June 1, 2014 - 8:59pm
A Couple Questions for the Pros
I have a alive and healthy sourdough starter! Followed the directions, feed it weekly and it works great!
Now I really want a 100% whole wheat starter and 100% rye starter. Any tips or suggestions?
For the rye one, what rye flour should I use? Dark rye, light rye, or whole (pumpernickel) rye?
Also, I am trying my first time baking baguettes tonight (almost done with the bulk fermentation), any suggestions on the best way to incorporate steam into a oven would be greatly appreciated! I tried baking with steam once, and I feel like I didn't get enough in there. I'll take any advice I can get.
-Mariena
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You could seed your white starter with whole wheat flour and dark rye flour respectively. The whole wheat you can handle similarly to the way you handle your white starter but with the rye starter you'll want a smaller inoculation as rye ferments quickly. I do 1:8 twice a day myself. 1 part seed to 8 parts whole rye flour. You'll wanna use a medium to dark rye as a the dark parts are where all the good food is. pumpernickel is just coarsely ground whole rye. I'd aim for the more finely ground flour for starter maintenance and save the pumpernickel for rye breads that call for it.
As for steam. Sylvia's towel method is excellent you can search it up above. I just soak a few kitchen towels iwth very hot water and place in a brownie pan. pour boiling water over them and place on the very bottom of your oven 20 minutes before loading your bread. I also use a tray of lava rocks that i preheat in the oven and right after load carefully pour over a large cup of water which makes crazy steam. Be sure to remove after 1/3 or so of the bake so the loaf finishes baking dry.
Hope this helps
Josh
For creating new starters, you could do just that: start two new starters from scratch. I currently have three starters -- white, 100% whole wheat and 100% rye -- all of which I started from the ground up. Josh's method is certainly viable and will produce some active starters without much hassle; I only offer my own recommendation because, personally, being as itinerant as I am, I like to practice rebuilding a starter from the ground up, in case I ever have to begin at zero again.
You could start with a 100% rye starter method (basically, the same as any starter but with exclusively rye flour), then, after a couple of days, instead of discarding half of it, start feeding that potential discard-half a diet of only whole wheat flour, while feeding the other half with rye. That's probably how I would go about it, at least.
Steam can be a tricky business. The towel method is great. I usually opt for the procedure that I learned when I first started steaming my breads: a cup of ice into cast iron pan on the bottom rack of the oven about a minute before my loaves go in. I usually get pretty crusty breads this way.
Just wanted to offer my two cents . . . see what works for you and go with it ! Keep us posted !
I use AP flour for my starter for all my breads-whole wheat,white and even most rye. However, if I do a 100% or high percentage rye, I will use my AP starter to inoculate and make a rye starter the week before.
I have tried keeping a rye starter and WW starter and haven't had much luck-mostly because of my lack of attention, It is just easier to do it how I do it. 1 starter raises all the breads quite nicely and I have less maintenance time-my life is crazy enough right now.
I have a 100% Wheat Starter made and fed with bread flour and I have a 100% Rye Starter.
I must say, I do prefer the Rye Starter.
The last few weeks I have used my Wheat Starter , the taste is great, it is active and happy BUT I do not like the consistency much.
It is much easier to work with a Rye Starter * that is only my humble opinion *
Thanks for all the advice!
The towel method worked great! I'll post some stuff in a few minutes.
rye starters but gave all that up long ago - way too much work and waste. Now i do a 3 stage build for a rye sour starter using home milled whole rye . I get it to 125 g and 66% hydration and in the fridge it goes for up to 6 weeks as I bake one or two loaves out of it out of it every week.
If I'm baking a white bread, I do a 3 stage build from a little rye seed (3-4 g) and feed it white flour. If I'm making a whole wheat, I do the same thing using whole wheat flour.. a spelt bread or semolina bread - same thing just feed it over 3 stages what the bread 's flour will be and then you only need 1 starter for everything - and this one requires no waste or maintenance. Th lefvain can end up at what ever combination of flour and hydration you want or need.
I figure the bread isn't smart enough to know there is a little bit of rye in the levain mix.... no matter how smart that 'artisan bread' gets - Lucy says pumpernickel is by far the smartest of all breads but she is rarely right about these kind ofthings. I know i can't tell the difference in the final result baking this way.
Happy baking