Mastering Sourdough Starters & Leavens

From mystery to mastery. How to handle sourdough cultures like a pro.

What you'll learn
How to make organic sourdough starters.
How to feed your starter and keep it in top condition.
How to use your starter to make a leaven.
How much starter to use in different leavens.
Use the leaven to bake sourdough breads.
How to use young, mature and old leaven to create different textures and flavour profiles.
Requirements
No. Full instructions on preparing a starter are given. All you need is organic flour and water.
Description
Are you suffering from bubble trouble?  Help is at hand!Have you ever made a starter of your own?Are you a bit scared of what’s going on in that pot?Frustrated by its inconsistent / unpredictable behaviour?Do you know what a healthy starter looks like?Do you know how much starter to seed your leaven with?Can you judge peak fitness for a leaven?Do you know how young, mature and old starters affect different leavens?Can you handle the time and temperature ‘levers’?Do hordes of bacteria and wild yeast freak you out?Do you know how to choose the best flour for feeding your happy colonies?This course answers all those questions.It is a highly-focused, practical guide to the do’s, don’ts and desirables of making, managing and baking with sourdough cultures.In Part One, we start at the heart of what sourdough is and why it is important, for personal and environmental health as well as cultural concerns. We explain the principles of “leavenology”, or fermentation.Part Two covers how to build different starters from scratch, plus how to feed and maintain them.Part Three shows you how to use a starter to seed a leaven, and how to control the character of the leaven through the ratio of starter to leaven, the ambient temperature and the length of fermentation. The Great Leaven Race shows exactly what a difference time makes!And in Part Four we give you our masterclasses, using formulas that demonstrate the range of effects you can achieve by varying the maturity, quantity, nature and vigour of your leaven.· White sourdough with mature leaven· 100% rye sourdough· Brown sourdough· Sourdough lavash· Sourdough pancakesHow we teach:Our approach is always friendly, practical and hands-on and, wherever possible, more showing than telling. This is not the place to overwhelm you with the (considerable) science, but to give you the benefit of all the know-how we’ve acquired after 12 years teaching and decades more of baking. We spare you the fails, and share the secrets of all our successes. We also provide useful practice exercises and quizzes to test your knowledge.At The Artisan Bakery School, we believe that baking your own sourdough bread is fundamental to improving your personal health and happiness. Making great starters and leavens is the base of all that.This courses empowers you to:understand your starterleverage your leavenbake with true confidencetroubleshoot problemsmeasure your progress from average to amazingWhat people say about this course*****I've been experimenting with sourdough for about 6 months, after a brief introduction on a yeast baking course. Great taste but random textures, and even after collecting half a dozen books I've been confused about looking after and using my starter. There is no substitute for actually seeing someone doing it and video is actually better than a live demonstration as it brings together all the parts that would be hours apart in real life. I've had immediate success with making a hugely active starter and there are a couple of simple but transformative tips - like the rubber band! I now understand how to maintain and use my starter, and will explore the great information (which isn't in any of my books) about adjusting different factors to achieve different results. This course has shown me how to correct a lot that I've been doing sub optimally or plain wrong. Very good value, thank you!Jennifer ZarekI live in Outback Australia and recently downloaded your sour dough courses.I was so excited to wake up this morning and see that my starter had exploded out of the jar!I've already baked sourdough pancakes, crumpets and have my first loaves in the fridge waiting to be baked tomorrow.I just wanted to say Thankyou to you both for the courses. You are a pleasure to watch and your lectures are very easy to follow.I've already recommended your courses to family and friends.Thanks again and wishing you both much happiness and health…Lil from Oz xxI have four of your courses. They are great. You and Penny are my favorite Udemy instructors. It doesn't get much better than the presentation skills and clear instructions from you both.You've revolutionized my sourdough bread making! Thanks to this email exchange I finally produced a nice soft bread from 100% freshly milled flour. Lance PawlikowskiHere are a few of our favourite 5 star testimonials from our other courses:This is a fantastic course. The photography, detail, and explanations are superb. All the important information comes together that will help anyone become a better bread baker. Many thanks to Dragan and Penny for sharing their knowledge to provide such outstanding instruction. I really loved the Masterclasses section and the video showing how to read finished bread and dough. Lance PawlikowskiI gave five stars because the genuine enthusiasm of Penny and Dragan is so infectious, and all the various aspects are explained and demonstrated in such an easy to follow manner. I felt drawn in and couldn't wait to get a starter going. I'm looking forward to the time when I have rocked & rolled & chafed and, hopefully, ended up with a lovely smooth ball of dough - like the one that Dragan cradled in his hands so affectionately. Looks a little like play dough for grown-ups. George.E. MorleyPenny and Dragan removed the mystique surrounding sourdough and made it very "do-able." Really love the FAB recipe! Bobby Ollar…The bonus too is they show the stages of dough development clearly and this was something I struggled to understand before this course. They keep it simple as bread baking should be. I'm really looking forward to more courses. Julia BileckiDragan and Penny! Thank you for putting together such an awesome course. Incredible support, you know what you are talking about. Very insightful course. I really learned a lot, all of the additional advice/tips very helpful and useful. All the best for you. Marcelo AriattiWhy not check out the promo video and the free lectures for yourself?Remember, if all you need are recipes, there are plenty out there to choose from.If you want to make a real advance in your baking, from mystery to sourdough mastery, the best place to start is right here!

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 What's in a name?

Lecture 3 Note on pre-ferments

Lecture 4 Why sourdough is so important

Section 2: Leavenology

Lecture 5 Fermentation

Lecture 6 Wild yeasts and friendly bacteria

Section 3: Building a starter from scratch.

Lecture 7 How to start your starter

Lecture 8 Starter building recipe & instructions

Lecture 9 Maintaining your starter

Lecture 10 Your starter maintenance routine

Lecture 11 Finer points on feeding / maintaining your fridge starter

Lecture 12 Healthy v. unhealthy starters

Lecture 13 Transforming starters with different flours

Lecture 14 Troubleshooting starters

Section 4: Making leaven.

Lecture 15 Making leaven.

Lecture 16 Four leaven levers.

Lecture 17 How much starter do I use to make a leaven?

Lecture 18 Four leaven formulas

Lecture 19 The Great Leaven Race

Lecture 20 What leaven does to dough

Section 5: Bread-making techniques & insights

Lecture 21 Rock & Rolling - the New Kneading!

Lecture 22 Modes of the dough

Lecture 23 1st stage of the dough

Lecture 24 2nd stage of the dough

Lecture 25 3rd Stage of the Dough

Lecture 26 4th stage of the dough

Lecture 27 Baking with a Dutch Oven

Section 6: The Masterclasses - Using Your Leaven For Making Bread

Lecture 28 Making leaven for white boule

Lecture 29 White sourdough boule

Lecture 30 100% sourdough rye with fennel & walnuts

Lecture 31 Brown sourdough

Lecture 32 Sourdough lavash crackers

Lecture 33 Sourdough pancakes

Section 7: Hubble, bubble, so long, trouble!

Lecture 34 So long, bubble trouble!

Lecture 35 Diagnostics & solutions

Sourdough enthusiasts. Curious bakers!