The Fresh Loaf

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Can I Press *Pause* on My Starter?

gotokyo's picture
gotokyo

Can I Press *Pause* on My Starter?

I was going to bake loaves today but had other things come up, so I portioned out and fed the starter again to give it a feeding until it's time to make dough.  But given I fed it at around 5pm, instead of making a dough for autolyse..... I'm not into waking up a 4am to make dough!  Can I either 1. Put it in the fridge to slow it down until morning, and proceed as usual to make my dough, or 2. Give it a sort of "half" feed just to tide it over a few extra hours past usual "feed" time until I can put it together in the morning. I have 4 cups of bubbly starter ready built up and I don't want to have to divide and fully feed AGAIN to get back to 4 cups tomorrow for an evening/overnight autolyse.  I hope any of that makes sense :)

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

but it would be best to refrigerate when it is at peak or almost there. It will need to warm up in the morning.

What I have done it place my starter in a cool place,  like the basement or outside if it isn’t too cold,  to slow it down but not stop it completely like will happen if your fridge is cold enough. In the morning, if you aren’t ready for it, just give it a stir to redistribute the food and let it rise until you need it. 

If you don’t need it till tomorrow night, just put it in the fridge when it peaks and it will keep there for a few days without any problem.