January 10, 2016 - 9:31am
Starter!!! Don't Know What To Do Next, See Picture Please
Good Morning All,
My starter started being very active yesterday, One of the pictures is from yesterday at 7pm before I fed it and the other on with many bubbles is this morning at 9:15am, it's looks like something good is happening but I just don't know what to do, I fed it yesterday at 7:30 pm, should I wait till 7:30 pm today to feed it again? Is it ready, am I done?
Any input will help,
Thank You
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Alberto
When the starter doubles in volume, that would be a good time to feed it. Don't be afraid to give it a stir a few times a day as well.
You're still growing your base, so let it ride for a while before you send it to the fridge. Now that it is active, you can begin to discard as needed to keep the size manageble. If you feed it 1:1:1 (existing starter, flour, water), you should be fine.
Once it is well established, you can determine ways that will leave you with very little if any discard. But if you have discard now, feel free to build a dough with it. Keep it simple, would be my advice.
dobie
Just keep feeding it daily.
Are you keeping it at 100% hydration? Normally you would start feeding it 1:0.5:0.5 and slowly move to something like 1:5:5 after a week. Once you get to 1:5:5 you can check to see if it doubles after feeding in at most 6-8 hours. Then try baking some bread with it.
It did double yesterday at 11:00 pm and I didn't do anything and today it went down by 50% this morning when I checked at 9ish am
I am at 100% hydration.
At 7:30pm today it would be 24 hours since last feed, should I feed now?
Thanks Ordep and Dobie
Alberto
By all means, yes. Feed it now. Feel free to feed it anytime it doubles and starts to fall. Forget about the clock and the calendar, just respond to the starter.
Personally, I wouldn't feed it until it doubled, even if it took longer than a day, but that apparently will not be your problem. Again, don't hesitate to build a simple dough with any discard that you (will no doubt, soon) have.
dobie
Sure, go for it.
It is normal for it to fall back down after it has reached the peak. When you are ready to try and bake with it, give it a refeed and wait until it doubles. Then, before it starts falling back down take the amount you need to make your dough and put the rest in the fridge. In the fridge it is enough to do weekly refeeds and you can take a bit out to bake with at any time.