I first attempted sourdough around a year ago. It took my three attempts to get my starter going. I will admit this was 100% my fault. I wasn’t used to the types of German flours at the time. Instead of “plain flour” and “bread flour” we have “Type 550” and “Type 812”. This was enough to confuse me! I also think the heat we had last year didn’t help the situation.
Anyway, 3 no go starters later I finally managed to keep my starter going for more than a few weeks. This brings us forward to January! Since then I have tried three or four sourdough bread recipes with varying degrees of failure. However, I have been making the most amazing sourdough pizza for quite a while now!
I have tried recipes that require 300g of starter (tasted awful), honey (wasn’t a fan of that either!), along with various other things.
I decided I needed to read up on how sourdough works and try to understand the process a bit more.
After quite a bit of reading, I seem to understand the process a bit better. I have also found a very useful website and a brilliant recipe.
This recipe has given me the best result by far! The only problem I had with it (again… completely my fault!) my new banneton was too big, so when I turned the dough out onto my pizza stone I knocked a lot of the air out.
I am in the process of making it again and have doubled the recipe so that it fits my banneton better this time!
I will let you know how it goes!
Lucya xx
Lucya Bakes 
Your loaf is beautiful! I have a good sourdough starter in the refrigerator that’s about 7 years old now. Even though I mistreat it dreadfully, forgetting to feed it for months at a time, it’s still hanging on and is delicious in bread. I use it more in the winter but always add a little yeast to the dough and have never tried making a starter-only levened dough. Seeing your bread makes me want to try it!
Thank you very much! You have done well to keep it for 7 years! I made mine back in January so it is coming up to 8 months old and I must admit there have been phases where I have forgotten to feed it for quite a long time but it is still going! I have found trying to make a good loaf very frustrating and addictive at the same time! There is so much you need to know to get a good loaf!