Help with Starter

If the starter doubles or triples within a few hours it should be ready for baking. That said, with a new starter it often needs to be fed for a few weeks before it is ready. At 1.5 weeks yours could be ready to give it a go. 

To reduce waste, you can easily change from a 100/100/100 feeding schedule to 50/50/50 or even less! If you leave the starter in the fridge during the week (as I do), you usually want to take it out a day or two in advance of baking and make sure it gets a few good feeds before building your levain. Some people do multiple builds and others don't. Doing builds generally increases the sour tang of the bread, but can also be used to reduce the amount of starter discard. For example, let's say you have 300g of starter in the fridge, you'd take it out and throw away 200g, then you'd feed it, then you'd throw away another 200g, then you'd feed again and then build your levain. In this case you have easily tossed 500+g of starter out before baking. On the other hand, you could store just 2 tablespoons of starter in the fridge and then take it out and do 3-4 feeds to build it up to 200g or so and then use 150g to build your levain and nothing has been thrown out. Does this make sense? I usually do something in the middle so I keep about 50g of starter in the fridge. 

I will recommend the same I did to somebody else on this forum: learn to read your starter :) It takes some effort but this will be super helpful in the future.

I try to answer most of your questions:

- take notes how long it needs for different ratios and after some time you won't even need to time it anymore

- your starter is ready to go when its mature, meaning it has domed and collapsed slightly (google "mature starter" for visual reference). That way you can also read it when you forgot to mark the original amount.

As somebody else said, it should have doubled to tripled in volume. You should see plenty of bubbles. Then your starter is at peak activity, but it should be also good to go a few hours later (believe me, been there, worked well)...might just take a little longer proofing time than usual.

- some people feed their starter multiple times before they use it to encourage gas production and bacteria activity...but those are pro strats, you are totally fine  using it after one feeding (not sure how much of a difference multiple feedings make).

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Here's an idiot-proof sourdough recipe that you can expand however you like:

100% wheat flour

60% water

2,5% salt

50% starter

Mix to medium consistency

Bulkferment for 2h at room temp (you can fold 1-2x if you want)

Portion, pre-shape, rest for 20 min.

Shape the breads and proof for another 1,5-2h (depending on room temp).

Bake at 240°C/465°F in a dutch oven, pot or without until dark and crisp.

Works every time perfectly.

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Starter is basically wild yeast (and other bacteria), so you can replace any baker's yeast in a recipe with starter. For every package of yeast (11g) use 1 cup starter. And account for the extra flour and water from it (say if you put 200g starter in a recipe, replace 100g flour and 100g fluid with it - makes sense?). Also take in longer proofing time, starter needs longer than baker's yeast.

Hope this clears some things. If you have more questions, just ask :)

SlowRiser, I think it is time to increase the starter to flour ratio. I say this because you wrote, “The rubber band is where the starter was when i feed it last night at 12am and this picture was taken at 8am.” If I understood your post correctly, you are feeding 100 starter + 100 water + 100 flour (1:1:1) every 12 hours. From the looks of you and image it appears your starter has tripled in 8 hours. It also looks like the starter has peaked (risen its highest) and is in a state of falling and deflating. The best time to refresh (feed) your starter is just after it has peaked and just started to fall. At this time your starter has developed the maximum amount of yeast. If the starter is left unfed for too long the LAB (good bacteria) will begin to maximize the yeast will start to decrease.

In order for your starter to rise for 12hr (2 daily feedings) you will want to increase the starter to flour ratio. Why not try a test starter (extra one). Keep it small to reduce waste, maybe 1:4:5 (S:W:F). So if you wanted to use 3 grams of starter you would mix 3 starter + 12 water + 15 grams flour). Put the mixer in a small drinking glass, mark the beginning level and cover to prevent drying. If you try that, see how long it takes to peak and just begin to fall. Your room temperature will have a dramatic affect on the timing of your fermentation. Cool = slower - warm = faster. Also the hydration will affect the timing of the ferment. Drier = slower - wetter = faster.

Welcome to sourdough. I want to try to address a couple of your questions. I'm still pretty new myself, and I know that the experienced bakers here will have great advice for you, but perhaps the perspective of a newbie will be useful, too.

There are all different kinds of feeding schedules because people have all different kinds of baking schedules, kitchen environments, and preferences. There is no one right way, there is only the way that will work for you and is convenient enough that you'll keep baking bread. Basically, you need to feed the starter sometime after its peaked and before it dies. It will stay healthier and most vigorous if this is on a regular schedule and early in that window. The traditional twice or thrice daily shoots for that, and if you leave it at room temp, that's what you'll probably have to do. 

People who bake less often slow things way, way down by putting it in the fridge and feeding once a week. If you bake once a week, this is ridiculously convenient. 

Starter and levain are, in some ways, interchangeable words. People use their starter to make a levain to then build their dough from for several reasons, among them: They don't want to keep a big starter going, so use just a small bit of starter to build a levain the day before they mix their dough. They don't want to accidentally dump all their starter into a dough. They want to keep a "plain" starter but have a specialized levain for a particular dough.

You can, I have, mixed dough straight from the starter. This works fine if the starter is active (not languished in the fridge for a month) and it's big enough or you're dough small enough. 

Hello,

I feed mine 2 x day and keep it on the stiff side. It rises and falls nicely. My question is - When, in the 12 hour feeding cycle is it best to start the levain? At it's height, or before it highest, or after it starts falling? Does it need it be at its most energetic, or just fed, or hungry?