December 20, 2014 - 5:51am
wheat sourdough starter, increased volume
A question about how much your sourdough increases during the feeding process
Time A: Feeded sourdough, for example 50 g sourdough starter + 100 g water + 100 g flour
Time B: Active sourdough starter, ready for baking
How much did your sourdough starter increases in volume between time A and B? For example, 100 % = double volume...
Share
A. Sourdough Starter 100g +100g flour + 100g Water, almost trippled within 4 hours.
* I feed mine with a 50/50 mixture of bread flour and Whole Wheat flour *
Ready for baking after about 6 hours, but it depends on the warmth in the kitchen...
My sourdough always get small bubble but it has problem to increased in volume. The last years I have tried with few sourdough and get the same results
How are you maintaining the sourdough starter? Please be very specific.
Just now I do following
Feeding method before baking time or when I just maintain it: I take my 50 g starter from the fridge (it is in a glas jar with cover in the fridge) and mix it with 100 g water (around 30-33 degree celcius) and 100 g wheat flour (12 procent protein). The consistency is not to thin or to thick. I am not sure what the "perfect" consistency is. I let it stand in room temperature (20-24 degree celcius) cover with foil. The numbers of hours can fluctuate,often 8 hour or more maybe sometimes, since it feels like it is so little power in it. When I think it's done I put 50 g of my sourdough back in the fridge and trow away the rest.
Sometimes I even feed it few times with 6-10 hours between before I put it back in the fridge. I try to feed it at least I time every week.
Your yeast population is on the decline. Time to make some changes...
Take out your starter (a very hungry one too) and reduce the size to just 20g. Stick the rest of it back into the fridge for a back up if we need it but please add a tablespoon of flour to it and make a little dough ball out of it. No waiting needed, label it, cover with a spoon of flour and turn it into a long term back up for the next few months. Can move to a jar with a screw top if desired. Now forget about it.
Take the 20g and double the weight with water, add flour as you usually do. Wait and watch it until it peaks in activity. Then reduce to 20g and repeat. When it peaks, reduce to 20g and feed again. Be sure to watch the timing of the starter and if it peaks sooner with each feed. When you are getting down to about 8 hrs peaking, Reduce to 10g and feed 100g flour and water and time it. That gives the yeast a super feed and they should be having a happy holiday too!
Let this 1:10:10 ratio starter ferment, peak in activity and then start to deflate. Bake a loaf of bread with the starter but save 20g to feed for your refrigerator starter. Give the 20g an hour or so to ferment longer and double the water amount and feed flour to make your favourite consistency. Now watch it. when it is about 1/3 risen, tuck it into the refrigerator. It should have enough reserve food to last out the week easy.
The problem before is that a hungry starter was chilled and so the yeast population slowly declined over time. A peaked starter will only keep a day or two at the most in the fridge. One with food reserves keep longer. Depending on the fridge temp, the yeast will go thru the flour slowly so if you need to bake before 4 days, take out the starter and let it warm up and finish fermenting, reaching a peak before feeding part of it for a recipe.
Hope this helps and Happy Holidays.
especially when I was feeding my starter to use in my dough rather than taking some off to make a preferment.
Since one has to wait till it has completely fed and just starting to fall to use in the dough then taking some off and returning the rest back to the fridge till next time will result in a sluggish slow starter.
When I changed to feeding my starter for the fridge, i.e. creating a nice amount allowing it to feed for just a few hours then returning to the fridge, and just taking a little off to build into a preferment I was getting much better results.
This way there's no wastage. Just top up when running low. your starter has plenty of strength left in it to last a while. Your levain will be stronger. No chance of putting the whole lot in your dough by-mistake. Easier to manage etc.
I think there is more power in my sourdough now. Will test it later. If I gonna feed my sourdough to keep it alive what will the differences be between these alternatives.
1) take the sourdough out from the frige and feed 50 g sourdough with 80 g flour + 80 g cold water and put it back in the fridge
2) take the sourdoug out from the fridge and feed 50 g sourdough with 50 g flour + 50 g water (40 degree celcius) and let it stand in rooms temperature 8-12 hours and then feed 50 g of the sourdough with 80 g flour + 80 g cold water and put it back to the fridge
You should try them both. See what happens. The warm water will boost yeast production. Might want to do more tests. Use warm water on 1) and chill. Mark and compare.
With a warm water of number two, flour feeding of (1:1:1) the yeast will quickly go thru the flour in a few hours (peaking in activity and falling off) long before the end of the 8-12 hour feed ; that is; if the yeast numbers are up to snuff or healthy and the culture stays relatively warm. If the numbers are low and cold there will be a slow increase of activity peaking much later. Let it peak before adding more flour and/or water.
When food decreases, the different varieties of yeast get stressed and will put out gas, stop reproducing and concentrate differently on survival instead of reproduction. For maintenance of a starter, that generally works in the opposite direction of our bread baking goals and purposes. We want to encourage yeast reproduction so that when more yeast are stressed (by us) they kick out more CO2 gasses on command. A feeding along the lines of 1:4:4 up to 1:10:10 should last to the 8-12 hr period when the culture temperature is 23°C or more. Ambient temperatures will make a difference. Maintain your starter for a good yeast/bacteria population and when you want to build flavour do it separately with the dough recipe.
What should be checked is the activity of the starter. It should be rising or showing other signs of activity when put into the refrigerator no matter what the water and flour temperatures if you desire wild yeast to raise dough.