building the levain
Trying to get some consistency in my bread and really working on my levain timing/mix. Finally paying more attention makes me realize that I am also a bit confused.
I use 2 different 50/50 starters (one rye and one white/wheat) that I keep in the refrigerator. I bake once a week and try to use each starter, each week to make a couple of loaves. If beginning a recipe on Wednesday I remove the starters on Monday and try to get them up to speed.
Seems that the levain builds I've seen in the couple of books I've used (FWSY and Tartine3) call for using a very small amount of starter (8-40g) to build the levain up to (150-400g) for the bakes in one session of somewhere between 8 and 12 hours.
I've read here about people doing a 1:1:1 to build the levain and then doubling. For instance 30/30/30 to make 90 and then using the 90 90/90/90 to make 270.
These methods seem so far apart to me that I feel like I must be missing something or misinterpreting things...I've gone with the books and started with a small amount and while it works sometimes, sometimes not so much. I'm guessing that the difference is strictly in the time for these builds to ripen before use but wonder if there is something I need to understand to arrive at some consistency?
FWIW, my starters easily double in a few hours if I feed them at 1:1:1 by weight. Also my wheat starter rotates feedings between white wheat, red wheat and AP flour....rye is just dark rye from the health food store. Both have been up and running for a couple of months and again in my eye appear healthy.
Thanks!
What I found works well for me is to take 30g of seed culture 100g of bread flour, 100g of whole wheat flour and 190g of boiled water that is at room temperature. I like to use boiled water because it doesn't have chlorine in it which can inhibit yeast activity.
I leave it for about 8 to 12hrs. If it has risen then I know it's ready. If it has not risen, I will leave it for around 24hrs discard all but 30g and feed it again until it does rise.
When the leaven has risen after the 8hr rest I smell it to make sure it doesn't smell vinegary. Place a bit in water and make sure it floats and then bake away.
Hope this helps and sorry for all the text.
Nick
then by all means do so. But for someone who doesn't bake that often it might be easier to keep one with which you build all your pre-ferments from.
I keep a small amount of mother starter in the fridge which is 70% bread flour, 20% whole-wheat and 10% whole rye @ 80% hydration. When it comes to baking i'll take a small amount off and build to requirements. How I build is not all that important as long as I end up with a mature starter to the specified flours and hydration and it's fed at-least 1:1:1 or higher.
If you need a rye starter then take off a small amount and build in two stages starting off small and each time a good feed of 1:1:1 or more. When you're ready to bake you'll have a nice active rye starter. And so to for any other type of starter. And indeed with any other flour or hydration.
When my starter in the fridge runs low i'll take it out, top it up, allow it to bubble up by half and then return it to the fridge where it can stay at least for a week or two before it needs to be fed again by which time I need to top it up anyway.
Everyone has their own way of keeping their starter. There's mine if you wish to get ideas which might suit you.
Sometimes I take it directly from the jar that lives in the fridge into the dough... Sometimes I bulk it up using double flour + water to starter - e.g. if I needed 250g starter then I'd take 50g starter add 100g flour and 100g water = 250g. It would usually be ready 4 hours later. (I divide it by 5 - one fifth starter, 2/5 flour + 2/5 water)
I keep separate Rye, Wheat and Spelt - all in the fridge.
There is no right way - if you follow a book, then you'll follow their ways, but once you move away from that book, you might want to develop your own way (or ways, as I have). It's just yeast and bacteria. As long as you know it's good and viable then putting it in the fridge just slows things down, so for a few days to a week, it's fine (in my experiences). The lactic & acetic bacteria do work a bit faster than the yeasts, so after time, even when slowed down in the fridge it will get a bit more acidic. Some people like that anyway, but a quick build (for me) more or less resets it. My breads have only the lightest hint of sour in them.
-Gordon
It really makes sense once I'm starting to realize that the specific method to get there relates to both timing and flavor. If I'm trying to rush the build, just use more starter at the sacrifice of some flavor. I believe I'll have to experiment with a few differently timed starters just to see the difference.
On maintenance I kind of like my way of rebuilding each week and throwing back in the fridge...thanks for the idea about using a spelt starter...I cheat started this one by using a bit of my rye and wheat starter with spelt flour. I'm guessing that I can just keep adding spelt flour and water and before long it will be a full fledged spelt starter?
I had my best success so far for a loaf baked on a stone without the use of a Dutch oven. I did a slow build that seemed ready in about 9 hours though I didn't use it until 13 because it took that long before I could get it to float (I had a hard time telling by the difference visually in the 9 and 13 hour time points). The bulk seemed to move along rather quickly (~4 hours) which I attribute to the additional time given in the levain build? Shaped and threw the banneton in the refrigerator for ~14 hours before baking. Put the cold dough on the hot stone and it really held it's shape well. Could have done a better job with the razor and my crumb while pretty good still winds up with a few excessively large holes. This is my Girl Meets Rye attempt:
Sorry, I'm not so sure how to edit my previous post but I put in the wrong picture...this is the loaf: