My First Sourdough

For tea last night I made a squash soup with a sour dough loaf to have with it, followed by chocolate brownies.

I followed the "no kneed recipe" on Ngo family farm blog, although I made my loaf free form on my bread stone instead of in a pot.

Starting the starter, left by the fire.

 Starting the starer was quite interesting and to begin with I thought I was never going to cook with it as it smelt like sick! Every time I walked into the room I'd get the waft of sick and think that the starter needs to go in the bin. I stuck with it though and kept it running a few weeks before I used it, now it smells yeasty and slight alcoholic, not unpleasant at all. to start it I used the recipe from the River Cottage bread book (a link to what is written is here).

My starter bubbling away

Not a great photo but it shows that it did rise quite well.

This is my first ever sour dough and it was really good, I loved the yoghurty like after taste. We ate the whole loaf while it was still warm, covered in butter and dipped into our soup - it was a good dinner to have.I think I did knock some air out of it when I put it on the bread stone but it still had good sized air bubbles in it. I plan on making a peel for it when I get time so I can slip the bread on the stone without loosing so much air.
It was a great tea and I should say that even with a large tray of chocolate brownies and enough soup left over to feed a football team, the total cost wouldn't be much more than £2, anyone that says food is expensive needs to try cooking from scratch!