May 11, 2019 - 5:26pm
Pineapple Juice - works great.
After about 4+ weeks trying to produce a viable starter with just water and flour yesterday, I replaced the water component with Pineapple Juice after reading Derba Winks article on the same posted in 'The Fresh Loaf' forum.
After reading her article it identified for me that the Pineapple Juice adjusts the pH profile of the starter ( slightly more acidic I believe) in a way that promotes a starter environment that favours yeast activity. Very pleased.
If this keeps up I will be able to attempt to bake a loaf by next weekend. I enjoy the art/science aspect of the Soughdough processes. I am very very much a novice baker so many challenges ahead I suspect.
Share
Many challenges to becoming a master of the craft of baking, in all its variations and details? (achieving fame and fortune, adoring fans, millions of customers): yes, certainly, prepare for very long very intense work, and no guarantees.
Many challenges to pretty soon making consistently decent bread that your family likes and is worth eating? Nah, you can do it, it's not that bad!
That old thomas Edison quote really fits breadmaking.
"Every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. "
I failed my first four loaves of sourdough before getting one right. Made plenty of successes since, but I'm certain I'll flub some again. That's part of the allure imho.
Good luck!
It was a few weeks ago that I too started my journey into baking sourdough breads and started making my pineapple juice starts. After one failed attempt I got two starters going, one with whole wheat and the other with sprouted organic dark rye. The whole wheat starter is a week older and the only one of the two that I have really baked with. The rye starter however, got going much much faster than the whole wheat starter and I think it would be able to raise a loaf without a problem now. Both are currently being fed whole wheat flour so I’m not sure why I still have two, but next week I think I will bake with the one started out with rye and pineapple juice. I have them in the fridge and thus far have been feeding them once per week keeping only 40 g of starter and feeding each with 40 g water and 40 g whole wheat flour.
After discarding a lot of starter, I’ve now started to keep the discards and have made sourdough pancakes with some of it.
Anyhow, enjoy your successful starter! Have fun with your first bake.