August 9, 2015 - 5:40pm
Sourdough baking
Hi,
I am new to baking with sourdough and I have a whole wheat starter. I bake whole wheat bread every week for our family to use with sandwiches, toast etc. So I love having a whole wheat starter since the main baking I do with it is just for whole wheat bread.
My question is- if my starter is fed and maintained on whole wheat flour can I use it to make a white flour recipe? Like for muffins, cake, etc where white flour just tastes better?
Thanks!
Share
is the easy answer.
Take a small portion of your WW starter, then bulk it up with white wheat & water - let that get active (5-6 hours depending on local conditions, etc.) then use that in the main white wheat mix. There will still be a tiny portion of WW in it, but it will be very small. I use double flour + water to starter for my bread mixes, so if I needed 500g of production starter/levian, I'd take 100g of starter from the fridge, add in 200 flour + 200 water to get that 500g levian. (then use that in the main bread mix - my usual ratio is 30% the flour weight in levian, so 1650g flour + 500g levian + water & salt = dough. (for 6 small loaves, obviously for one small cake, you'll need to adjust as required!)
There are many other ratios, etc. though. Pick one that suits you.
Not sure about making sourdough muffins, cakes, etc. but before the advent of baking powder yeasted cakes were quite common.
-Gordon
Thank you Gordon! I will try that.
I am definitely learning a lot with sourdough. It is so different than rapid yeast. I am still trying to get a handle on getting my starter to be healthy and bubbly all the time. How do you tend to fed your starter- 1 part each of start, water, and flour (measured by gram)? Mine seems soooo thick when I feed it that way.
Thank you!
Lindsey
for wheat and spelt anyway - that's equal flour and water by weight. Makes it easy to calculate other stuff. Yes, they're nice and gloopy.
My Rye is kept at 150% hydration.
-Gordon