March 31, 2010 - 6:55am
Ignorant starter question
Hi, All. I am relatively new to breadbaking. I have a starter that is great for baking bread w/no extra yeast (but doesn't taste very sour) but I hate 'feeding' it because it seems like such a waste of flour and good starter. I just made strawberry soda with yeast, sugar, water and strawberry syrup. That made me think -- can't I just use a small amount of sugar instead of flour to 'feed' my starter? Excuse me if this is a stuped question....thanks.
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When you feed your starter flour it breaks it down to starches than sugar, which is a slow process. If you feed it sugar it will immediately eat it and demand more food. This will probably lead to starving and a dead starter. Keep your starter in the fridge if you do not want to feed it so often.
SndBrian
Hi
Actually if you add too much sugar this has a depressing effect on yeast activity; it's too much food for them to cope with. I mean, if you have your fill of a 5 course banquet, you don't exactly feel like going out for a 10 mile run do you?
Little and often is more successful.
Why not use temperature to control your starter's activity. Retarding in the fridge really helps to cut down on "feeding costs"
Thanks
Andy
I think it would take a lot of sugar and offset the balance of bacterias to yeast. Why don't you try converting to a very thick starter and keeping it in the fridge? Most of the time (me included) we start with a very thin starter (>%100 water) and we're slaves to our starter, probably leaving on the countertop, keeping far to large of a quantity (do you have a cup or two to feed everyday? Eventually, we learn to keep a very small amount of very firm starter in the fridge.
If you search the website for firm starter you should find plenty of information on how to keep a very small amount (25-100grams or just a few tablespoons) of firm starter. That's really all you need! When I built starter last night for 3 loaves of bread (a multigrain rye) the recipe called for 1tbsp+1tsp) this was for 3 loaves!! That means this is all the starter I need to keep back. Enough to make that next build. (in this recipe it is kept back in the recipe so you don't even need to make adjustments for it)
You'll find with a firm, refrigerated starter you can go a couple of weeks between feedings, bake and not waste anything. I simply build my starter for my bakes. I have two starters, one ww and one rye. I try to alternate starters so that they both get used every other week, maybe more.
If I build starter and can't get to baking with it I'll make pancakes or english muffins. I haven't thrown out starter in months.
Keep a small sized starter. My starter initially was 1 cup water, 1 cup flour, about half would be discarded and it would then be fed 1 cup water and 1 cup flour. If you don't already have a scale, down size your starter about 45g and feed it a 50% hydration andstick it in the fridge. That's what I've been doing and it seems to be doing well in terms of not needing to be fed 2-3 times a day.
When I began baking bread with sourdough, I hated pitching the discard into the garbage too. I bake no-knead sourdough every 10 days or so. Feeding time for my sourdough coincides with the moment I'm ready to mix my no-knead bread dough. I store my starter in the refrigerator. I remove the starter jar from the fridge, pour off 290 grams of sourdough (what I use) into a mixing bowl for my bread recipe. Then I replace 150 grams of water and 150 grams of flour back into the jar. I keep it on the counter until it doubles in size (about 4-6 hours) and put it back into the refrigerator until the next time.
This way, I use it all. Nothing goes down the drain.
As I write this, I've just mixed my dough and fed my starter. When I began with sourdough, I couldn't get the proportions right. Either the dough was too wet; the bread didn't rise; the starter was lifeless; the bread tasted good, but it was a pancake.
I persevered through countless experiments until I came up with a formula that works for me. 290 grams starter, 880 grams AP flour (sometimes half whole wheat) 20 ounces water, 2 TBS salt, and 1/3 cup ground flax seeds.
I use Jim Lahey's basic technique, but I've adapted the recipe for sourdough (no yeast at all) and applied the techniques for no-knead used on America's Test Kitchen (slightly less water and some kneading).
Finally, success. Even better, consistent success!