June 1, 2017 - 9:54am
Starter too Soupy
Hello,
Somehow my starter got too wet. I think this because the starter was rising less and less, and last time I fed it, it didn't rise at all, just foamed up. I had been feeding it equal parts flour and water by volume. Today, I fed it two parts flour to one part water, and its acting a lot better, but two and a half hours into the ferment (80 degrees F), its already starting to fall again.
My starter leavens the bread fine, but I want it to be the right consistency, so I can tell when it has 'doubled'. Any thoughts on how to maintain a starter of the 100% hydration consistency. Do I need to add more flour when I feed, or scale by weight?
Thanks in advance.
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I keep my starter at 100% hydration all the time. It's in the fridge for most of its life. The day before baking day I take some out and feed it 1:2:2 (so for example, to build 125 grams of levain I use 25 grams of starter, 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water) the let it sit on the counter for six to eight hours before making the dough. The remainder of the starter goes back into the fridge. When it gets low I build it up in the same proportions, let it double or so, then put it back in the fridge.
However, sometimes the yeast population declines and you have to do a little remediation. And the best advice to be found is in this link, particularly Mini Oven's expertise.
The same volume of water will be much heavier than the same volume of flour, so your starter was probably in the 200% hydration range, which would explain the soupiness. Use about 2 parts flour (volume) to 1 part water (volume) to get roughly 1:1 by weight.
I missed the 'volume' factor in the original post. Indeed, use weight (in grams) if you can.
I can. Thanks for the tips. I will do it by weight from now on. Also, do you think there is remediation needed because of the watering down?
feed a tiny amount (a few grams) with much larger equal amounts of flour and water. The first feed will get you close to 100%. For instance, let's say your starter is 200% (in practice, you don't need to know the actual number). That would mean 3 gm is 2 gm of water plus 1 gm of flour. After you feed said 3 gm with 50 gm each of flour and water, you'll have 103 gm made up of 52 gm water and 51 gm flour, so 102% hydration. Further feedings, even 1:1:1 (equal weights of starter, water and flour) will continue to lower the hydration toward 100%, but effectively, 102% vs. 100% won't matter.