November 27, 2015 - 8:37am
Starter Basics
Now that I have my rye starter active, I've switched to a bread flour for a smoother texture in the final loaf. It makes tasty sourdough bread, but which type of flour is recommended at this stage for the best overall results? I assume the protein ratio of the flour used for the starter culture will have an impact on the end result of the loaf.
Will the culture eventually shift and begin to taste like the yeast in the bread flour I'm currently using?
Share
like so much making bread, it will depend on what you want to achieve.
I keep 3 separate starters; wheat, spelt and rye, but am considering dropping the spelt and using rye - but just a little then build a starter with spelt then make the loaves with spelt. Andrew Whitley puts forward a case for just keeping rye too - but I want my white loaves ... white! Even if it's less than 5% rye, they won't be white, so who knows.
If you used rye starter to make my usual sourdough, then it would be 30g rye + 60g wheat + 60g water to make 150g levian - add that into 500g flour and the original 30g of rye starts to be fairly insignificant, but ...
So who knows.
the only bread I currently make using rye starter and wheat (and not that often as its expensive!) is my cider sourdough - not 100% sure why I used the rye starter here now but it does make a loaf with a much different flavour to my usual ones (but that could be the alcohol/cider though!)
-Gordon
how much difference you get, if any, is at least somewhat subjective. For instance, your palate may be more or less capable than other peoples' in terms of distinguishing small differences. Also, if you don't compare side by side, memory can be a factor too.
All other things being equal (which is seldom the case), using a rye starter should give you more sourness than a BF starter or levain. Depending on how much rye, you'll also tend toward somewhat less rise and smaller holes. As above, how noticeable the differences are is at least partly subjective.