I made a sourdough starter this week, using this recipe.

It started off smelling absolutely disgusting; a bit like cheesy sick. I was really uncertain about this, but I was also feeling very positive about its frothy, bubbly texture. I was optimistic that it would come right in the end, so I read around The Internet and found this great post which went through the stages of a sourdough starter and set my mind at ease about the health and correctness of my sourdough starter.

It was like a magic-trick yesterday when I came home, took the plate off the top of the bowl, cautiously sniffed the promising-looking batter inside, and was greeted by a sweet cloud of yeasty perfume. The new smell is not disgusting at all, but wholesome and good and extremely inspiring for my burgeoning bread-making enterprises.

I have run out of flour so today must buy more to continue feeding and nurturing the starter. In the meantime, the process of throwing out half the mixture and putting in new flour and water (to feed the wild yeasts) has now become far less wasteful because the flour and water that is taken from the batter each time can be used to make sourdough batter crumpets.

Mmmmm, crumpet-batter bubbles in the pan.

Crumpets!

To make the sourdough crumpets you literally take 1 cup of your starter mix and put it in a bowl/jug with salt, sugar, and baking powder, (1/2 – 1 tsp of each, depending on your tastes…) stir it all together and dry-fry in a non-stick pan. I use a couple of sprays of oil spray to moisten the pan, but it’s not necessary to use much oil at all. You want a medium/hot heat and once the top is no longer sticky and wet, you can flip it over as you would flip a pancake. If your crumpet is stubborn like mine have been, slide it onto a plate and then flip it back into the pan that way.