The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

measuring sourdough

swtgran's picture
swtgran

measuring sourdough

This is probably a dumb question, especially since I have been baking bread for almost 40 years. 

When a recipe calls for a specific amount of sourdough, how do you measure it by volume?  I have used the same starter for many, many years and I always stir it down after the final feeding and measure from there.  Do others measure before it doubles and use all of the starter?  When I stir it down it is still a greater volume than at the beginning of the last feed, so I just dip out what I need at the end of the last feed and that is the amount I use.

That brings up the other question.  When you are doubling dough for the final rise, do you consider it double the amount before the first rise, right after mixing, or after you punch it down?  I use the punch down size as my gauge for double.

I think what to do becomes intuitive and I have had really good crust and crumb through the years, but it always pays to explore all the possibilities to achieve great bread.  Terry

Marni's picture
Marni

Terry,

I'm pretty new to sourdough baking, but from what I've read (and it's working for me so far), this works: I feed my starter and let it rise. Sometimes I use it at its peak and sometimes it has collapsed. I stir it down and measure it out. Then I feed the remaining starter again. It also seems to make some sense because the starter is hungry and adding it to the recipe then should cause great growth. This seems to work, but I could very well have misunderstood what to do. The sourdough experts will hopefully chime in here too.

As far as rising to double, I have always risen to double ( or thereabouts) from whatever starting point I am at- meaning if I have just deflated a loaf, I start from that point. Sometimes though the dough does not need to double, just to rise quite a bit. For doubling for the final rise before baking, I judge based on the size of the newly shaped loaf. I hope I understood your questions and answered what you asked.

I agree about exploring bread baking, I've been baking bread for almost 20 years and I'm still learning so much.

Marni

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Hi Terry,

I take about a tablespoon of firm starter out of the fridge, mix it with water and flour to make one cup of thick batter, pour it into a larger container and let it sit out, covered at room temp to ripen overnight.  The next morning use all of it. 

Doubling?  I think I go by bubbling.  If it has the right size bubbles I use it.  If bubbles are too big, I knead it a little, I can do this several times  until I think it's what I'm looking for.  If there are no bubbles, wait.   If it's high rye, I just throw it into the oven after it has rested about 15 minutes.  

Mini O