SD formula suggestions
I'm currently working on what is far and away the best all-wild sourdough starter I've ever made. All flours are Bob's Red Mill, and rising takes place in a microwave after I've boiled water a cup or so of water in it for 2 minutes. I leave the stoneware bowl and water in the mic for the rising.
Not sure whether to call what I have a levain or starter at this point. It began a few days ago as 1 T of very old, very stiff all-rye starter. It grew slowly for the first 2 or 3 days. Once a day, I discarded half each batch and then fed the remaining half with 1 T of water and 1 T of organic rye flour. Yesterday I began feeding 80g unbleached flour/20g water and 1/4 C of the starter at 12-hour intervals. I now have 290 g of a gorgeous, mostly unbleached white flour levain? starter? that easily doubles in 3-4 hours. My husband jokes that it's so cold outside that all the yeast must have come inside to snuggle down in my nice, warm bread bowl. Anyway, at 20 water/80 flour, it's pretty stiff but of course it loosens up as it rises, and as I say it gets busy right smartish.
Now I don't know what to do with the starter. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using recipe from this site that I can't seem to find now. It calls for 250 g starter, 400 g white flour, 150 (?) whole wheat and 100 g rye. Don't remember the rest. All suggestions welcome; I want to make the most of this wonderful starter! Levain?
TIA
1 part starter (100 % hydration) 2 parts water and 3 parts flour with 2% salt.
Happy SD baking !
Thanks! Will try this.
FYI
It did an overnight in the fridge and is now undergoing a few hours of turn-and-folds before final shaping and another retarding before the bake. I'm winging it on these final steps; hope it works out. because that starter is a champ.
Hard--for me, anyway--to believe these loaves were made from 100% wild yeasts. Really great oven spring. The crumb is more uniform and softer than I expected. Next time I'll add more salt--maybe 2.5%-- and do the final proof differently. (I decided to proof at warm room temp instead of retarding for 12 hours as I'd originally planned.) Also, it's not as tangy as this girl, weaned on San Francisco sourdough, would have preferred. Need to slow the very vigorous yeast.
Still, it's darn good and I think I'll work with this starter for awhile. Thanks for the very useful suggestions and info!
When it turns out so good. Nice to eat ones own bread when one has worked so hard to create and maintain a starter then bake with it. Enjoy!
For more tang build a stiffer levain with atleast 20% wholegrain. Use an hour after its peaked.
80% bread flour
20% whole rye
50% water
20% starter
Works very well for me when making a levain. Knead into a dough then leave to mature. When using a levain this way go for a higher ratio of levain in the dough. It develops a lot of flavour especially if you keep both your mother starter and build your levain this way.
Here is a nice article on how to develop more sour from which I got the idea on how to keep and use my starter.
http://brodandtaylor.com/make-sourdough-more-sour/