Patience and Air
I'm new to this site and making/growing/nurturing sourdough starters. I've been reading a lot about the starter problems that many people have been discussing here, and until today, I was one of them.
I started my starter using raisin water and rye flour excatly a week ago. Within the first 24 hours, I saw a lot of bubbles and doubling in volume - which I initially thought was amazing but later realized it was just the hyperactivity caused by leuconostoc bacteria. From there, I started feeding every 24 hours only to see little to nothing for the next 6 days. Every time I came back to the jar, there would either be some bubbles on top or a little amount of hooch on top. But there is no sign of rising at all.
After 3-4 days of nothing-ness, I started thinking something went wrong and was desparate for help. That's how I began reading pretty much the entire forum on Sourdough on this site and anything I could find online.
I know, it had only been a couple of days and I was already freaking out, when a lot of people say to wait at least a week to 10 days. Obviously, I have no patience...
Meanwhile, I kept feeding my starter regardless. I did tweak a bit here and there, though, using different hydration, different flour, combination of flours, different temperature, etc. Nothing seemed to make a difference until today - day 7! I fed it 6 hours ago, and my starter is suddenly nearly doubled in volume!! Now I will start feeding 2-3 times a day for a few more days. If all goes well, I will try baking my very first soughdough bread in a couple of days. Can't wait!
In summary, I realize that the patience is the most important ingredient in sourdough starters. Also, it may be worth mentioning one major change that I made 2 days ago (so 5th day from the start) - which was to get rid of the lid and replace it with a piece of paper towel. I'm using a mason jar, and I initially had covered it very loosely with a lid. But I read somewhere that you need lots of air to culture yeast, thus came the paper towel idea. (I'm out of cheesecloth...) I'm not sure if this had any major contribution, but something is definitely working!
So good luck to everyone who's been having similar experiences, but I hope time and patience will eventually pay off!
Given the nature of my very recent post, I will be watching this thread with great interest!
When I start a starter, I use a small amount of flour and water and I actively stir it at least once or twice a day. I think what happens is there are some yeasts captured from the air that settle on the surface. Stirring them in just gets them in contact with the food and moisture of the mix. If they stay on the surface, they may dehydrate and die.
Patience is a very important imgredient in breadbaking with natural starter. I often don't have the time to wait for long rises so I will often use a combination of starter and a small amount of commercial yeast. I know-I know-I'm not a purist .But I'd rather have my own homemade delicious bread with a little yeast than any commercial product.
Thanks so much for your tips! I will stir my starter as suggested.
I am totally with you about using a small amount of commercial yeast. Depending on how my starter turns out and how patient I can be, I might use a little help from commercial yeast. Anything to avoid those nasty additives in store-bought breads!
So after I made sure that my starter was strong and active enough for baking, I made my very first sourdough bread!! Well, two to be exact.... I took out a big portion of the starter and split it in half and made one round white bread and 3 whole wheat baguettes.
The roud bread came out really well with the crackling crust, chewy interrior, and great sour flavor. I baked in a pre-heated dutch oven, which I understand contributes to that great crust. The only thing is that I underestimated the growth of this bread, and also didn't do a good job on scoring on top. It actually reached the top of the lid and it prevented from espanding further. Regardless, it tasted great for a first try!
My baguettes weren't that amazing, unfortunately... I'm just not so crazy with the whole wheat taste, and creating steam to get the desired crust was very challenging. I used the ice cube and spraying methods, but I don't think they created enough steam. I would like to try the disposable aluminum pan method next time to trap the steam. I probably could've baked it for another couple of minutes for a darker crust. They were better when sliced and toasted with olive oil.
In any case, I'm still happy with how my starter turned out and how beautifully it lifted my dough (even with whole wheat) with nice mild sour flavor. But boy, I have a lot to learn!!
Now I have to keep my baby happy in the fridge for a very long time.
whiskers: can you go into detail about your process and recipe? I'm not having anywhere near the luck you clearly had so I'd like to compare and contrast! TIA :)
I'm sorry you are having a bit of trouble with yours... I roughly followed this recipe for my very first bread:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11
I say "roughly" because I didn't have any bread flour. So I did about 2 cups of AP flour (a little more because it was too wet) plus 1TBSP of gluten and 3 TBSP of rye flour. I also knead the dough using a bread machine on dough cycle for good 10-12 minutes. I add the salt about 5 minutes into the kneading.
The first fermentation took 3 hours to double - the final an hour and a half. For the final proofing, I put the dough in the oven with the pilot lamp on. I have a very old gas oven, and the temp is about 86F which I was afraid would be too warm.
I used warm tap water and my starter is also made with tap water from the start (contrary to what a lot of people say). The starter, when it's fed, doubles up in about 2 hours.
I put half of my well-fed starter in the fridge and kept half at room temp. It is day 11 and the one that's been sitting on the counter seems a bit weaker. I don't really know why. I have been feeding it twice a day. I did bake again (olive bread) today using that same starter. Well, to my surprise, it didn't rise as quickly as my first loaf. This time, I had bread flour so it's half AP and half BF with again a few TBSP of rye. The first fermentation took about 4 hours. I shaped it and left it in the oven again to rise for the final proofing. 3 hours later, it looked alittle puffed, but definitely not doubled. Since I didn't have time to wait forever tonight, I just put it in the oven then. To my surprise, the bread came out beautifully, even better than the first one. It sprang a lot in the oven, and got bigger holes. Here are the pics.
Perhaps the slow rise was due to all that salt content in the olives, but I find it very interesting. I'm still very green at the whole thing, and don't really calculate the % and grams precisely. I go mostly by the feel and see what happens, which probably doesn't help you much....