GOT YOUR HANDS ON SOME MMB STARTER?
Scroll down if you're looking for pizza dough guidance...
Here's what to do next if you're not quite sure how best to keep your starter happy and healthy.
WHEN YOU GET HOME
First thing you want to do is refresh your starter. Not only will this keep it healthy, it will also mean you can introduce some new bacteria and organisms from your home environment to really make it your own.
Take a large spoonful of the starter and put it in a new, clean pot or tub.
Add 100g tepid water. From the tap is fine, no need for it to be filtered, and mix to create a milky solution.
Now add 100g white flour. The best you can get your hands on. Mix until you get a smooth, paste and there are no lumps of flour.
Now leave it on the side to do it's magic. After an hour or so you should start to see some activity. Within 4 hours or so, and depending on the temperature of your water and the room temperate, it should be growing in size.
If you're not planning on using it straight away pop it into your fridge until you want to make some bread. Make sure you keep repeating the above process every few days to keep it 'alive' until you are ready to use it to bake.
The old MMB starter can either be discarded, refreshed again for a 'back up' or look online for recipes for delicious recipes that use old starter. It can add a lovely flavour to your baking.
WHEN YOU ARE READY TO BAKE
Remove your starter from the fridge. If it's been a few days since it was last refreshed, then refresh it again following the above guidance.
Once it has doubled in size and is lovely and bubbly it is ready to build up into a levain (your yeast equivalent) to bake with. Different recipes use different strengths of levain, but a simple levain recipe would be made up of 10% starter (10% of the total amount of levain required in the recipe) and 50% tepid water, 50% flour. i.e. if your recipe calls for 300g of levain I'd suggest you use 30g of starter, 150g of tepid water and 150g flour. This will also leave you a little bit left over to refresh and pop back in the fridge ready for the next time.
As with refreshing, mix the starter with the water first, then mix in the flour, leave on the side until it has doubled in size and is nice and bubbly (this can be overnight, using cold water to slow it down and maybe just 5% starter) and you are then ready to make your sourdough!
GOOD LUCK. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
GOT YOUR HANDS ON SOME MMB PIZZA DOUGH?
Everyone makes their pizzas differently but here's a starting point if you need some pointers.
If you want to use your dough on the day you bought it from MMB, take it out of the tub, dust it in some flour and leave it out on the side, covered loosely with a tea towel, to get up to room temperature for around 1 hour. This will make it a lot easier to shape.
If you're not using it immediately then pop it straight into your fridge.
If you'd like to freeze it then make sure the tub is well sealed before doing so. Remove it from your freezer and into your fridge 24 hours before you want to bring it up to room temperature and shape it.
When you are ready to shape your pizza dough, and your pizza oven or pizza stone is scorching hot, it's time to start shaping. You can aim for either one large pizza (approx. 14") or two smaller ones (around 7" each). Use your hands to stretch it into a rough circle. The thinner the better. Use plenty of flour or semolina as you go to stop it sticking.
For ease I recommend you shape your pizza straight onto a peel or thin tray so it's easier to then transfer to your oven.
Top your shaped dough with your preferred toppings and then slide it into your oven.
Baking times will depend largely on your oven but turn it every couple of minutes and keep an eye on it. You'll know when it's done to your liking!
Enjoy (and please don't forget to recycle, or even better reuse, the tub - you could even bring it back to MMB for us to refill with more dough for you)!