July 17, 2016 - 1:17pm
Holiday/rejuvenating starter
Hi all
My starter lives on the worktop as I use it daily but I'm off on holiday soon (yay sunshine!!) So I was planning on putting it in the fridge whilst I'm away.
My query is, if I remove it the day I get back and feed it in the morning, can I use some that evening to prove overnight and bake with the next morning? We get back late (around midnight) Thursday and I'd like bake Saturday morning...
Thank you
Karen x
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Before you store your starter in the fridge, you should consider packing in as much flour into your portion of starter as possible. Look at it as a piece of low hydration starter at that point, around 60%. You can surround that with the flour of your choice so it doesn't stick to the container.
I'd suggest that you find time late Thursday to start a two stage build for the starter, especially if you're going to be away for more than a few days. The expense for flour is small and you'll have a more vigorous starter to work with.
My starters live in the fridge all the time. Today is Monday - An hour ago I took 2 of them out of the fridge, too about 500g out of one to make 3Kg of starter, topped it up (250g flour + 250g water) and right now its sitting on the bench and will go back in the fridge in a few hours time. They have been in the fridge since Friday afternoon.
If it's a long holiday (3 weeks?) then maybe throw half away (make pancakes) and refresh, then carry on as before, but otherwise I'm sure it'll be just fine. Refresh it and put it directly into the fridge and enjoy your break!
-Gordon
Mine live in the fridge too. In the unlikely event that I don't bake with them, I do a discard/feed every weekend. Normally, I pull it out of the fridge, rest for 2-3 hours, then use 50g to make a new starter batch and then feed the rest a couple of times at 12 hour intervals to get my starter.