April 4, 2010 - 12:02pm
Spreading the starter....
I am very happy because I gave some of my starter (Mr. Dan) to a good friend of mine, and she is now all excited to start making sourdough breads - how cool is that?
anyway, for years she's been making a no knead whole wheat bread every weekend. Now she would like to make a similar kind of bread, using sourdough instead of commercial yeast. Of course, she asked me to help her adapt the recipe, but I want to make absolutely sure she gets the best possible loaf of bread out of this experience.
which recipe do you recommend for a first attempt at whole wheat bread using a sourdough starter?
Share
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/100percentwholewheat.html
Wish me luck!
There you are! You found your way here!
Let me welcome you to this forum, and of course, good luck with this recipe, let me know how it works for you....
If anyone sees a flaw, I would sure appreciate a comment. This is my first sourdough effort.
(Credit to SallyBR and http://www.sourdoughhome.com/100percentwholewheat.html)
Day 1 evening - refresh the starter Sally gave me (it has been in the refrigerator):
Vigorously stir 1-2 tsp starter in 80g water then add 100g flour, mix well, leave on counter 12 hours
Day 2 morning, start converting 15g starter to WW and refrigerate the rest
Feeding
Starter
WW Flour
Water
day 2 morning
15 grams
8 grams
8 grams
day2 evening
All from previous step
15 grams
15 grams
day 3 morning
All from previous step
30 grams
30 grams
day 3 evening
All from previous
60 grams
60 grams
Day 4 morning - start baking
the starter. The Given starter is vigorous eating 5 times the starter amount. Using the above table it gets only 0.5 times the flour. Way too little. I fear it would starve before getting turned around to WW. I don't know what the original starter flour is, but I take it, it's not WW. So I upped the amounts of starter to food (flour.) It should always be more than the starter weight with a vigorous starter.
Mini
Feeding
Starter
WW Flour
Water
day 2 morning
15 grams
20g flour/ 10g WW
30 grams
day2 evening
15 grams from previous step
15g flour/ 15gWW
30 grams
day 3 morning
15 grams from previous step
10g flour/ 20g WW
30 grams
day 3 evening
1 Tbs starter (double if need more starter raising the ww to 200g and water as needed.)
100 grams WW
80 grams
While I have some grasp of general bread-making concepts, sourdough is all new to me. Can you help me understand the reason for the gradual WW introduction. Do different microbes ferment AP vs. WW flour? The given starter is a portion of one that is about 3 years old and is kept refrigerated. It has been kept alive with biweekly refreshing/feeding with 1-2 tsp starter in of 80g water and 100g AP. I have a large enough portion that if screw up the first attempt I can try again.
I introduced it gradually because I couldn't remember what Sally's starter is. So for safety sake, I wrote it that way. Hang onto it if you want to change to a different grain. Yes it has to do with microbes and what they like to eat.
But now I see you are dealing with wheat flour and ww has more beasties than ap. You could just substitute right away. Do the same like the refrigerator starter. ... one rounded teaspoon starter to (did you want 100% hydration? then...) 100g water to 100g WW flour to sit overnight. If you need more starter then more base starter and then more water and flour proportionally. It is really easy.
What you want to do is to save some of this new WW starter for another feeding (like you did with the other starter) and then refrigerate before it starts to peak. Then you have it, and the white one. You can take spoonfulls from either to make an overnight starter for bread. Good luck and have fun!
Mini
Thanks, Mini. Everything seems to be alive and growing!
I'm really not that much of a bread-baker but I do try to have homemade WW sandwhich bread on hand at all times. I had previously been using a recipe based on the 5-min per day technique and had been satisfied. Now I want "homemade yeast" for my homemade bread. Sally may have created a monster!
I will keep some of my newly growing WW starter and some of Sally's starter on hand. I'm hoping Sally will share her recipe for a fabulous foccacia I had at her house recently. I would also like to try a pizza dough.
Cindy...
Yesterday I was reading Hamelman's BREAD, and notice he does have a recipe for a whole wheat levain bread - I am not sure when you are making your bread, but this weekend I'll type that recipe for you and post here (also send you by email) - his recipes are amazing, I haven't made that one, but trust it will be outstanding
No rush. I found a recipe at Sourdough Home I'm trying tomorrow. I'll try the Hamelman recipe next.
On Friday I'm going to try a foccacia using the recipe you posted on your blog, http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2009/06/21/focaccia/ and some instructions at Sourdough Home for converting yeast recipes to sourdough recipes, http://www.sourdoughhome.com/convert.html . If it works out I may serve foccacia with ham instead of ham biscuits at my Derby Party!