Starter In Sourdough Recipe

Our answer

Nigella's Sourdough recipe (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) is unusual in that the starter is made with the addition of a little commercial yeast, rather than waiting for natural yeasts to act. So in this respect it is more of a pre-ferment, like an Italian "biga" or a French "poolish". This gives the bread a slightly sour, tangy flavour and a slightly more chewy crumb, even though the bread is then made with the addition of extra yeast.

For this starter we suspect it could be kept for an extra few days, but would suggest that you transfer it to the fridge and store it there, instead of at room temperature, as this will slow down the fermentation a little. When you make the sponge for the bread, let the sponge stand for the full 18 hours as the starter here will be colder than the starter used in the recipe or remove the starter from the fridge 2-3 hours before you add it to the sponge mixture, so that it comes up to room temperature. However as we have not tried this method ourselves, we are unable to guarantee the results. You don't need to stir the starter unless you are feeding it with extra flour and water, just scoop out as much as you need into a separate bowl and then stir in the other ingredients.