The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Sourdough and Starters

Capturing the wild yeasts.

Vtg79's picture

Changing starter hydration

January 26, 2017 - 3:44am -- Vtg79

Newbie question- sorry if it sounds silly.

My 100% hyd. (wwf+apf) starter is in the refrigerator, fed once a week.

Feeding day: I remove from refrigerator, discard n feed it as follows:

Starter: 40g

Water: 30g

Flour: 40g

So, I reduced hydration to 75% when I noticed the consistency was more liquidy and it sinks rather than float. But still shows good activity (rise to 1/3 in volume within 1st 5 hours after feeding) and now back in the refrigerator.

Vtg79's picture

Biga vs Poolish and Preferments and Soakers

January 25, 2017 - 8:14pm -- Vtg79

A question for the free spirit bakers who don't feel tied down to recipes...

What are you considering when you decide to (or not to) use one method (of preferment or soakers) over another?

 

Background:

I have come across some amazing explanations by Trevor J Wilson for how autolyse affects bread and what kind of breads demand it more (I use to only do it because I thought it helped with gluten and softened the bran in wwf) - Thanks Abe (Lechem) for that link.

amateur4sure's picture

Using sourdough starter

January 25, 2017 - 7:47am -- amateur4sure

I have begun to start a sourdough starter and  I would like to incorporate it into some of my bread recipes. I am relatively new to baking and am stumped. What do I need to add or omit, if anything from the recipe? Also, do I use the starter in place of the active dry yeast that is called for in the recipe. If that is so, what ratios of starter to yeast? 

leslieruf's picture

Help! Yeast water vs sourdough question

January 24, 2017 - 7:12pm -- leslieruf

Today I am making my first yeast water bread using my 10 day old yeast water Rosie.  I have made an identical loaf using my SD starter. In the photo it is approx 3 hours after I finished S&F/slap & folds (4x @ 40 minute intervals). Rosie is lagging behind hugely, although you can definitely see bubbles at the bottom and underneath.  Room temperatue is a bit cool today  at 22°c.

SLanney's picture

Starter too active! Eats up food in <4hrs!

January 23, 2017 - 3:13pm -- SLanney

Hey everyone,

So my 100% hydration starter has finally awoken after a long lull (thanks to Lechem!) and has been pretty active - almost a bit too active unfortunately(?). Currently I feed it 50% WW/Whole Rye and this bugger is a beast. First when I feed it at 9am, it's already peaked by 12-1pm in a 78F room. I can't manage the thermostat since I'm in an apartment unfortunately... The original plan was to do two feedings, one at 9am and one at 10pm but this isn't working out. 

BrightM's picture

Starter in fridge

January 22, 2017 - 10:00am -- BrightM

Hi

I've been experimenting with maintaining a starter in the fridge

I noticed that a Rye starter when kept all the time in the fridge became fluffy after 2 days (and passed the float test) and stayed like that for another few days even though that it didn't rise.

I'm assuming that that Rye starter is very active and can be used to start a bread stright from the fridge

On the other hand a pure plain wheat flour starter did nothing after 2 days except for making nice bubbles.

It didn't rise it didn't float even after 3, or 4 days.

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