January 20, 2016 - 1:22pm
Question about handbook starter
Hi, I'm relatively new to bread baking and have never made a starter before. I began by making the starter in the fresh loaf handbook, but ran into a problem. I live in NM and its quite dry here. My starter keeps drying out completely.....like just crusted up to the container. I added water and stirred. I had only seen a few bubbles in 6 days so I added a little sugar. Things really took off and seemed to go well until I forgot to feed it one morning. By the evening, it was separated and smelled strongly of alcohol. So I gave up and dumped it. I'm hoping you can help. Can I add water, or does that mess up the ratio too much? Can I add sugar? It seemed to make a big difference. When do I know it's ready to use?
Share
you need to feed and stir down your starter. So just when you know for sure all is well you tossed it? Oh my! Before killing off you starter next time it would be better to come here and ask what to do:-). No worry it wasn't a child or anything serious!
What you did is a common thing. Now you have to do it all over again. . Don't let it dry out and when it gets hooch on top, just stir it in and feed it some flour and water.. Easy as pie
Haopy SD baking in a couple pf weeks or so instead of today.....
Thanks for the help! So it doesn't matter that I put more water in the mix?
I actually tried to come and ask questions, but for some reason my account was seen as spam and I got an error code saying I was locked out. I followed the message to ask the admin to look into the situation, but didn't hear back. I decided to make a different account so I could come ask. So here I am :)
I keep my starter in a sealed jar where it cannot dry out. Opening it up to feed it once a day provides enough air. In the fridge it may be opened once aweek.
You can add sugar etc but really starter needs nothing other than flour and water. I use half whole wheat and half all purpose.