The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

New Year's resolution

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

New Year's resolution

I really, really must get rid of all the different starters I've started (and abandoned or neglected) over the last year. I'm running out of containers, for one thing, and I only ever use one or two of them regularly.

That said, I'm sure I'll start a whole bunch more over the coming year. :)

How many do you all have?

alfanso's picture
alfanso

because, what the heck, it's a hobby.  But for the past year I'm down to two: a 60% rye starter and a 75% mixed flour always-ready-to-use levain.  Everything that I make comes off one of these two.  

In the sense of mixing an impure levain for a dough, when I build a levain that is officially all AP or Bread flour, for example, I'll use however many grams of one or the other of the two.  So when the levain matures and is ready to use, it is not 100% AP or bread flour, etc.  I really don't care that the very small percentages of other flours are also present. 

pmccool's picture
pmccool

I feed it mostly white flour, AP or bread flour, with some whole wheat and whole rye thrown in just to keep it on its toes.  It serves well no matter which type of bread it goes into.

Paul

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

I will be strong, and get rid of all the weird old starters, I swear! I just hate wasting flour is all. :)

Ru007's picture
Ru007

I have one rye starter that lives in the fridge. I use it for all my loaves, so everything always has a tiny bit of rye in it. I dried some of it just after my first loaf using it and then I dried some of it more recently. So I have two little bags of dried starter somewhere in the back of a cupboard, just as an insurance policy! LOL! 

How are you doing to get rid of them? Are you just going to use the whole lot for some loaves? 

Good luck!

 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

That's an interesting thought, Ru. I should just mix them all together, feed them some flour and water and see what happens! Much better idea than throwing them away. :)

Ru007's picture
Ru007

To be honest, I would struggle to throw them out too. I agree with you about not liking the waste. 

Being baked into a mixed loaf is as good a send off as any starter could hope for. :)

Happy baking LL.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

mostly fed white flour but on occasion a bit of rye or wholewheat flour.  On the other hand I have lots of little packets of dried starter (backups) lurking in the pantry and some are rye, but most are white or a mix!

A mix of all would give an interesting bread for sure - happy baking Lazy Loafer

Leslie

 

inumeridiieri's picture
inumeridiieri

 3, Rye 140% hydration

Stiff levain 45/50% hydration wheat flour

Liquid starter 100% hydration ...wheat flour

My wife says I'm crazy :-)

Stiff starter feed dayly for two years...now it is in the fridge.

Gaetano

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

But, if you just have one love, it is so much easdier to pile it on and make it love you back!

So hve some great baking in 2017 LL........and make a few more starters once you clean the losers out:-)

Weizenbrot's picture
Weizenbrot

...and it's a low-hydration whole-rye starter kept in the refrigerator. Depending on what recipe I'm making, I elaborate a few Tbsp of it in 2 stages with the appropriate flour.

elodie's picture
elodie

I have one mutt, several years old that's moved cross country and back, been fed all manner of artisan, mass-produced, white or whole grain flours, sprouted and not.  It never complains, and dispatches its duty equally well on white, or whole grain lean loves, and lightly enriched ones.

My second one is an apple yeast water that I used a bunch over the holidays for brioche and sweet roll variations.  It's stronger in high sugar environments than the sourdough, and I can retard without getting that slightly beer-y off-flavour.

Strangely, I don't mind pouring the yeast waters down the drain if I forget them for long while, even though they're sometimes fed on sugar.  Yet, I can't stand to toss sourdough discards.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

The other is probably dead in the downstairs fridge. The one I use is pure whole grain rye following Dab's NFNM starter model.