my first New Zealand sourdough - say hello to Lucifer

... a thing of beauty... a thing of love... from the moment I began to create the mother starter last week I felt something would go wrong... I didn't know if it was lack of confidence because of the sad demise of Lucretia but something in my bones felt wrong... the process for reactivating the dried starter was something I had never done before... there was a lot more liquid than I was expecting... there wasn't the bitter/sour smell that I would normally associate with a classic sourdough... and then I forgot to feed it on its third ever day of its new life... and then I went down to London for 3 days and totally forgot to put it in the fridge...

... so it is a miracle that what I baked today can only be described as the most perfectly perfect sourdough  I ever did make... chewy... holey... just the right balance of sour and doughy... with a darkly crisp crust... heavenly...

I used 100g of the Mother starter made up from the wonderful NZ starter that Lucy sent me... and then essentially used a basic white loaf recipe using 275g of water, 500g flour, 1 tablespoon of honey and 2 teaspoons of salt.  I also used a classic 'no-knead' method which I have found to be so easy to do now... and the only other thing I did that was slightly different was place a roasting tin full of water into the oven prior to baking the bread which created a lot of steam, which I think is responsible for the fabulously aerated rise... anyway, the results speak for themselves... joyous!

if you'd like to purchase you're own NZ Sourdough then check out this site