Emma's Sourdough banana bread

Sourdough Starter

I have been experimenting with getting myself a sourdough starter mixture happening.  It has been going for about a week now.  I started with just 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of filtered water.  These I mixed together and left to sit on my bench.  Everyday, just like a pet, it requires feeding.  So each day I add another 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water.  I mix and cover with cling wrap and leave it to sit on my bench.

So far it's going great, it's smelling pleasant and has a small amount of 'bubbly' type activity.  I am not getting any amazing doubling in size results like some people report, though our weather has been a little cooler of late.

Many sourdough starter recipes call for you, from around day 3 or 4,  to discard most of the basic starter mix each day before feeding it.  Being one to hate waste, I decided that as my bowl was getting a bit full of starter mix, I had better cook something with it.  Waste not want not.  And I figured that as there was a bit of bubbling happening that there should at least be some raising properties in the mix.

Here's my (made up on the spot) recipe for banana bread:

Emma's Sourdough Banana Bread

 

 

Ingredients

6 Overripe bananas, mashed

1 tablespoon of mixed spice

1 1/2 cups of sourdough starter

2 - 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour

1/4 cup of light olive oil

1-2 teaspoons of bicarb soda

 

Mix together all of the ingredients except the bicarb soda and about 1 cup of the spelt flour.  Cover and leave in a warm spot for a number of hours to prove.

When you are ready to cook it, heat the oven up to hot, about 200 - 220 degrees Celsius. Knead in the bicarb soda and the extra flour.  It will give you a fairly moist dough, much more moist than standard bread.

Place the dough into a greased and lined loaf tin.

 

Bake for approximately 45mins to 1 hour.  The timing depends on your oven and how much moisture is in the mix.  The level of humidity in the air, the wetness of the starter and the relative ripeness of the bananas will all affect the mixture's 'wetness'.  So the amount of flour added and the time and the temperature that the mix is cooked for will all need to be varied, so keep an eye on it.

 

This recipe has no added sugar.  The sweetness is from the ripe bananas.  Given how long it needs to cook, I don't recommend adding sweeteners, or it will be more likely to burn.  For my taste the end product was delicious and plenty sweet enough.  For those (like the kids) who want it sweeter I encourage you to spread the sliced loaf with butter ( or tahini) and honey.  I had mine either plain, with butter or with my homemade soy yoghurt, (which I Greek-afied by draining off the whey overnight to produce a thick creamy yoghurt)

 

You could certainly add walnuts to this recipe if you liked.