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Increasing my starter for a possible large bake

neoncoyote's picture
neoncoyote

Increasing my starter for a possible large bake

I have finally produced what I think is a very well-flavored white-flour sourdough baguette after feeding my starter (stiff, refrigerated) for about three weeks. I'm excited to see what flavors it will produce as I continue to feed it.

I live in a small Alaska island town that holds a Farmer's Market throughout the spring and summer. This isn't nearly as exciting as it might sound, since very limited types of produce grow here. It does bring out people interested in offering and buying wholesome food. A friend sells her Kombucha there with great success, and I thought it would be complimentary to offer another fermented product -- which got me to thinking about selling my bread. On the one hand, I know I'm a little nuts to contemplate putting myself through that stress, but on the other hand, the reward is great when others truly enjoy something I made, that they cannot buy anywhere else. I would certainly not be taking on this project because I would expect to be well-compensated for my time...I know I will not be.

I was guardedly excited about it until I contemplated increasing my starter to an amount sufficient to make about 50 loaves. Every 3 loaves I currently make takes a cup of starter, so I'd need much, much more than I currently have. That led to other questions:

1. Is the flavor of my current bread *more* the result of using a 3-week-fed starter, or perhaps using two stretch-and-folds during the last batch's rise?

2. Would it produce a better-flavored starter to create, say, 15 new containers of starter using a small amount of my current starter in each; or to slowly increase one starter in a very large container?

I also considered how much easier it would be to also produce non-sourdough bread, including batches made with the recipes in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day; those doughs could be made far ahead of time with no starter and actually improve in taste as they're refrigerated...but those wouldn't be fermented breads...not that they have to be.

Any thoughts on the sourdough questions is much appreciated, as well as lessons learned from any similar Farmer's Market-type enterprises.

Thank you!!