Grape Sourdough Starter

Have no yeast but have access to grapes? You can make a sourdough starter!

Wendyl Nissen has shared this clever recipe from her fantastic new book ‘A Natural Year’ (orders will be sent out as soon as we receive delivery, after lockdown).

Finding yeast is rather tricky at the moment so it may be easier to find a couple of bunches of grapes to make a starter. You will need five days to create enough usable bacteria, but after that you can keep your starter for future bread making.

Grape Sourdough Starter

2 cups grapes

Large piece of cotton cloth

2 cups good-quality flour, plus 1/2 cup x 3

2 cups water, plus 1/2 cup x 3

What to do:

First wash your grapes, then place in a bit of clean cotton cloth and tie on the top.

Put this in a bowl and mash it with the end of a rolling pin until all of the grapes are pulped.

In another big bowl mix together the first lot of flour and water until you have a paste, then gently place the bag of grapes in a bowl and cover it with the flour mixture.

Put in a warm place like on top of your fridge or a hot-water cupboard and cover with a tea towel or a beeswax wrap.

Leave for two days. On the first day you should see some bubbles and then some more on the second day.

On the second day take out the grapes and biff them in your compost. Pour the bubbly flour mixture into a large bowl and feed it half a cup of flour and half a cup of water.

Leave for a day, when it should grow and bubble.

On the third day feed it again.

On the fourth day feed it again.

On the fifth day use it in your bread.

Tip: Use the best flour you have. Organic wholewheat is perfect, but it works just as well with the supermarket stuff.

How to look after your starter:

Once you have some starter you need to feed it every day to get it going. I drain my starter to make my bread and leave about 2 tablespoons in the bottom of a small bowl. I use my small Crown Lynn beehive bowl. The wide top seems to allow more bacteria to get in than closing it up in a jar.

To that I add 1/4 cup of flour and enough water to make it thick. You don’t want a runny starter, it should be more like a sticky dough. Cover it with cloth to allow the air to circulate and set aside in a warm part of the kitchen.

If I’m going to put some bread on that night I will give it an extra feed at about 2 pm to get it really pumping in time for me to make the dough about dinner time.

Enjoy. Wendyl Nissen.

**To purchase Wendyl’s new book freight free click here. Orders will be sent out as soon as we receive delivery (after lockdown)**