After consulting many books, blogs and websites I've gone with the starter recipe by Andrew Whitely who was the founder of the fantastic Village Bakery in Melmerby in Cumbria. The Village Bakery was an early haven for 'real' wood fired bread which I discovered when on a wheat free phase and I became addicted to several of his breads, in particular the Borodinsky and the Rossisky Russian Ryes. I visited several time to lunch on home made soups, sausages, breads and cakes and would always come home with a boot full of edible goodies! I was lucky to go behind the scenes at the bakery while recording some radio adverts for Booths Supermarkets which were (and still are) one of his early big stockists and it was a fascinating pleasure to see the big wood fired oven and all of the skill, experience and work which went into every single loaf. So of course I had to buy his book and as I don't (didn't) bake, I very generously gave it away to a friend. So it was to her I turned for a photocopy of the starter recipe which I've started today.

This is what you do.

Day 1

25g Wholemeal (dark) rye flour

50g Water at 40 degrees C

Doves Farm organic rye flour, spring water, pot and scales.

Mix the flour and water into a sloppy paste in a plastic tub. Seal the lid and keep as near to 30 degrees C as possible for 24 hours.

Not really the most attractive food photo I've ever taken!

So far, so simple except for the fact that I've nowhere anywhere in the flat which reached 30 degrees - this is a rainy early summer in the north of England I the heating is switched off for 'summer'. I've been lurking around in what I thought were the few warm spots with my newly purchased thermometer and have found that the warmest spot is actually on the metal shelf above my computer.

An unexpected addition to my work space!

While I obviously hope for some serious activity with my starter, I really don't want it to be so active that I have to cope with a yeasty explosion. That could be really nasty. So here it sits, above my desk where I spend most of my days with the temperature at the moment at 24 degrees which isn't so bad, it will just take a little longer. At least I'll be able to keep an eye on it's progress as this is where I spend most of my time.

I'll leave it alone now until about 4.30 tomorrow when I'll 'feed' my fledgling starter.

Subsequent Posts

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4