June 23, 2014 - 12:39am
Accidentally added pastry flour when feeding my sourdough starter!
I SWEAR, I'm not usually quite as spacey as I have been lately! My husband made cookies and moved around the bags of flour in the cabinet and I grabbed the one closest without realizing it was the wrong one.
Then I was gone all day and didn't get to see if it rose/leavened. By the time I was back, it didn't look like it had risen much if at all but had lots of smaller bubbles in it.
Please tell me I didn't ruin it! Blech!
Thanks.
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I don't think you ruined it. Even if the flour was bleached and bromated. As long as there was no dry yeast or baking powder in the flour...
... I think the lack of rise could have been the lack of protein in the flour. It just won't trap the air.
Adrian
Just keep on feeding with the propper flour again and your Starter shall get more active again.
the lack of rise was totally due to the intentionally low gluten % of pastry flour, and maybe also due inpart to the yeasts discontent with the chemicals in the flour, though I don't imagine its much more poisonous then yer typical city water. maybe discard the majority and build it back up using the flour of yer choice, of just continue on how you were.
Thank you all. It seemed to bounce back - and WoodenSpoon, I did get rid of a pretty big chunk of it and added a bunch of KA whole wheat. I'm bulk-fermenting the dough now so we'll see how it does. It actually got pretty big but began to fall just before I used it so I hope it wasn't a mistake to incorporate it at that too-late stage! It was still frothy - just not as high in its container anymore. Worst case scenario these are all fun lesson-learning opportunities. ;) Thanks again.
If you are unsure if your Starter is is ok for baking, if you think you left it to late as it falls again...
Add Water in a bowl and take about a tsp of Starter out of your container, do it gently, and carefully put that bit of starter in the Water.
If it floats it has enough air to leaven a bread, if it sinks to down it is not yet strong enough.
Oh yes - I'd forgotten that! Thank you PetraR. Will have to try that next time I get into that predicament!