IN THE countdown to celebrate their sourdough turning 60 the Fabulous Baker Brothers of Nailsworth’s Hobbs House have launched a competition called #kingofthesourdough.

But it’s not a loaf of sourdough they’ve kept for 60 years – it is the living, breathing bubbling starter, or yeast culture which is turning the ripe old age of 60 in June.

The brothers of the Channel 4 programme are fifth generation bakers stemming back to the 1920s. They’ve been keeping their culture alive by feeding it flour and water.

In the countdown to their birthday they have launched a competition to see who can make the best sourdough.

A spokesman said: “The competition is to see who will be hailed as this year’s king or queen of the sourdough.

“It’s a community forum online for sourdough bakers to share their loaves, methods and ask questions.”

To find out more about how to make a winning loaf of sourdough SNJ reporter Megan Titley went along to one of Tom Herbert’s bread baking courses in Chipping Sodbury to learn some of the Baker Brothers’ sourdough secrets.

Having never made a loaf of bread in my life I figured the best thing to do was to head straight to an expert and since Tom has almost 100 years of bread baking in his genes he was the obvious choice.

Fuelled with a delicious breakfast of coffee and croissants from Hobbs House I wanted to know how I could compete for the title of Queen of the sourdough.

It seems keeping the yeast alive is pretty key.

In the room which used to be his family sitting room Tom encouraged 11 sourdough royalty hopefuls to keep their culture alive.

He said: “Put it in the fridge so the little yeasties don’t die.

“If they’re left out they’ll eat all the sugar and die.

“You’ll know they’re dead because they smell like a dead dog, they’re properly pongy.

“Think about who you’re going to give the starter to in your will.”

So how does a new sourdough baker keep the culture alive? Feed it with flour and water. But how much and when? Also, how is it made in the first place?

Thankfully Tom has made a film explaining everything so there’s no need to worry about forgetting the subtleties of the diet of the yeast starter.

Once the sourdough starter is ready to go, flour, salt and water is all that’s needed to make a loaf but how you knead it and the temperature of the water will make a difference to how fast the dough rises.

Throwing each of us bit of dough Tom put on some music and all of us keen bakers got kneading and chatting.

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We left our sourdough to rise for the rest of the day as Tom took us though how to make soda bread, baps, pizzas, pitta bread, cheese sticks and focaccia. Before we knew it, the day was almost finishing and it was time to get our sourdough in the oven.

We all left Hobbs House proudly bearing our loaves of sourdough and Kilner jar of culture not to mention our bags stashed with all the other breads we had learnt how to make during the day.

Since the course I have been enjoying my sourdough breakfasts and have been feeling very concerned about the livelihood of my culture.

As long as I make another loaf within a month and feed my culture it’ll be fine, and as Tom says: “The best smell in the world is baking bread.”

To rise to the #kingofthesourdough competition, go to the website at https://hobbshousebakery.co.uk/sourdough-nation/