Thyme and Gruyère sourdough

After making a sourdough loaf I decided to store my starter until I needed it again. Once a sourdough starter is well established it is a good idea to use a method of storing it to save you on flour!

I added enough bread flour to the starter to make a stiff batter. I then covered with clingfilm and left at room temperature for 3 days. When I wanted to make my next loaf I first disposed of half the batter. I then added another 100g flour and enough water to take the remaining half back to the consistency of thick paint. Within a few hours it was bubbling happily again, non the worse for its 3 day storage at room temp.

For my next loaf I added a little flavouring to my loaf, I used the recipe and method described here, with a few tweaks. The flour I used was all wholemeal bread flour, to the batter I added grated Gruyère cheese (not sure how much, maybe 80g?) and a couple of tablespoons of parmesan cheese. I also added fresh thyme leaves.

The cheese added a nice dimension to this sourdough loaf, the thyme did not come through quite as much as I had hoped, I think I need to add more.

As I went away for a week I needed to store my starter more long term. I added enough flour to make a batter consistency and then kept it covered in the fridge for 10 days. I will be baking a loaf this week and will let you know how storing the starter this way turns out.