A couple of years ago, I baked a sourdough loaf at least twice a month, then through not so benign neglect, I killed my starter. I continued to make bread, but not sourdough.

Spring and BST has brought with it a leap in my ability to think and a couple of weeks I found myself contemplating sourdough again. It was time to start a starter…

Previously, I used the recipe on the back of the Allison White Bread Flour packet, since then, I made one for a friend using Dan Lepard’s intstructions from The Handmade Loaf and like most of his recipes and instructions, it has never let me down.

So I embarked on making the starter and I thought I’d document the process here, I didn’t use organic flour and I didn’t use rye flour because I don’t generally use either so I just used strong white and wholemeal flour. Later I discovered that that was a mistake, yeast isn’t all that keen on wholemeal but never mind. It worked and I have a starter again.

So I made some bread, this one that has yeast and is quicker than a proper loaf of sourdough and is perfect for bacon sandwiches. It’s also the first time, that I’ve slashed the top of a loaf before putting it in the oven and got the desired effect!