The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

New starter.... Next step??

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

New starter.... Next step??

Aloha everybody!

Well the starter is 2 weeks old now and looks pretty stable. I was concerned at one point and was feeding 1:3:3 twice a day for about 3 days and just this morning cut it back to 1:2:2. Don't ask why as I really don't have a clue!! What I would like to ask for at this point is a recipe for a simple SD sandwich dough that I can make in a regular loaf pan. I'll also need the steps to "prep" the starter or the explanation of "hydration" to get the things going as well as possible. I guess what I'm asking for is to have someone hold my hand and walk me though the next few steps with baby steps so that it will sink into this thick scull of mine! I've been teaching myself to bake bread by going to one of the online recipe sites and reading the recipe, reading ALL the reviews that are posted, and then making the bread incorporating the modifications that other suggested. It has worked out well for about 24 assorted loaves of bread... so far! I've read a lot on this site (and others) and watched a lot of video and sometimes I just get a bit overwhelmed and confused. I'm using scales and would like to stay with recipes that are by weight so that I might get a little bit better consistency. There is still so much to learn but I do want to understand what I'm doing a little better.

Hope I'm not asking too much here!

Mahalo,

Royall

Janknitz's picture
Janknitz

It's also called "Baker's Math".  For the clearest and most extensive explanation, go here.  Susan, of Wild Yeast, posts here on TFL, and she is great at clear, detailed explanations.  After workin through all four parts of her explanations, you'll be an expert! 

If you dig around on her site, she also has great, practical advice on starter maintenance.  I follow her suggestion of maintaining just enough 100% hydration starter for what I need for my regular weekly bake.  That way there is no waste--the discard goes to my bread, I feed the remainder for the next week and refrigerate it.  And I don't have to spend any extra time "building", unless I need more for a particular reason. 

There are some great posts here on TFL, too, if you use the search function to find what you're looking for.  But you sometimes have to wade through a variety of responses to a topic to sort out what's going to work in you home baking context.  When I'm confused, I head to Wild Yeast's blog, to help sort things out. 

 

Postal Grunt's picture
Postal Grunt

I was working with my new starter last week, trying to use up about 160g or so instead of discarding it into the compost. I just ad libbed or "free styled" a sandwich loaf using an idea that's been blogged here on TFL.

Essentially, the premise is to use one part starter, two parts water, three parts flour by weight for your base recipe. I wasn't terribly precise in my work but I did get good results; good enough to try that same formula tomorrow.

I suggest that you do a search of the thread to get a better understanding of the process that worked for a lot of folks. People with more experience than I had some good words for that idea.

On the other hand, you might want to take the idea and run with it first.

 

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Thanks for information. I went to the Post office today and my copy of the BBA came in! It took 5 weeks to get out to me in the middle of the Pacific but its here and reading with much enjoyment. Peter is an easy author to read.

I need to study more of Susan,s tutorial on bread math but just couldn't get back into it after dinner. Especially when you have a good book to read!

Janknitz's picture
Janknitz

It is a lot to wrap your brain around!  I helped myself learn it by creating a spread sheet that would do the calculations for me.

This also necessitates a conversion chart so you can change recipe amounts from ounces to grams and a list of the weights of various ingredients so you can convert volume measurements to weight.  It's a bit of a pain to create all this, but now I understand the process a lot better.  Good learning exercise!

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.  Perhaps here it is that which does not kill us makes our bread better ;o) 

 

Enjoy BBA--lots of good stuff to wrap your mind around in there!  How's the bread section in the Hilo library?