Making Sourdough Bread in a Breadmaker

I have always loved the tangy taste of sourdough bread, and the fact there's one fewer item to buy and one fewer plastic bottle on the planet when you eliminate the need for yeast tempted me to investigate how to make it myself. 

Every recipe I came across suggested you needed to let it rise twice and then bake it an oven.  Perhaps it was my inclination for laziness, or maybe it was a desire to reduce the power bill, but using the bread maker seemed far easier to me.

The only catch was, I couldn't find any recipe for how to make sourdough bread in a breadmaker.  Of course I discovered that it really is...simple.

So, you need to start with...the starter.  A very good place to start.
I followed the following:
Mix 1 cup warm water with 1 cup of flour in a bowl (avoid metal or plastic, including the utensils).  Leave in a warm place.
Feed every 24 hours by discarding half of the mixture and adding .5 cup flour and .5 cup warm water.

Repeat this process until it is bubbly, frothy and sour.

Other recipes I have read instruct to keep this starter in the fridge and bring out when needed.  I don't have a fridge (hmmm...that's sounding like another blog topic,eh!), and I find it is fine kept in a bowl covered with a tea towel in a cool place. 

When you want to make your bread, take out the starter and add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water.  Leave a while for it to bubble a bit (15 - 30 minutes, longer if you have time.)

Then:  Put 2 cups of the starter mixture (now known as 'the sponge') and 3 cups of flour into your breadmaker tin.  Stir it to integrate the wet and dry ingredients.  (This really helps everything mix).  If it looks a little dry, add some warm water.  I don't bother using salt or sugar as instructed in most recipes - it works fine without them.  Play around with different kinds of flour and grains.  I tend to just use standard wholemeal.

Find a baking mode on your breadmaker which has two 'rise' cycles.  ( I think this is a key!) Mine takes about 4 hours to bake, and produces a fine, delicious loaf.