DoughDuh

Hello Everyone,

My sincere "Thanks" to each of you for sharing your experience and knowledge regarding the rising

power of my first ever sourdough starter, made from dark rye flour. ( Canadian, Rogers Flour)

To answer one question presented to me: No, my flour is not organic and the water I am using is tap water,

boiled to remove chlorine and left to sit at room temperature.

I did adjust the water level slightly in some feeds, and I did try the 100g Starter + 100g Flour + 100 g water feed,

but nothing seemed to make any difference to it.

And still doesn't ! It just regularly does it's thing.

It rises easily at 75F,  just gets a wee dimple dent in the center (not swaybacked anymore) and sits there, high up, full of bubbles,looking out the oven window and waits until i come to feed it.

So I went back to discarding 1/2 and feeding every 12 hours with 50g water & 50 g rye flour,

After my first post, I put it in a round container with straight sides and it WAS easily doubling and more. I just had not factored

in the fact that the original bowl it was in, was considerably wider going up then at the bottom.

With that light bulb moment also came it's name, "DoughDuh".

What is in the container is "Dough" and what is outside, pacing the floor, looking in at it, goggling the net for 16 hours straight is "Duh" ! 

Hence we are officially now a SD team called, "DoughDuh".

And yes we did bake buns with it.

It did great. The buns are great,

I'm in stable condition and expected to live.

Which brings me to my next plea for SD enlightenment.

The recipe I used for the buns was one from the KAF Unfed Starter site.

I had 3 days of discard starter in the fridge so decided to use some of it.

The KAF recipe called for unfed starter plus instant yeast to make these flaky, buttery buns. So that is what I used.

I followed the instructions with surgical precision but did use my mixer with bread equipment to knead it.

All was good until it hit the first rise part just before noon.

The rest is a high speed blur  with only a few moments to pause and replenish myself with cold gatorade or beer,

before getting back in the ring and punching it down, fold and stretch, putting it in the fridge, taking it out, yelling at my husband 

to stand by to call 911 !

In a total of 6 hours, it had first rise, punch down,fold and stretch, second rise, punch down, fold and stretch, third rise, punch down, fold and stretch, then both my husband and myself forming bun balls at high speed, rising , into the oven and out.

That night I flushed the rest of the bowl of discarded starter down the toilet (only had to use the "Big Gun"plunger once, as it plugged the toilet up).

So my question is: "How much yeast power is left in the unfed, discarded starter? For how long?"

I thought it was dead, just something to add texture and flavor to any bread dough.

So why do they call for using instant yeast plus unfed starter, other then to amuse the starter by traumatizing the baker? 

How do you know what to expect in recipes calling for discard or unfed starter ?

Who wants a 3 foot high pancake, muffin or bun that can out run you?

I eagerly await your sage advice or the number of a SWAT team.

Best go and see if "DoughDuh" has gotten out of the oven and is outside playing with parked cars on the street !

Thanks again SD people.

Gebba