Sourdough – Ancestral Kitchen

1:1 Mentoring: Troubleshoot Your Ancient Grain Sourdough

Alison Kay — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 13:25:41 +0000

Do you want to bake whole grain sourdough with ancient grains that rises well and is delicious?

Are your attempts not going as well as you know they could?

Perhaps your breads aren’t rising much? Or they are heavy and gummy?

Maybe you’re not sure whether you’re under-proofing, over-proofing or if perhaps it’s a problem with your starter…

Wholegrain sourdough baking with ancient grains doesn’t have to be complicated. Let me guide you:

Tailored 1:1 mentoring that will help you overcome issues and succeed with home-made wholegrain ancient grain sourdough.

I’ve been making sourdough with non-wheat grains for over a decade. I’m the author of Sourdough Spelt Everyday, the creator of the video course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics and half of the traditional cooking show Ancestral Kitchen Podcast.

With this one-on-one mentoring, I’ll spent an hour with you in your kitchen: Show me your breads/starter and talk to me about the problems you’re having. Together we’ll troubleshoot, figure out what’s going on and help move you forward!

I will guide you through my process, answer your questions, troubleshoot your issues, pass on my tips and advice (hard won through many failures) and get you baking loaves that you are proud of!

You might be:

A sourdough baker who has tried to move to ancient grains but not been able to make successful bread.

Turning our flat, gummy, or otherwise disheartening loaves.

Unsure what the problem is – are you underproofing, are you overproofing, is it your sourdough starter?

New to baking with wholegrain and sure that you can do better than the loaves you are currently producing.

Wanting to move to home-milled grains and unsure where to start.

What this session will give you:

The opportunity to talk through your issues, problems and concerns with an expert in ancient grain wholegrain sourdough home-baker.

A chance to get me in your kitchen with you; to show me your loaves, your starter and your dough!

Feedback from a baker who’s had lots of failures (and lots of successes!)

Clarity on your sourdough issues – what you’re doing right and where things might be going wrong.

Focus to help you move your sourdough journey onward.

You’ll leave the session with a clear, actionable plan of what you are going to do in order to make better loaves!

In addition, you will have access to articles, graphics, videos and more that’ll support our work together.

After our time together, you’ll have:

More knowledge
Confidence
Focus
Direction
An actionable plan to move you forward
Multiple resources, suggestions, tips – many ways to make your baking better!

I look forward to troubleshooting your ancient grain sourdough baking. Use the button at the top of the page to get going!

A note on us getting together: This mentoring is available Mondays 10.30am-12.30pm, Thursdays 4.00pm-6.00pm and Saturdays 2.00pm-5.30pm (all London time, use a time zone converter to check the equivalent in your time zone). If you cannot do these hours, email me at alison@ancestralkitchen.com before purchasing letting me know your needs, and I will do my best to accommodate you.

1:1 Mentoring: Get Going with Ancient Grain Sourdough

Alison Kay — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 13:47:18 +0000

Want to make ancient grain sourdough a part of your kitchen but struggling to actually make it happen?

Feel overwhelmed by all the sourdough information out there and want a simple, clear way to bring wholegrain ancient grain bread to life in your kitchen?

Struggled with making wholegrain sourdough bread in the past and want an experienced, calm guide to help you step-by-step through the process?

Tailored 1:1 mentoring program that will help you succeed with home-made wholegrain ancient grain sourdough.

I’ve been making sourdough with non-wheat grains for over a decade. I’m the author of Sourdough Spelt Everyday, the creator of the video course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics and half of the traditional cooking show Ancestral Kitchen Podcast.

With this four-session one-on-one mentoring, I’ll come into your kitchen, take you by the hand, and show you how simple, joyful and empowering it is to be make wholegrain sourdough bread from ancient grains. Meet me once a week for a month and let me guide you through the process, answer your questions, troubleshoot your issues, pass on my tips and advice (hard won through many failures) and get you baking loaves that you are proud of!

You might be:

A complete sourdough novice

A sourdough baker who wants to move to ancient grains

Someone who’s tried sourdough baking with alternative grains but struggled to get loaves that work

A want-to-be baker who’s not been able to create and maintain a strong sourdough starter

An occasional alternative-grain baker who wants to up the non-wheat side of their baking

A fan of wholegrain rye, spelt or one of the other ancient grains who wants to bring these to life in their kitchen

Someone who’s previously made white sourdough bread and wants to transition to wholegrain

Having issues digesting wheat (or know people who are) and want to turn to the more-easily-digestible ancient grains

What we aim to cover:

Week 1

Determining your sourdough story – your goals, experience, issues, schedule and restrictions.

Starter 101 – Looking at/sharing your starter situation. Passing on my full starter creation and maintenance plan. Addressing your particular starter questions.

Creating a roadmap for our four-week mentoring and giving you a take-away plan to move you forward in the week ahead.

Week 2

Checking in on your starter – sharing your experiences/issues and working through them.

Sourdough discard uses.

Working on your starter maintenance routine.

Planning your bread-baking and getting you clear on the steps.

Week 3

Checking in on your starter maintenance routine.

Reviewing your first bread – talking through concerns/issues and giving you actionable changes for your next loaf.

Planning your next loaf.

Week 4

Reviewing your second and any further bakes.

Troubleshooting and giving you confidence to continue experimenting.

Determining your next sourdough steps.

Giving you resources to support your continuing sourdough journey.

You’ll leave every session with a clear, actionable plan of what you are going to do that week in order to move your sourdough baking forward.

You’ll get access to articles, graphics, videos and more that’ll support our work together.

Each session will be tailored to you. As you see above, I have a plan of what we could cover but we’ll respond to your own specific needs. They’ll be time for you to bring your questions to each of our meetings and get them answered.

The mentoring will bring you:

Accountability

Mentorship

The ability to pick my brains in a one-on-one situation

The opportunity to get your questions answered

Focus

An actionable plan to move you forward

Feedback from an experience wholegrain sourdough baker

Multiple resources, suggestions, tips – ways to make your baking better!

I used to be a life coach! Here, I’ll mix that coaching expertise with my decade-plus experience of baking wholegrain sourdough with ancient grains to help you bring these loaves to life in your kitchen. Use the button at the top of the page to get going!

A note on us getting together: This mentoring is available Mondays 10.30am-12.30pm, Thursdays 4.00pm-6.00pm and Saturdays 2.00pm-5.30pm (all London time, use a time zone converter to check the equivalent in your time zone). If you cannot do these hours, email me at alison@ancestralkitchen.com before purchasing letting me know your needs, and I will do my best to accommodate you.

10 Tips for Creating & Maintaining a Sourdough Starter

Alison Kay — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 08:24:45 +0000

Struggling with creating or maintaining a sourdough starter?

Take this free short course to get my 10 top tips!

What’s the best flour for my starter?

How do I keep it warm?

How often do I need to feed it?

My starter looks like it’s died what should I do?

So many sourdough lovers struggle with their starters, and that’s understandable: starters can often be the most troublesome part of sourdough baking and is one of the things I receive the most questions about! This short, free course gives 10 tips to help you succeed with creating and maintaining a sourdough starter! The clear, entertaining, and information-packed videos are full of helpful guidance. They are for you if you’ve never made a starter, if you’ve tried before and failed, or if you’ve already got a sourdough starter but want to make your process simpler and easier.

Make & Maintain a Rye Sourdough Starter

Alison Kay — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 12:34:19 +0000

Do you want to make sourdough but feel overwhelmed by the starter process? Maybe you’ve tried before and it didn’t work or maybe you’ve never quite got to it?

Join me for an hour-long pre-recorded Zoom session that’ll walk you through how to create and look after a rye sourdough starter from scratch.

What you’ll learn:

Why wholegrain rye is such a great flour for sourdough starters
What ingredients and equipment you’ll need
Step-by-step how to, from scratch, create your starter
Routines that will help you succeed
How to troubleshoot issues
How to look after your starter, however often you bake

This course is a recording of a Zoom session held live in February 2022.