Others have trod this route successfully and posted about it here.
I started by mixing 100g of supermarket white bread flour with 100g of cold water in a bowl, covering it with a plate and leaving it on the worktop in the kitchen.
After 24hrs I threw 100g of this away and mixed in another 50g of flour and the same of water.
On the third day it smelt like sick - Doh! I threw it away and started again with the same process - each day throwing away half and replenishing it with more flour and water.
A week later I mixed 100g of my starter with a further 125g each of water and flour and left this to ferment in the warm kitchen (it was a hot day) for a couple of hours.
The salt, and the rest of the flour and water, to make up my recipe were added (taking into account the 175g of flour and 175g of water already in the mix).
For this experiment I just stuck to the metric equivalent of a 1lb flour/1/2 pint water recipe so made the flour up to 300g and water to 190g - I was testing the taste not the quality of loaf - that can come later.
The mix was kneaded well, risen, shaped and proved.
When baked the finished loaf wouldn't have won any awards in the bread-making class, but that wasn't the aim.
The 64 million dollar question; did it taste 'normal'? Yes it did - I was amazed - it wasn't just a "yep, that's OK dad" from Pauline, my mum, and the kids - they really liked it!
And my opinion? Well, it would certainly be a lot better made into a more open textured rustic (country) style loaf, but I was dead chuffed with myself for achieving what I set out to do. Have I continued feeding my remaining starter? Nah! Can't be bothered!
Phil
about it.