March 30, 2018 - 10:41am
Starter seems to be working well; did I make enough?
After much cajoling, TLC, coaxing, feeding, and cursing, my starter (Murray), seems to be happy and lively! I think just a few more days and I’ll be able to try my first sourdough loaf!
But I’m worried that I didn’t make enough! It’s only 250 grams worth. Most of the recipes I’ve looked at call for the starter as about half the weight of the dough! Is there a way to increase it gradually over the next few days as I feed it? I’m currently removing half then adding 60g AP flour and 65g water. I could either just NOT remove half, or increase the food, but would either method affect fermentation?
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and it will build up until you will be screaming for mercy as it will have invaded your entire lodging. Ha ha! Just kidding! But seriously, you will end up with more than you know what to do with.
What a lot of us do is thicken our starters to the point they are about 66% hydration or similar to a very thick pudding and keep it in the fridge for several weeks. When we want to bake, we take out a bit and keep feeding that bit until we have enough for our bake. That only takes a day or two. This way, there is no waste. You don’t throw out any flour. And when the starter in the fridge gets low, feed it well, let it rise a bit at room temp and put it back in the fridge. If course, go down this road once your starter is well established.
if you were going to remove half, you could use that half to make a pancake and enjoy with butter or syrup.
Joel, if you want to can keep a lot smaller culture. I feed mine twice daily so I keep it very small in order to not waste tons of flour. My starter weighs a total of 45g.
Here is a link that may be f interest to you. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40918/no-muss-no-fuss-starter Dabrownman’s No Mess No Fuss method is widely used by members of the site. It can be a life saver...
As Danni stated, it is extremely easy to increase the size of your starter. Say your starter is 100g. If you feed 1:2:2, 100g becomes 500g. Feed it and 500g becomes 2500g. Can you see were this is headed? You’re creating a monster :D
Dan
on whether you prefer to use your starter by mixing it right into your doughs, or by making a levain first that gets mixed in.
Personally, I usually do the former, and since I usually use 100 to 120 gm of starter, I keep 150. When I occasionally need more, I make a levain. The main difference is that the time it takes to make it lengthens the overall process time.