The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

leftover sourdough starter?

flour-girl's picture
flour-girl

leftover sourdough starter?

Hi --

I've been dutifully feeding my Hamelman Liquid Levain Culture every 12 hours for the past week, dumping half of it down the drain each time.

That just seems wrong.

So, now I'm saving the discards in the fridge. I made some pancakes yesterday. While not especially sourdough-y yet, they weren't bad.

I'm discussing what to do with leftover sourdough on Flour Girl today and am wondering what you guys do with the discarded portion before feeding?

Thanks ... Happy baking!

Flour Girl

AnnieT's picture
AnnieT

Hi Flour Girl, I save my discards until I have about 4 cups then make a huge batch of "Neighbor Bread" in my Bosch mixer. I add whole wheat flour, bread flour, oats, potato flakes - whatever takes my fancy, plus some oil, sugar, instant yeast and raisins. Last week I made 4 pan loaves plus a pan of rolls. I live in a senior park and the neighbors love warm bread! I know you will find many other ways to use your discarded starter if you search here on TFL, so don't toss it, A.

tangled's picture
tangled

My current favourites are:

 sourdough bagels

 and english muffins

According to how much I have!

SulaBlue's picture
SulaBlue

Breads From the  La Brea Bakery - she's got a whole section of things you can do with extra starter, from pretzels to even an onion-ring batter (OMG, that sounds SO GOOD). Starts on page 245.

SaraBClever's picture
SaraBClever

I will check--thanks for the tip.  I find it ridiculous how much I learn about books I already own from other posters, but at least I learn it.  Maybe I should read more and surf the web less ;-)!

flour-girl's picture
flour-girl

Thanks everybody. Those are great suggestions. And SulaBlue, you're one of many to recommend that book to me. Looks like I need to add it to my shelf!

Thanks ... Happy baking!

Flour Girl

SulaBlue's picture
SulaBlue

I'll actually use it. Many of the breads call for a huge amount of starter,. Others call for little knobs of bread left over from previous loaves. In many instances if you don't have this bit of bread from 'old dough' the instructions are to bake a loaf of the Country White. Ugh - I hate white bread, and I certainly don't feel like baking a loaf of bread 2 days prior just so I can bake a 3-day build bread later in the week!

I got my copy at half price books. I'd suggest taking it out of the library and looking it over before investing in it.

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

I posted this a while back. It is extremely wasy and very tasty.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/sourdoughbananabread

flour-girl's picture
flour-girl

That banana bread and the english muffins are on the top of my list!

Thanks for the wonderful ideas. You guys are always so helpful!

 

Happy baking!

Flour Girl

rainwater's picture
rainwater

My favorite thing to do with left over starter is to make a yeasted bread with it.  I use bakers math to figure out how much flour and water I have in my starter.  For example:  This evening I had 16 oz. of starter left over......I keep mine at @75% hydration......  9.14 oz. flour   6.86 oz. water.  I usually make a ciabatta or foccacia with this left over.....the amount of left over starter differs every week.  I subtract the flour and water weights of the left over starter from the totals in the recipe, and use the recipe amount of salt and yeast...etc.....   this makes for very quick bread......but also very flavorful because of the high percentage of starter.  So.....it is possible to make a fast bread and have lots of flavor......

Soundman's picture
Soundman

Hi flour-girl,

As you see from other people's posts, some of us use our refreshment-discards in more bread. Why not? (It's got a lot of flavor.) I sometimes use the discards in a yeasted bread, or other times right into my current sourdough, which usually gives the bread a more sour tang than I might get otherwise.

I don't remember how much starter Hamelman (my favorite book BTW) advocates keeping around, but you can see from his recipes that he uses tiny amounts of starter to build his final levains for the bread recipes.

This suggested to me that I didn't need to keep a lot of starter, and thus wouldn't be wasting a lot if I ever did need to actually, gulp, toss some down the drain. It doesn't seem to matter how little starter I refresh, the remaining little beasts are happy to be fed and quickly build a bubbly active starter.

Of course it all depends on how often and how much bread you are baking. I'm a weekend baker. But if you're baking sourdough every day, you shouldn't ever have to waste any starter: use appropriate amount in final levain, and refresh what remains, etc., etc...

Hope this helps.

David 

pattycakes's picture
pattycakes

I use my discard as a preferment. I make a slack dough by adding more water (warm if the starter is cold) and flour. Then 2% salt by weight. Do a first ferment, then shape and let loaves (or loaf) proof. It makes good bread! It's also a really good way to get a feel for how dough should look without using a recipe. I've learned a lot from this, and sometimes I combine both whole wheat and white and go on from there.

Endless possibilities, really!

Patricia

MommaT's picture
MommaT

Hi,

 

I find that I normally keep a jar of starter in the fridge, feeding every 3-7 days.  (Mine is 100% hydration and mostly white flour.)

I use a lot of Hamelman recipes and find that it works for me to take out the couple Tablespoons he uses to build up his levain and then put the starter jar back in the fridge...  in a day or two, take another 2T or so for the next bake and put the jar back in the fridge and so on. Then, I "top it up" to refresh and feed every few days.  This helps maintain my erratic baking schedule and seems to work.

Admittedly, the starter may not be as "robust" as it would be if I fed it twice a day and kept it on the counter, but overall this method keeps me going.  If I have some very special bread I'm going to make or want to be really really sure my starter has a lot of gumption, I'll take it out to the counter and feed for a day or two (every 12 hours) as prescribed to rev it up.  The discards then get used for pancakes or English muffins.

The other side effect of maintaining it in the fridge all the time is that (I find) the flavour is not overly sour.  While I really enjoy that, my husband and kids do not, so we compromise.  :-)

MommaT

MommaT's picture
MommaT

Hi,

 

I find that I normally keep a jar of starter in the fridge, feeding every 3-7 days.  (Mine is 100% hydration and mostly white flour.)

I use a lot of Hamelman recipes and find that it works for me to take out the couple Tablespoons he uses to build up his levain and then put the starter jar back in the fridge...  in a day or two, take another 2T or so for the next bake and put the jar back in the fridge and so on. Then, I "top it up" to refresh and feed every few days.  This helps maintain my erratic baking schedule and seems to work.

Admittedly, the starter may not be as "robust" as it would be if I fed it twice a day and kept it on the counter, but overall this method keeps me going.  If I have some very special bread I'm going to make or want to be really really sure my starter has a lot of gumption, I'll take it out to the counter and feed for a day or two (every 12 hours) as prescribed to rev it up.  The discards then get used for pancakes or English muffins.

The other side effect of maintaining it in the fridge all the time is that (I find) the flavour is not overly sour.  While I really enjoy that, my husband and kids do not, so we compromise.  :-)

MommaT

pattycakes's picture
pattycakes

Here's a recipe that I've thrown together a few times to use up discard without really measuring the ingredients. Yesterday I weighed everything, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the bread. It's a complex, rich, full-flavored bread with a chewy-tender crumb and crisp-chewy crust; the texture is wonderful. I used the remainder of a loaf of a dried up dark bread I had made, and I think it added something good to the loaf, too.

Cocoa Cider Discard Bread

300 g discard (100% hydration starter

355 ml (12 oz bottle TJ’s) draft cider, room temperature

500 grams Golden Buffalo flour or white whole wheat flour

87 grams dry brown breadcrumbs

155 grams warm water

12 grams Dutch cocoa

6 g kosher salt

Whisk together starter and cider. Add Golden Buffalo flour and mix well or knead briefly to incorporate ingredients. Autolyse for 30 minutes-1 hour, covered. Meanwhile, cover crumbs with warm water and sprinkle cocoa and salt over them. Let rest during autolyse.

Add breadcrumbs to the dough and knead until smooth and well-glutenized. (I used my KA mixer with a dough hook.) Cover and ferment for several hours in a warm place, or until doubled.

Divide into two large or three small loaves. Do first shaping and let rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 with baking stone.

Shape into batards or boules and proof until risen 1 1/2 times. Slash and bake under alupan for 15 minutes. Reduced heat to 450. Remove pan and finish bake (15-20 more minutes?) Turn off oven and open door. Let loaves finish baking for 10 minutes, then cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

Patricia