March 3, 2022 - 9:56pm
Starter timing for recipes - when to feed?
Hi, I have been told that starter is ready at 4 to 6 hours after feeding. This is fine for recipes that start at night for bulk rise. But I see many recipes that you start in the morning. How do you plan for a bubbly starter? Feed in the middle of the night? Thanks!
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Treat your starter and feeding regime separate from preparing the levain for the next day's bake. The levain for the next days bake, depending on your recipe, may differ in hydration and flour type than that of your starter. Typically, an overnight levain has only a 10 to 20 percent inoculation of starter so that it matures after 12 to 14 hours at 21 to 25C. My starter is a stiff rye, whereas the levain I need for the next day bake is a liquid white levain.
Example: I feed my stiff rye starter every morning. If I intend to bake the next day, I use the discard to create the white flour liquid levain over two builds. At 5pm I mix the final levain so that it will be ripe at 7am the next morning.
Temperature has a big impact. You can slow fermentation down by using the fridge. You can speed it up with warmth. Change the temperature as required to fit your schedule.
It depends on the type of starter that you have. I use two different starters and one of them is ready in 3 hours after feeling it and another - in 12 hours after feeding it. Both are equally powerful and make great breads, they are simply different starters.
Regardless of the kind of starter that you have, all starters in peak condition can be stored for 24 hours refrigerated and used straight from the fridge.
So, if your starter is ready at 4-6 hours after feeding, feed it in the evening, when you have time, wait for 4-6 hours, then refrigerate it overnight and use it first thing in the morning in your recipe.
Really helpful. I feel like I can manage my schedule now. Thank you!
Starters that are ready to use (after a feed) at approximately the 4-hour mark are most likely a 1:1:1 situation (equal parts starter, new flour and water). I often make breads that are started in the morning, so the night before, around 10:00 pm, I will do a 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 starter feed so that it is peaking in the morning (around 8:00 am) ready for use then. Increasing the ratio of new flour and water/starter will slow down the peak phase. However, you might want to account for these increases in your final formula if the recipe calls for a 'straight' feed or 100% hydrated feed (although I would not expect early morning formulas to be based on a 1:1:1 feed unless you aren't building the dough until noon-ish or unless they are expecting people to get started much earlier in the morning than I am willing to on a weekend ;-) ). Hope this helps! Happy Baking!
Thank you very much! You also explained something I didn’t know: I never understood what this meant: 1:1:1, and 1:2:2, etc. mystery solved! And that is a fantastic tip that the ratio changes the time it peaks. But now I have another question… theoretically if I have a 100% hydration starter no matter what ratio I’m using to feed - as long as it’s equal parts new flour and water - doesn’t it stay at 100%? (this is in response to your point about having to account for increases in the final formula if the recipe calls for a straight feed or 100% hydrated feed)
Yes assuming the starter was 100% hydration to start with, then anytime you feed it with water and flour in equal parts it will remain 100% hydration because the total flour = total water.
The time to peak assuming fermentation is at the same temperature (because colder = slower and warmer = faster) is related to the inoculation. A higher inoculation (the starter to flour ratio is more equal) will ferment more quickly. A lower inoculation where there is less starter compared to flour will take longer for the starter to ferment to peak. Less starter so less microbes so they will take longer to replicate and use up all the sugars in the flour.
Benny
Great info!
Great info!