January 26, 2016 - 5:57pm
varying degree of maturity at different layer of my sourdough starter
hello,
12 hours after I fed my 50%-hydrated white flour sourdough starter, I did a float test. It seems that a spoonful of the top layer can float on water. But if I dig a bit deeper into the starter and get a spoon of the starter down there,it can't float.
Despite the mixed results, I went ahead to mix the starter into my dough, adding a bit of commercial yeast at less than 0.5% of the flour weight though.
Am I doing the right thing?
Thanks!
Liming
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First of all, there's nothing wrong with adding a small amount of commercial yeast to a loaf. The bread police won't knock down your door for doing so. A lot of home bakers do the same thing, sometimes to adjust production to fit time constraints and some will do it when the temperature is on the cool side in their house. I'm one of those folks.
A 50% hydration starter does seem to be stiffer than most people use but it's not an impossible to use starter. You just have to be ready to pay more attention to the dough instead of the clock. Be sure to take notes and take pictures as well if you can so that you have a record of your procedures. If the bread is what you want, you can repeat the process easily. OTOH, if the bread is less than expected, you can go back to the notes and determine where you need to modify your process.
I use a stiff starter like that on occasion...It might simply be that when you grabbed some starter off the top you didn't knock too much co2 out of the dough where as by as the time you dug down to the bottom to test that piece of dough you knocked more out of it and it wouldn't float the same because of that...I wouldn't be overly concerned with the float test.
Liming and all
I must have missed a meeting, but this is the first I've heard of a float test for a starter. I've only heard about it for finishing dough. Is this a common thing?
dobie
hi dobie,
float time is a test to test if a starter is ready for baking. i'm not experienced enough to give a very detailed explanation but this website seems quite helpful for understanding the float test.
http://www.virtuousbread.com/bread-and-conversation/how-do-i-know-when-my-sourdough-is-ready-for-baking/
liming
liming
Thank you for the link. My starter is due for a feed tomorrow and I will try it out.
I will get back to you.
dobie