November 28, 2015 - 1:52pm
I got carried away..
and built up too much starter! I have about 300 grams of (mostly) white flower starter in a jar in the fridge and about 450 grams of stiff rye starter in another jar. Like I said, I've gotten carried away. And then I have "charlie" in a baby food jar - he's just a few ounces. I'm increasingly building my levain for bakes using just say 10 grams and build up. And now I know charlie is all I really need. So I'm not at the point where I realize I just don't need that much around. But what to do with all this? Thoughts?
What would you bake that would use up most of this over the next few weeks? Doesn't have to just be bread.
Is there any advantage to having a second "type" of starter that I should modify the white flour starter into?
Thanks!
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and just use it as you need it.
Use it directly - no need to build anymore. (until you get low)
I keep separate wheat, rye and spelt starters in my fridge.
-Gordon
Gordon - does that imply that you can actually taste the difference between your starters in the final loaf? Given how little you start out with, I would think the build and final dough flour dominates the flavour of using a starter of 25 or 50 grams of wheat or rye, etc. Can you actually "taste your starter?"
I keep separate starters not for flavour, but for the bread I'm making - so if I want to make a 100% spelt loaf then I'll use the spelt starter. Same for Rye - I have customers who're wheat intolerant and some are OK with 100% spelt and other want 100% rye.
The wheat is less important and (currently) once a week I use spelt as well as wheat starter to make the production levian - the alternative is to do a 2-stage build (10am to 3pm, then 3pm to 8pm) or keep more wheat starter in the fridge, but right now I'll take (say) 400g of wheat, 400g of spelt then add into this 1600g wheat flour and 1600g of water to make 4Kg of production starter (for about 36 loaves of varying sizes)
(the top-up the starters with the right flour and back into the fridge they go - but I usually leave them out for an hour or too when I take more than half out the jars - which I keep about 500g in)
-Gordon
Thank you for sharing.. must be a great experience to be baking at that level!
Make a bunch of experimental loaves and give them to friends :)
Or waffles? Or how about a chocolate cake... http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/44164/sourdough-mocha-cake
Add it I to other breads for flavour. Perhaps now is the time to dry some out and grind it into powder to be stored away in case of emergencies.
Abe, I saw that cake and it looks tempting!
My family only wants sourdough crust for pizza You have to start the dough a little earlier then you might normally, but well worth it. I can go through 3 cups of starter easily for our Friday pizza night.
I'll definitely try this!
SD biscuits
I second the English muffins thought. I often just add some salt to the starter and fry it up like an English muffin (sometimes thickening it a little or adding baking soda .. maybe sugar once in a while).
I always seem to "dilute" my sour flavor when making English muffins by trying to add starter to fresh flour and water. Never thought I could just cook the starter directly. Thanks for the hint - I'm going to give it a try!
Yeah, it is one of my favorites. It can take some experimenting but I love it.
We just moved and about 3/4 of my cookbooks are in boxes, so I can't find my recipe right now, but adding sourdough starter to waffle batter makes them nice and crispy on the outside and light & fluffy on the inside.
When I wrote the post I was thinking bread over waffles or pancakes.. but that's a great idea! I made the waffles once and you're right about the texture - probably the best I've had! Can never go back to a mix!