Sourdough and starters

famas · 8 Nov 2018 at 18:22

Yeah only 1kg bags. I ordered a few different types of flour as a tester to see what I like.

I'm impressed with the type 55 so far, it made a lovely baguette.

It's much finer than strong bread flour and as such I should have reduced the amount of water in the recipe as it was far to wet at first.
I added a little more flour and it soon came round.

Not heard of Bacheldre, I'll have a look into them too.

I've made a few loafs with a high ratio mix of rye flour and white flour (50:50) but I found the flavour of rye to strong.

I found 20:80 a nice balance.

Am thinking of making a rye starter also and just adding it to 100% white flour to give it the rye flavour. I'm running out of room the in the fridge though!

jpaul · 9 Nov 2018 at 08:06

Problem is that the rye stoneground I have used in a pre-ferment/poolish is so re-active , I think a starter would be DOA despite keeping in the fridge,
also, since the rye maybe less refined, possibility of contamination with other yeasts and death.

shroomz · 26 Apr 2020 at 07:51

I’ve got a starter that lives in the fridge and gets fed once a week. It just gets white flour.

I mostly bake in my casserole with the lid on which gets preheated and then the proofed dough lowered in.

If I have discard I make something off the King Arthur sourdough starter discard page but I tend to feed it the same amount I'm taking out so there's not often discard unless I've not got round to baking something in the week. The cinnamon bread turned out real good yesterday, it's basically a brioche.

Temujin · 3 May 2020 at 12:50

I got into the whole sourdough thing a while back but got very bored, the whole process compared to just baking regularly leavened loaves is such a ballache!
I much prefer the crumb and texture of regular bread, though sourdough crust is a definite winner.

jpaul · 3 May 2020 at 16:03

once you have a good work-flow negligible additional effort with sourdough ... just a bit of fridge space.
.. for some of the folks with IBS, or some level of believed(but undiagnosed) wheat intolerance, that can also be down to 'regular' yeast, use, with poor resulting 'digestion'.
That said, use of quality flour, may have a better impact on flavour than sourdough per se .. succumbed to Lidl's 49p bags this morning ... we'll see.

Temujin · 3 May 2020 at 20:32

Okay.. We'll have to disagree on that one!
I have IBS, but luckily no real issue with regular bread or sourdough. Though a friend who has it can't eat bread unless it's sourdough.

robj20 · 3 May 2020 at 20:35

First loaf didn't work the dough didn't rise.
There was a bit of rise during baking but not much.
Starter is bubbling like crazy.

Harnser · 24 May 2020 at 20:40

How 'wet' was your sourdough starter when you started breeding it? I've used wholemeal spelt flour today as it was the only organic flour I have, and I read that non-organic could inhibit the wild yeasts, but a 50:50 ratio has resulted in a very stiff paste.

jpaul · 25 May 2020 at 11:48

yes it shouldn't be stodgy, my starters usually more like 25:75 ... like golden syrup viscosity.

if the consistency is stodgy any breathing co2(?) bubbles won't pass through and help yeast propagate/reproduce.

Harnser · 25 May 2020 at 13:05

Done 1:2 today for the feed; consistency looks much better and bubbles were released when I added water to the half of the starter I kept. Fingers crossed.

Harnser · 5 Jun 2020 at 19:04

12 days on, and my sourdough starter isn't getting enough "action". It's gently bubbling and increases in size by 20% after feeding, and that's it. When I forgot to feed it for 3 days it doubled in size. None of this is matching the web pages or the sourdough book I bought. Ideas for how to get it to work?

Skidder · 6 Jun 2020 at 09:33

Made some of these this morning with discard. They're really nice. I did them with caraway instead

https://littlespoonfarm.com/sourdough-discard-crackers/

jpaul · 6 Jun 2020 at 10:07

12 days on

this is healthy for me
when I let it out of fridge to use some and feed what remains,
out of fridge in current warmth, you'd expect it to eat all the flour after 2 days, and start to die, separating into an acidic pool on top and stringy/bubbly flour residue beneath, it doesn't ever grow more than 20%
- mine is normally back in the fridge after 12 hours.

never bubbles vigorously ... there are some portraits of mother in earlier posts.

fredwi · 6 Jun 2020 at 11:51

Harnser said:
12 days on, and my sourdough starter isn't getting enough "action". It's gently bubbling and increases in size by 20% after feeding, and that's it. When I forgot to feed it for 3 days it doubled in size. None of this is matching the web pages or the sourdough book I bought. Ideas for how to get it to work?

This happend to me apparently you can over feed them

vcl_X1 · 7 Jun 2020 at 15:51

Harnser said:
12 days on, and my sourdough starter isn't getting enough "action". It's gently bubbling and increases in size by 20% after feeding, and that's it. When I forgot to feed it for 3 days it doubled in size. None of this is matching the web pages or the sourdough book I bought. Ideas for how to get it to work?

How's the starter now? Perhaps I can help you get it active and ready to bake with as I've done for a few mates struggling with theirs during lockdown. I keep mine at 100% hydration, so when I feed it I add the same weight of water and fresh flour and I find that 100% hydration starter makes for easy maths when making your dough too. It's an easy hydration to work with at room temp or refrigerated. I have found the actual flour to have less effect than some claim, so long as it's reasonably fresh but then most flour you can buy in the UK now is going to be pretty fresh given the way shelves were cleared 8 weeks or so ago. Lesser levels of hydration tend to be harder to mix into dough but you can achieve different flavour profiles with dryer starters and if you keep it colder then ascetic fermention becomes favoured over lactic but that's a topic all of it's own.

vcl_X1 · 7 Jun 2020 at 15:58

Skidder said:
Made some of these this morning with discard. They're really nice. I did them with caraway instead

https://littlespoonfarm.com/sourdough-discard-crackers/

Nice, I am always interested in new uses for either discard or excess starter.

I often add some semolina and make these Lebanese pancakes that are very crumpet like, I remove the yeast and adjust the flour and milk to account for that coming from the starter, if you like the idea I can make some in the week and figure out what I've done with the recipe ... https://www.chefrachida.com/moroccan-baghrir-spongy-semolina-pancake/

Skidder · 7 Jun 2020 at 19:36

vcl_X1 said:
Nice, I am always interested in new uses for either discard or excess starter.

I often add some semolina and make these Lebanese pancakes that are very crumpet like, I remove the yeast and adjust the flour and milk to account for that coming from the starter, if you like the idea I can make some in the week and figure out what I've done with the recipe ... https://www.chefrachida.com/moroccan-baghrir-spongy-semolina-pancake/

Ooh, they sound nice, thanks.

I did crumpets last weekend. They were a little dense so need to work on them.

vcl_X1 · 7 Jun 2020 at 19:40

Skidder said:
Ooh, they sound nice, thanks.

I did crumpets last weekend. They were a little dense so need to work on them.

I have found the secret is lower heat than you think, much lower and wait, they'll come good if you'e patient, just like English muffins.

Harnser · 7 Jun 2020 at 20:07

vcl_X1 said:
How's the starter now?

It's no different. This is how it looks: I fed it lunchtime yesterday, it increased by 20% from the green mark on the jar; didn't feed it again today to see what would happen, and this is the state. The top looks bubbly but is a bit crusty, and it's flour and water mix underneath. Smells wonderful though!

Perhaps I can help you get it active and ready to bake with as I've done for a few mates struggling with theirs during lockdown.

I'd appreciate that, thanks.

I keep mine at 100% hydration, so when I feed it I add the same weight of water and fresh flour and I find that 100% hydration starter makes for easy maths when making your dough too. It's an easy hydration to work with at room temp or refrigerated. I have found the actual flour to have less effect than some claim, so long as it's reasonably fresh but then most flour you can buy in the UK now is going to be pretty fresh given the way shelves were cleared 8 weeks or so ago. Lesser levels of hydration tend to be harder to mix into dough but you can achieve different flavour profiles with dryer starters and if you keep it colder then ascetic fermention becomes favoured over lactic but that's a topic all of it's own.

100% hydration is the approach I've taken. I'm feeding it with filtered water and Lidl plain white flour; keeping it at room temperature in a cool spot out f the sun, though have experimented with putting it in the sunshine to see if that "makes it bubble more".

vcl_X1 · 7 Jun 2020 at 20:18

Ok, it doesn't look too bad. Take 20 gr and pop it in a new clean jar or say 500ml pyrex jug. add 20 gr water (filtered is good) and 20 gr flour, mix well and pop it somewhere with as even a temp as possible, close to 24 c and leave it for 2 days, do nothing, watch it, that's all. let's talk again on Tuesday with pics too. either cover it with a cloth or loose lid, don't seal it.

It does sound as if you're feeding it too much/often, more of a maintaining type regime rather than establishing it and preparing it for use regime, we'll have it ready to bake with by next weekend.

This is how mine tend to turn out

and this

I often keep my starter on the office laptop's dock for bottom heat at about 24-26c, this one was fed about 4 1/2 hours earlier and was almost ready to go,