September 19, 2012 - 7:04am
nancy silverton and baker's percentage
hi
i have been trying to figure out how to convert nancy silverton breads to a smaller amount of starter.
she calls for 12-21 ounces per recipe and it seems so much! If i am scaling using baker's percentage-how do i figure in the starter?
thanks!
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I believe that Silverton uses a starter of about 188% hydration. My first starter was made by her procedure; she used equal volume flour and water ratio.
Ford
In her La Brea Bakery book, she specifies feeding amounts by weight, and they are proportional to 11 oz of flour and 16 oz of water, which results in a starter with 145% hydration.
If it were me, I'd calculate what percentage of the flour was being used from the original recipe to figure out how much starter to use.
eg: if the original recipe calls for 400gms starter and 500gm flour and I wanted to use only 300gm flour (not counting the flour in the starter), that would be using 60% of everything in the original recipe. So that would mean using 240gms starter.
At least I think that's right.
-Elizabeth