August 22, 2016 - 12:30pm
How To Bake With Refrigerated Starter?
Hey y'all!
So I have an established starter and I've had it in the fridge now for about a week. I would like to bake with it tomorrow. I'm not sure when I should take it out and feed it? I was thinking of taking it out now (about 3pm) and let it come to room temperature then feed it and let it sit overnight than use it to bake tomorrow morning? Is this a good idea? Any thoughts or suggestions on how to do this better? Thanks!
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If your starter is healthy, that should work.
Welcome to TFL!
You are liable to get lots of different answers. This is because there is no one "right" answer ... except mine, of course! LOL
First thing, it's good to keep starter for long-term (> 3 days) refrigeration at 50% hydration. In a liquid starter, the yeast can gobble up all the sugar too fast and then starve. My refrigerated starter is 50 starter: 100 water: 200 flour. (The numbers are not important; it's the ratio. My flour for this is a mix of 70 AP: 20 WW: 10 Whole Rye.
Now, to your question: You can let the starter warm up on the counter, or you can skip that and just mix it with warm (80-90dF) water when you feed it. Starting with my firm refrigerated starter, I will feed it once as a liquid starter with 30g starter, 75g water and 75g flour (the flour mix described). This is to "wake it up" and, primarily give the yeast food to make more yeast. When this is ripe (6-8 hours for my starter), I do a second feed. That can be liquid or firm and using a mix of flours depending on what type of bread I am making. With my starter, this usually more than doubles in 4-6 hours at 70-75dF.
Now, if that doesn't work with your schedule, it does no harm to refrigerate the second feeding, once it has almost doubled, for a day or two before using it to make bread. It will get more sour, though. If you do this, I would either let it warm on the counter for a couple hours before mixing your dough or use it right out of the fridge, but compensate with warmer water for your dough.
Hope this answers your question.
David
Thanks for the advice Dave! Yes I did notice my starter looked a bit runny, so I'm going to keep my starter at 50% hydration while storing it in the fridge and see how that works. I've been doing 100% hydration, but was when I was feeding my starter everyday for over a month. Thanks again!
So that could certainly work, especially since the starter is new and quite active. But as time goes on, I have found that I need to plan for two 12-hour apart feedings (or in practice whenever it doubles) to get it back up and running to a strength that can build a very active levain.
So for example, two nights before baking, feed 1:2:2 (starter:water: flour). Repeat this if doubled in the morning, and then that night, build your overnight levain, which will be ready to ferment the final dough sometime the next day.
A couple final thoughts. One, in case you haven't discovered this, temperature can make a big difference. If you can control the temperature (I have a Brod & Taylor proofing box, but used a heating pad before that), you will find from 70 F to low 90s F you can get better and quicker action. Two, this is just one way to do it, and you will have to experiment to find the one(s) you enjoy and work well for you and your schedule.
Happy baking!
I didn't even know what a proofing box was! Looks really handy. Might be something to put on the Christmas list:)
The proofing box took away a lot of uncertainty and temp measuring. And you can play around with temps to try to alter the sourness or timing. Plus it folds up and stores easily. Best $150 I ever spent.
:)
I'm using wheat at the moment:)
when he says there's no single right answer.
Fwiw, I usually bake twice a week and mostly use my 100% hydration starter straight out of the fridge. I keep 150g, of which I normally use either 100 or 120. I then add equal weights of water and flour to get back to 150g; this works out to either a 1:1:1 or 1:2:2 feeding. I leave it on the counter for about 2-3 hours, which isn't long enough for it to peak, before returning it to the fridge.
I've been using refrigerated starters for all my baking since 2009. I keep three going - Rye, White and Wheat. I refresh them once a week. The Rye and White probably contain 250 grams and I take out about half and flush it down the drain and add 200 grams of fresh on a 1/1 ratio. I usually keep it out 8 -12 hours and then back it the refrigerator (a small separate one used just for starters and proofing) which is set at 45 degrees F.
The Wheat is a different animal altogether. I only keep 150 -250 grams and is refreshed at 150 grams 1/1. I only let this stay at room temperature for an hour or two and place in my refrigerator at 50 -55 degrees F for another 6 hours. At 70 F and above this starter will turn acidic. This is a sweet starter for Desem Bread.
The best results I've gotten is to take out some starter at 2 days after freshening and build the total leaven in three stages over 1.5 days. I bake 4 loaves at a time and for my Sour Rye it takes 1025 grams. My white is a Polish Country which takes a Rye Soaker and both Rye and White Starters. All told it's about 600 grams of soaker and starters. These are built over 12 hours. The Wheat is similar to the white in that the build is only 12 hours.
Hope that is helpful,
Big Crusty
Very good advice! Thanks again!
I take it straight from the refrigerator and pour it on the ball of dough during the autolysis. I don't mix it in, I just let it sit on the dough and warm up.
(I wonder if anyone else does this... I'm probably the only weird one.)
I guess it would work for levain kept on the counter as well since room temp in my case is cooler than what I want the dough to be. Thanks for the idea!!