Hello all - I've read/heard conflicting things about what to feed a starter. Mine (Ella) is a couple months old and began as a straight rye starter. Once I felt like it was mature enough, I started doing a 50/50 rye/AP feeding.
I've heard you should feed a starter what it's made of - so essentially rye in this case. And I've also heard that once a starter is mature enough, you should switch to white flour because the starer can't eat the endosperm/germ of hardier flour and so when feeding it white flour you're feeding it exactly what it wants to eat.
That said, I tried to do an off-shoot starter using Ella to seed it of just feeding AP and nothing happened.. it did not want to "grow." Instead, next time I slowly backed off 50/50 rye/AP until I got down to 10% rye and 90% AP for feedings. It's doubling now, but still not seemingly as strong as when it was all rye. Thoughts?
A SECOND question is along a similar vein, but relative to bread.. If I have a 100% rye starter.. and I use it to make a white or mostly white bread (but not rye), will it be less effective? I'm thinking that if my attempt at an all AP/BF feeding resulted in not much reaction with my starter, does that mean that a rye starter won't be as effective raising an all/mostly white dough?
TIA
Randi
Once a starter is established, you can feed it whatever. Doesn't seem as lively - it won't be - the starter may be thinner than normal (if using same feed ratios and schedules), and weight rise as high. I've airways found it beneficial when changing something like food, to work it in little by little over a few days or a week. This way you can observe and note the differences and what you're likely to see in the future.
Second question - no. Although what you'll see when using all white flour may be different, it'll be the flour not the starter. Enjoy!
Based on my experience, I agree with phaz. I've maintained a 100% rye starter for many years and use it to make all kinds of breads. Over the years, I have experimented with converting a portion of my starter to the main flour in whatever bread I was making and ultimately determined that it was completely unnecessary. To my palate, there has never been an appreciable difference in the flavor or texture of the baked bread. That said, if you want to find out what you think, try it both ways. You will get good bread either way and might discover that your palate is more discerning than mine :-)
Regarding changing the feeding flour, I agree with phaz on this point, too. I would be inclined to introduce a new flour gradually over a number of feedings, especially if your starter is fairly new or a bit sluggish at the time. I'm not going to say I've never changed flours all at once. I have, and with no immediately visible effects. Sometimes the starter goes great guns for the first couple feedings on a new flour; however, it's my experience that it usually slows down after a day or two – although I expect it would eventually perk up again after it adjusted to its new diet. Your level of success may vary depending upon the feeding schedule, storage temp, etc.
Have fun and good luck!
Generally, when you’re feeding a starter whole grain flour. It’s going to be more active than if you’re feeding it white flour. Also applies when you’re using a starter to make whole grain bread. There’s just more nutrients in whole grain than in white flour for the yeast and bacteria to feed on. Whole grain flour may not have as much gluten in it especially rye. So higher activity doesn’t necessarily mean more volume.
I keep a 100% rye flour and love how resilient it is. No problem building a levain using all AP with that starter. I think cost is a consideration on what you feed your starter with as AP or bread flour would be cheaper than rye flour. Especially if you’re not baking regularly and end up having discards.
So, in my experience, and as others have said, there's no reason to convert to white flour. My starter (Alpha) started as a 100% whole dark rye starter. It was extremely vigorous from the get go and I used it to make everything. I've since converted it to 100% whole wheat because I didn't have the pantry space for rye, whole wheat, high protein bread flour and ap flour. (So something had to give.)
It's nearly as good as a whole wheat starter, and it's definitely vigorous. I, again, use it to make everything from pancakes/waffles with ap flour to pain au levain to whole wheat bread. I just use it to inoculate a levain that matches the dough I'm making if it's not a whole wheat dough.
Works awesome and I see no reason to do anything different. (Except maybe switch back to rye because I felt the starter had better activity and flavor. It also smelled beautiful and floral.)
Agreed! The rye starter smells SO good.