Help a beginner with his sourdough adventure
So I'm a chef with no training in the baking/patisserie side of the kitchen but I am ever inquisitive and always wanting to learn new things. I've found my self working in a small kitchen and as a result get to do most of the in house baking, so I'm not a complete novice when it comes to baking but don't have any real knowledge about baking, I just mix my ingredients together, knead, proof, shape and bake but can't explain the reasoning or the process behind what I'm doing if that makes sense? So I can't accurately judge what the cause of a problem might be if I face any or what affects changing ratios, temps, proofing times might have. And here I am, I made a sourdough starter over a week ago and it seemed to go really well, I made my first loaf today, just a standard boule and it turned out really nice although a little timid in flavour. I did 150g starter, 500g flour, 10g sea salt and around 300-350g water. Now my questions are as follows. If I will bake with my starter every other day will removing my required amount and replacing It in weight with 50/50 flour/water be enough to keep it going? Am I using the right amount of starter? Would using less and proofing longer create better flavour? Does hydration, kneading and proofing have an equal affect on crumb structure? Sorry for the long post but I just really want to learn more about baking sourdough!
I think it really depends on how much you leave behind. I always make sure to expand I at least 1 part old to two parts new to give the bacteria a chance to grow well. I did cell culture for years in graduate school etc, and I'm finding that treating the starter like a lab organism does the trick. :-)
As for amounts, I use 2 oz (60 grams?) for 1 lb of dough in an 18 hour no-knead recipe, and quadruple the amount for a regular Sourdough loaf. Check out King Arthur's site. They have a nice blog with a few sourdough posts with good instructions. To be honest I used KA starter after giving up on my home made one which never seemed to get as active as I wanted it to.
Good luck!
Andrew
I second what Andrew said: Don't think of it so much as replacing what you took out. Rather think of it as feeding what you left behind. My feeding regime is the same as Andrew's: 1:2:2 (1 part of starter to 2 parts of flour, to 2 parts of water). So if I have 50 g of starter, I will feed it with 100 g of flour and 100 g of water.
How do I know how much is left behind? Easy, because I know the weight of the empty container. When I have used my starter, I weigh the container with the remaining starter, subtract the weight of the empty container and then I know how much starter is left. I don't like to keep too much starter so I discard everything except 50 g and feed that. That means I always have about 250 g of starter on hand. Some people keep less, some more. This is what works for me and my container. Tip: write the weight of the empty container on clear adhesive tape with a permanent marker and stick it on your container. Stick another piece of clear adhesive tape over it to protect it further.
A really easy formula to follow is the 1:2:3 formula. That is 1 part starter: 2 parts water: 3 parts flour + 2% salt. It works very well and is easy to remember. The math is easy to work out, too!
So here is a recipe which I often use:
Leaven
Main Dough
You can experiment with the combination of flours. I like a combination of 15% whole wheat, 5% rye and 80% bread flour. This makes a nice sized 900 g boule which is really good for everyday eating. Shout if you want more detailed instructions.
There is no right and wrong amount of starter to use. It is all up to personal preference. My advice would be for you to experiment using different ratios and see which ratio you like the best.
Don't have time right now to answer your other questions, but:
Depends on what you are shooting for.
Short answer, no.
If I'm baking with it every two days will adding to my remaining starter be enough to keep it ticking over until I next bake with it or will it not be very active? Or would it be a good idea to make a leaven a few hours before I intend to bake? For my first bake I just took out the required amount of starter and got stuck in, is this the correct way or will feeding the starter 6 hours or so before you plan to bake produce better results? Cheers for all the answers it's been very helpful
No, it is probably not going to be very active. Not if you are going to feed it once every two days. If you want a very active, young leaven with a fruity, less acidic aroma, then you need to feed it at a lower ratio (e.g. 1:2:2) and feed it more often. On the other other hand if you want a more acidic leaven, then feed it at a higher ratio (e.g. 1:5:5) and lengthen the time between feedings. Eventually, your culture is going to adapt to however you feed it. In other words, you can train it to fit into your schedule but expect its flavour and leavening power to be different. But, remember, if you want consistent results, feed it consistently.
If you want it to last even longer, you can add 2% salt (2% of the flour weight in the starter) to it while mixing. This will slow it down considerably.
You can also feed it then refrigerate it before feeding. This is what most folks who are weekend bakers do. It is impractical, not to mention wasteful to keep it on the counter and feed it daily if you are only baking once a week. This is particularly the case if you have a very active starter like mine which needs to be fed every 4 - 6 hours. I would go through almost 3 kgs of flour week without even having baked a loaf! So instead, after using the amount I want, I discard everything but 50 g, feed it 100 g of water and 100 g of flour, put it into a clean container (I keep several on hand so that I always have a clean one when I need one) leave it out of the fridge until I can see the start of some activity (weather depending but somewhere between 30 and 50 minutes) and then refrigerate immediately. If I want to bake on Saturday, I take it out of the fridge on Friday, stir it up and leave it on the counter until it has peaked. When it starts to recede, I discard everything but 50 g and feed it again. Usually one feeding is sufficient to get it back to strength again, but sometimes I have to discard and feed a second time. Once it has peaked again, it is ready to use in my leaven. Having taken out the required amount for my leaven, I discard everything but 50 g, feed, wait until I see some activity and then refrigerate. I am sure you get the idea by now!:)
How long before make your leaven is going to depend on the recipe. Some require multiple builds. Some like the Tartine loaf require you to start your leaven about 12 hours before you mix the final dough. But most call for a mature starter (i.e. one that has been fed and peaked - matured).
Don't confuse your starter with your leaven. Your starter (or mother as some like to call it) is what you use to build your leaven. It gets fed regularly (or at least consistently) and when it is mature a small portion of it is removed to seed your leaven. The final dough is built from the leaven.
Time it so that your starter peaks when you want to start you leaven build. So if you want to start you leaven build at 10 on Friday evening and your starter takes 5 hours to mature, then feed it at 5 on Friday afternoon. Remove required amount of mature starter to build the leaven, discard what you don't want, feed the remaining, put into a clean container and refrigerate (if using the refrigeration method).
Hope this helps.
Syd
If what you use every 2 days depletes the majority of starter then replacing would be fine and there would be no waste. I usually dump the excess If I don't use a lot for a single loaf. You can also use cold, 'fed' starter directly in some recipes if the idea of dumping out the excess hurts too much. But let's say you keeps a cup around and only use 1/4 of it. Then I think simply adding back the 1/4 won't keep your starter at its peak. The organisms, especially the bacteria and not just the yeast, need to be active and growing to impart the sour flavor.
But I'm pretty new to this too, so if anyone wants to correct me, please please do.