Mañana yeast
So I've had a starter culture going for maybe 3 months or so. I like it because it saves the whole guessing game of whether the instant yeast I had in the cupboard is still viable or not.
It's a wholemeal rye culture and I had no trouble at all getting it started. I keep it in the fridge during the week, take it out maybe 24 hours before I plan to use it and stick some more flour and water into it. It responds really quickly - it's so virile it practically makes me blush.
Until I get it in the dough. I mainly bake with organic strong white flour. I mix up maybe 500 or 700g flour, add in the water and salt and chuck in what I'd estimate is half a mugful of bubbly starter.
The first rise generally takes around 36 hours and the prove can easily take over 24. Whereas I don't mind the delay (I just adjust my start times) I have to ask - is this normal? What kind of times is everyone else getting?
What I mean by that is how much of your recipe's flour is in the starter? Example, if your total flour is 1000 grams (including the flour in the starter) and you use 100 g of that to feed your starter and make your levain, then it is 10% (100 g divided by 1000g). Your times sound excessive unless you are using a tiny portion of prefermented flour. I tend to use around 11-12% and my bulk proof time is 4 to 5 hours generally. I can't really tell you about the final proof since I just stick my dough in the fridge overnight and then bake right out of the fridge the following morning.
Oooooh okay. So I'm supposed to mix in some of the recipe flour with the starter first?
So how about this. I get the starter up and running so it's nice and lively. Then I take 10% of the recipe flour and mix it into the starter with some water, and get it to the same consistency as I want with the dough?
And then I let that get bubbling, and mix it in with the rest of the flour / water / salt, and that's my starting point?
You will cut your fermentation times drastically!