June 3, 2015 - 8:46am
Starter VS Sourdough Starter?
The title of this forum seems to answer my question but it is not what I am finding in the other world.
95% of all internet hits all mention sourdough starters. When I use -sourdough, all I get is an Amish recipe for a starter and it is repeated in dozens of sites.
Is there a difference between a starter and a sourdough starter?
If so, what?
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The so called Amish friendship starter is one that uses dry yeast, such as instant dry yeast, and other ingredients to advance a science experiment sort of project bound to take over your refrigerator. A sourdough starter, on the other hand, simply uses flour and water. The archived threads here contain instructions for building your own sourdough starter and the confirmations of success by the bakers who have done so.
All you have to do is to use the search button to look for the process. Debra Wink's method is one of the best ever developed and loved by many who post here. Seek and you shall find.
The so called Amish friendship starter is one that uses dry yeast, such as instant dry yeast, and other ingredients to advance a science experiment sort of project bound to take over your refrigerator. A sourdough starter, on the other hand, simply uses flour and water. The archived threads here contain instructions for building your own sourdough starter and the confirmations of success by the bakers who have done so.
All you have to do is to use the search button to look for the process. Debra Wink's method is one of the best ever developed and loved by many who post here. Double clicked, my bad.
the whole description: sourdough culture starter
Does this necessarily mean that there is only one starter and that it is for Sourdough or is this a general term for all starters? I have never liked anything identified as a sourdough bread but I do want to experiment with starters for a better bread flavor.
a light salad with a semi dry white wine with a lightly toasted bread for a starter. A cheese spread or cooled bacon drippings, unsalted butter and chives or a bruschetta also make lovely starters. (I'm playing with you now.)
There are several kinds of starters in relationship to dough and that can often be confusing when they are all called starters. Evidently they start something. Look at the recipe so to find out what kind of "starter" is being used. The amount and elaboration directions can tell you a lot. Got an example?
Meanwhile look up Poolish or Preferment or Sponge. and then there's sourdough cultures (wild and purchased pure cultures.)
At the risk of definition blow back I will throw in a couple cents. Both sourdough and starter in my opinion are bad words to use. "sourdough" does not need to be sour, and a starter is term for a starting element to leaven bread.
I think better overall term is "preferment" of which starter, sourdough, sourdough starter in a addition to: chef, pâte fermentée, levain, sponge, madre bianca, mother, biga, poolish are all included.
Within preferments I think of two categories 1. Wild yeast (sourdough, levain) 2. Commercial yeast (amish, biga)
Now, can you start a bakers fight defining some of these? - yup!
But in the end the mission is the same. Some of the preferments (starters) have been developed specifically to avoid a sour loaf and that might be what you should consider.
It's been a hot day and I spent too much time in the wine cellar. Yup, pre-ferments makes a lot more sense because that is pretty much what you're doing, pre-fermenting part of the dough before making the main bread dough. I do think of more categories, just about anything you do to flour before mixing up the main dough can be considered a preferment. The idea being to build up flavours and soak some grain or encourage enzymes or bacteria or yeasty beasties to put out a little extra something that doesn't happen with a quick 2 to 3 hour bread recipe.
If you haven't done a poolish, try it first. Take a very normal recipe you have made before. Take a good portion of your flour, (up to half) combine with the water in the recipe, both equal weight amounts. (you have to figure you can't put in more water than the recipe asks for.) Now let that sit with just a pinch of the yeast called for in the recipe. Depending on the amount of flour and the temperature, the flour will ferment between 6 and 18 hours. You want to catch the dough when it is still actively bubbling and not flatlining after activity.
Then mix the bubbling "poolish" with the rest of the ingredients and work your dough cutting down on the bulk rise time by watching the dough carefully. Since part of the flour is already fermented, the bulk rise will be much quicker than previously and so will the proofing or last rise after shaping. Other than rise times, continue to follow the recipe with baking and cooling. Now compare the differences. :)