We had breakfast for dinner last night, and I thought it was time to pass on a small recommendation for this recipe from King Arthur. The waffles and pancakes it makes are light and crispy, very tasty. The recipe calls for an overnight ferment when you are planning for breakfast. When I'm planning dinner, I make the ferment in the morning. Works great for me.

Anyway, here comes a tip from me, and it might be sacrilege, but it's the real reason I'm writing:

When I feed my starter, I hate to throw away all that excess, as one is supposed to do. So usually I just keep it -- I store it in a sealed plastic container in the refrigerator. Every time I feed my starter, basically weekly, I add the excess to the plastic container. I don't feed it, I don't treat it with any respect at all, I just glop it in that container. If it gets to be over four-six weeks old (by my estimate; I don't keep track!), I will just throw it out and start all over at the next feeding. But if it's not too old, I use it in this recipe. Note that the recipe calls for sourdough starter straight out of the fridge, unfed. And that certainly fits the description of what I use! 

The recipe is on the King Arthur site:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-waffles-recipe

Try it sometime. You'll like it.

Hi Gang,

I'm nuts for starters lately...I got 3 going!   Today we made a covered pizza with my first starter I started, I have 2 more on the ready!   I'm NUTS for the starters.  Tomorrow I'm making Chad Robertson's French Country Bread,  levain is rising as we type, but for now if you have time, please check out the wife's blog, she posted nice pics of the covered pizza!!!  you gotta try one

  http://jewelsinnaples.blogspot.com/2012/01/tonite-on-menupizzacome-oooona-cold.html

Cya,

Frank

Hello,

         I have decided to make a sourdough starter.

Using approx 15 grams of bread flour and 15 grams of fresh pineapple juice, I have created this

It has a consistency of thick pancake batter.

I have the starter in a glass jar, with a loose lid on top, and its sitting next to a rice cooker for warmth.

The last starter I made didn't seem to rise enough when I made bread, even after a 5-10 hour first rise.

My hopes are that this starter will be more active.

Kody

HI,

I'm revisiting sourdough after a disasterious try about five years ago. I used Debra Wink's pineapple juice method to start the starter. I got gas on day 5 and a very healthy starter on day 14. I fed every day and waited that long for the culture to stabilize in odor, taste and appearance.

I've been routinely feeding according to Reinhart (BBA), and used his basic sourdough recipe for the first loaf. I was very happy with the appearance, crumb, crust and flavor. Sorry I don't have a photo, the family destroyed the evidence. BUT, the color of the crumb was not as white as a loaf made from the same flour and direct addition of SAF yeast. Is it supposed to look brownish? It also seems to be almost translucent, but I may be making that part up.

Thanks for your help.

Ray

I'm having an interesting issue with my starter, or perhaps my bread. If I use starter for high hydration breads (70-80%) that are just KA bread flour, water, salt, and my homegrown sourdough, especially if I retard them, I seem to have a gloopy mess sometimes. Usually I can hand-knead my breads for a while (accordion-style) and they eventually settle down, hold their form, and act nice. However, sometimes it seems like the gluten has trouble forming, especially after prolonged retardation (during bulk fermentation) in the fridge, and the bread doesn't want to play nice when I bring it up for baking, even with several turns of gentle folding. I still come out with nice big holes, good gelatination, and a lovely flavor, it's just I essentially have to pour the bread dough and end up with pretty formless loaves. The weirdest thing is that it doesn't happen all the time. Any thoughts?

I have been travelling for 2 1/2 years with my starter and I finally left it behind by accident. I am visiting some friends in SF and meant to bring my Starter with me and mistakenly left it behind at another friends place in LA. Are there any SF bakers with a fresh sourdough that might be willing to donate a sample I can bake with this week? I took a chance and asked at Tartine, but they shot me down. :(

Feeling naked w/o my starter, help! (I'm in Potrero, but the busses here are amazing so I can come get it probably just about anywhere.)

Thanks!

Hi All,

This is my first post on the forum and I've thoroughly enjoyed reading many of your posts. I love SD bread and have recently over the past few months started baking SF SD bread. I would like to draw on your experiences working with a Motherdough. Specifically nurturing a Motherdough similar to Boudin.

I've seen  a few videos of baker Fernando @ Boudin showing off the Motherdough and he always asks people to smell it as he rips it open and squishes it back to expel a big whiff of ripeness! Everyone's expression is shear amazement, and he says it can clear your sinuses! How the heck do they get it so ripe? Fernando says they feed it very strong flour for the bacteria to have plenty of food. Strong flour?

I've read that in Southern California the bread will taste different due to local bacteria, I'm fine with that but I'd still like to get my Motherdough as ripe as possible with the end result as naturally tangy as can be. I have two cultures from which I started my two Motherdoughs; KAF & Cultures for Health SF SD.

Here are my questions;

1) Do your starters have a nose biting pungent smell?

2) What hydration level would produce a pungent Mother? Lower hydration = more sour right?

3) What temperature should I store the Motherdough at? I've heard 48*? Which temp best promotes the lactic acid development?

4) What flour do you think Boudin is using to feed Momma? 14% protein? White, Wheat, Rye? I've seen bags of Mello Judith in videos.

5) What feeding schedule would produce the most lactic acid?

Reference videos;

0:25 Fernando brings out motherdough. Look how firm it is and the dark creamy color.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmu1geWRpS8

1:25 motherdough vault

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1OEai8x8M&list=FLxgN-j3OffrJZOF5tu7dzXA&index=1&feature=plpp_video

In this video you see Fernando explain that they feed Mother very strong flour. You can also see how dense the mother is and how much darker the color is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOmlhjAphnE

Thanks,

Jake

My ph is 7.4 - does this matter in bread making.  Also is it okay to use RO water

Hi, all. I’m having such a great time learning and reading on this website. As a very new baker of things containing yeast, there is certainly much to learn and I’m grateful to all who have contributed in expanding the knowledge of others.

I’m currently working on my first juice/whole grain sourdough starter, and I’ve read much about the development and maintenance of one, so I think I’m off to a good start - HOWEVER - there’s a lot I don’t understand. I’m running into trouble when people are discussing things like ratios, and also how to bulk up a starter for use in a recipe. I’m also having difficulty with percentages, such as 100% hydration, for example--what does that mean, and how do you formulate a recipe based on that type of expression?

I know there is much information here, but does anyone know of a post that already exists that specifically and clearly explains these and other information about sourdough starter development and use, from the ground up for those of us who are brandy-new and terrible at mathematics? I think that despite my inexperience and deficiency with numbers, I could manage if I could grasp the concepts I could begin to figure it out. Unfortunately I’m finding that I need things explained to me as though I was in kindergarten. L

Thanks in advance for any information or referrals. Have a GREAT weekend! J

I'm getting a sourdough starter going the cheater's way- I used just a wee pinch of commercial yeast to get things jump-started. I'm awful, I know. Purists may feel free to sniff skeptically and feel superior... they are! I always kill my all natural starters.

The problem isn't to do with that, though. Most pictures I've seen online of people's 100% starters look runny, and they're often described as being "like a thick batter" in consistency. Mine is more like a slack dough. I know whole wheat absorbs more water than white flour, so I'm assuming that's what's causing the difference. What should I do- leave it thick? Add more water, which would give the right consistency but throw off the hydration? switch to white flour? Any advice is much appreciated!

--SomethinkD