You've painstakingly fed your sourdough starter to create... well, a monster. It's a healthy, happy monster, but a monster nonetheless. You've given globs of it away to grateful friends and you've baked so many loaves of you're starting to turn into a carbohydrate, yet still, this beautiful beast keeps growing. How can you get it under control?
For starters, keep your baby beastie in the fridge. That way, you only need to feed it once a week so it will grow much, much slower than if you kept it at room temperature with the necessary daily feedings.
Secondly, you can discard part of your starter before feeding. You can also experiment with feeding it less each time.
Next, you'll want to expand your baking list beyond bread so you can really take advantage of all the gut-friendly, fibre-rich, vitamin-packed sourdough benefits. This is the ironic bit, as each of these recipes will soon have you lamenting the fact that there's never enough sourdough starter to bake all of the things you crave.
Poaching the sourdough pretzels in a salt and bicarb solution gives an impressively shiny, dark golden crust. Source: Alan Benson
Make the dough the night before and rise early to finish them off. It will totally be worth it. Source: Alan Benson
Don't miss the sprinkle of rapadura sugar to give these sourdoughnuts a rich caramel crunch. Source: Alan Benson
A sourdough gives these little buns a lovely subtle sourness. Source: Alan Benson
You know you're onto a good thing when a batch of spring onion pancakes takes under 20 minutes to whip up. Source: Alan Benson
Or you could cheat even more with this zippy recipe
Two-ingredient shortcut spring onion pancakes
Add some homemade tartare and your tastebuds will be partying hard. Source: Alan Benson
Turn this cake into a luxe dessert by serving with a generous dollop of clotted cream. Source: Alan Benson
The sourdough starter adds a touch of sourness that works beautifully with the sweetness of the carrots. Source: Alan Benson
This moist sourdough cake is so simple to make, but delightfully complex in flavour. Source: Alan Benson
Keep it next to your sourdough starter... we've got a feeling you won't be storing your darling monster in the fridge after all.
Anneka's mission is to connect home cooks with the magic of baking, and through this, with those they love. For hands-on baking classes and baking tips, visit her at . Don't miss what's coming out of her oven via , , and .
Sourdough forever
Feels like home: Lino Sauro makes simple fried sourdough flatbread
