The Fresh Loaf

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Rephrasing -- turning a liquid starter to a firm starter

February 5, 2011 - 3:50pm
gringogigante's picture
gringogigante

Rephrasing -- turning a liquid starter to a firm starter

but how much? My liquid starter is 100% hydration (equals weights flour:water). A lot of the recipes I see here call for a "firm starter or sponge". I don't have that and have a ton of liquid starter a la Ed Wood's cool book.

what's a lad to do?

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totels's picture
totels
Feb 5 2011 - 9:13pm

A stiff starter is 1/3 water and 2/3 flour by weight, or 50% hydration.

You can do two things:

  1. segment off a bit of your liquid starter and feed it extra flour as necessary.
    • Flour to Add = Stiff Weight / 3
    • Liquid Starter = Stiff Weight * 2 / 3
    • ex: recipe calls for 200g Stiff Starter
      • 200g / 3 = 66.6g
      • feed: 66.6g Flour and 133.3g Liquid Starter
  2. use your liquid starter as-is and adjust the water in your dough
    • Increase the amount of starter by 1/3
    • Exclude water equaling the weight of the extra 1/3
    • Liquid Starter = Stiff Weight * 4 / 3
    • Exclude Water = Liquid Starter / 4
    • ex: recipe calls for 150g Solid Starter
      • 150g / 3 = 50g
      • Liquid starter = 50 * 4 = 200g
      • Exclude water = 50g