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My 1-2-3 bread using discarded starter

smasty's picture
smasty

My 1-2-3 bread using discarded starter

After hanging out here for a few months, I stumbled onto someone talking about the "1-2-3" bread.  I was intrigued!  What a great way to bake every day for pennies, and practice new techniques with, what would have been, throw-away stuff. 

So, last night after refreshing both my liquid and stiff starters (the liquid starter hadn't been refreshed in about 2 weeks) I put the throw away portions of both together in a container and sprinkled a bit of flour over them.  This morning I pulled the cold throw-away starter out of the fridge and put it in my KA mixing bowl and weighed it: 152 grams.  So, based on the super simple technique, "1" is your starter, "2" is your water, and "3" is your flour.  Once you have the weight of your starter, then "1" x 2 equals the weight of your water, and "1" x 3 equals the weight of your flour.  Then I add 2% of flour weight in salt.  No recipe needed, no book, just a scale. 

So, I started with cold starter and mixed it up with the water, then put in the flour and mixed for a minute, then autolyse for about 40 min, then added salt, mixed a little and began the very long ferment.  I SF'd about 4 times over 6 hours.  It took forever to start to see any growth, but it finally happened.  Shaped and proofed for an hour, then baked.  This came out fabulous! 

After baking I like to brush the excess flour off the outside of the loaf with a soft pastry brush.  My scores could have been a little deeper. 

Comments

avatrx1's picture
avatrx1

I've made this 1-2-3 bread numerous times, but I've always used refreshed starter from the 'feeding' of 2-4 hours prior.

I've been trying to determine whether or not my refrigerated starter was OK to use for this if it hadn't been 'fed' in a week or so.

You indicated that you just mixed a little flour into what you might have tossed?  No water - just a little flour?

maybe I'll try that tonight.  I have a tendency to 'feed' my starter then get busy and end up refrigerating it before I have time to do anything with it.  When I finally get around to having the time, I don't know if the starter is active enough  and so the dysfunctional routine continues.............................

-susie

 

avatrx1's picture
avatrx1

I stirred a little starter into what I would have refreshed.  It's a lower hydration starter now since I didn't add any water.  Tomorrow before I leave I"ll mix up the dough.  I won't be able to do a stretch and fold during the day so we'll see how that works for me.  I may end up punching it down when I get home.

hmmmmmmmmmm

-susie

celestica's picture
celestica

I freeze all my discard in a yogurt container then make 1-2-3 bread with a 1/4 tsp of yeast and 2% salt.  It's my favorite easy thing to do with leftover starter.  My starter is 100% rye and sometimes I add in 10% whole wheat / 90% white for variation.

 

 

avatrx1's picture
avatrx1

My starters have some rye in them but are mostly white.  how do you do that?  mix it at night and give it an overnight rest or do you make it the same day?

smasty's picture
smasty

Susie....let me know how it goes for you.  I sprinkled a little flour over my discarded starter just to give it a little overnight food, since some of the discard was pretty old.  I stirred it up a little but not much.  The beauty of this recipe is you don't really have to worry about the hydration level of your starter.  The "1 x 2" for your water weight gives a pretty slack dough--thus the reason for so many SF's during the bulk ferment.  It will be interesting to see how yours comes out w/o the SFs. 

Great idea to store discard in the freezer.  I bake for two people only...so my freezer is already full of bread.  I like that I can bake a small loaf with this discard every other day or so.  I also like that I don't have to plan a pre-ferment at all.  If I wake up and want to bake, I can just refresh my starters, use the discard, and I'm on my way.  I also love using this technique for practicing shaping.

BTW, I bake at 460 for 9 min, then lower to 415 for another 30 min...my breads come out best at a 200.9 internal temp (I'm in Denver so that's the reason for the lower temp)

celestica's picture
celestica

What I mean is, I use my 100% rye starter, water, and then add some whole wheat to the white to make the bread.  Sometimes I'll add a little wheat germ too for nutrition.

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

OK, I hope I did this right. Recap:

I used 200g starter (it is on the thick side)

400g of water

600g of flour (AP)

12g salt.

Mixed it in the KA with the paddle until it came together and put it in a flat plastic box I'm using to proof in. It is 15qts. so it is large enough to do the SF.

Is this all good to go so far?? This recipe looks like it could make a good pizza dough too!

Mahalo,

Royall

smasty's picture
smasty

That looks good!  Was your dough pretty slack?  3-4 SF's really strengthened my dough, but it was still a bit slack going into the oven...which yielded a wonderful crumb.  Report back on how it goes! 

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Yeh, it was quite slack but still manageable. I've worked with one other that was a little looser. It is only 75* here today so the rise maybe a bit slower than normal. I'll be sure to post back as things progress.

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Well almost 5 hours later it has risen! I folded it and tucked it back into the oven with the light on. and see how it goes. I may have to put it in the fridge if goes to late. I just don't do late night bakes! Smells great too!

smasty's picture
smasty

I've found using the oven light as the best way for fermenting, too! 

Royall Clark's picture
Royall Clark

Well I gave up on it..... It got so late so I ADDED some flour to firm it up (it was still way too slack) and put it in the fridge. That was Friday night and to day (Sunday) I'll take it out and bake it along with some other breads I'm going to bake. Still so much to learn!

One thing I thought of as I typed this, I'm wondering if there was some of the BAD beasties in the SD that caused the dough to stay slack??

smasty's picture
smasty

Well, how did it come out?  Do you have much experience working w/ slack dough?  It is a very different thing to get used to, but very rewarding.  I have two more loaves in the oven right now that look amazing. 

blackhorse16a's picture
blackhorse16a

I have two questions. What about adding a little instant yeast? If so, what %?

Also my oven has an 85º proofing setting. Is this too warm?

smasty's picture
smasty

If you want to speed up the fermentation you can always add yeast.  It depends on how fast you want to go.  But speed sacrifices flavor.  If you want it to go a little faster, try 1/4 t of yeast and see how it goes. 

My oven w/ the light on heats up to about 83...but my dough temp stays at about 74 in the oven, so what matters is your dough temp.  If it gets too much above 76, then try opening the door to your oven to let out some heat maybe.  Higher dough temp will speed up your fermentation, but again, you'll be losing flavor.