July 13, 2017 - 10:26pm
Does it make any difference to refresh a starter out of fridge before building the levain?
I have seen in some recipes it's mentioned that we should refresh a mature starter after removing it from the fridge at least twice before building the levain. I'm curious if this is really makes any difference? I find that my starter is active within hours even after it has been in the fridge for 3 months and it's fed with warm water + flour. Would doing two additional feedings make any difference?
In the most practical case I would be able to have a relatively large batch of starter in the fridge, and take what I need for the levain when I will bake. Then refresh the one in the fridge every few months or so.
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...sits in the fridge for weeks. I just remove about 8g and mix it with flour and water to form my starter and leave it overnight on the worktop. By morning it has almost tripped in volume and going like the clappers! So, no - I don't think that it's necessary to refresh it.
Is an off shoot starter and the build is a refreshment.
As long as your starter is behaving well then no problem. These extra builds would be for assurance that all is okay, to build a little extra depending on how much you keep at any one time or to begin the process of making a starter that requires a another flour and / or hydration.
For my home-based micro-bakery, I have several different starters in my fridge (rye, whole wheat, kefir and trub starter). Depending on what kind of bread I want to bake, I use either an unfed starter from the fridge (up to 2 weeks old) to prepare the sourdough, or activate it first by feeding in twice the day before I intend to bake with it.
For regular whole grain or rye breads it doesn't make much difference whether the starter has been refreshed or not. But for higher hydrated breads à la Tartine it does make a difference how active the starter is. With a mature starter from the fridge you will have a harder time achieving the desired hole-y crumb.
Karin