Did you make elderflower champagne? Don’t throw away the residue at the bottom of the bottle – that’s a lovely natural yeast that you can use to make a sourdough starter.

Elderflower Sourdough Recipe

INGREDIENTS

For the sourdough starter:

150 gr elderflower champagne
150 plain flour
Plus:
200 gr water
200 gr flour

METHOD

Mix the elderflower champagne residue with the flour and mix well. Keep the mixture in a bowl, covered loosely with a kitchen towel, for a day or two days until it has formed bubbles.

Add another 50 gr of water and 50 gr of flour and mix well. Leave covered for another day.

Repeat the whole process for a total of 5 days.

To make the bread:

100 gr sourdough starter
200 gr water
300 gr flour
1 gr salt

METHOD

Mix everything very vigorously in a bowl with a spatula or tip over a floured surface and work with your hands. The dough requires a lot of kneading and will stick to your hands.

Place the dough in a bowl to prove for 2 hours covered with cling film.

Work the dough again for several minutes aiming to stretch it and mix it as much as possible to improve its elasticity. You may want to wet your hands to make this job easier. You can either work the dough on a floured surface or inside the bowl. Rest, covered, for another two hours and shape into a loaf, place in a bowl that has been lightly oiled or dusted with flour and let it rise for 12-24 hours.

Put a baking tray in the oven and turn up the heat to the max (220-240 degrees Celsius). When the tray is very hot, take it out the oven and tip the sourdough loaf onto it gently. Put the hot tray with the loaf in the oven and add steam by spraying some water inside the oven or placing a ramekin filled with water on the tray or at the bottom of the oven. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden.

See also: elderflower recipes.

Which elderflower recipe would you like to try?