October 14, 2016 - 5:17pm
Whole Wheat Starter in an AP Bread Recipe
Hello,
I've been cultivating my first starter for about 10 days now, and I believe it's ready to bake since it rises and falls in a consistent manner. It's a whole wheat starter that I feed twice a day at 100% hydration, 50% seed (so total it's 20% seed, 40% flour, and 40% water in the final mix). The temperature in my apartment is around 75-78 degrees.
I know that whole wheat doesn't usually rise as high, so I'm thinking of using a mostly AP flour recipe (90% AP, 10% whole wheat) for my first bread. If a bread gets most of its flavor from the starter, how will changing the recipe to AP flour affect the final loaf? Is there anything I need to be mindful of when using AP flour with a whole wheat starter?
Thanks!
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Should work out fine.
My starter is fed with whole wheat flour and my recipe is white flour with 1 cup spelt. Works just fine. Whole wheat adds more flavour in my opinion, so does the added spelt.
you can definetly experiment with building a different levain for different loaves. But keep in mind, sometimes, the starter fed with a different flour, than what it's usually fed, may rise slower (meaning you keep your starter feedings as is, but take a portion of it and build levain of this portion). My starter (mother) is 2.5 weeks :-) thriving and super vigorou! It's 100% hydration all WW flour starter. I used it directly and also built levain with a bread flour and rye flour. And for my next bake, I am preparing the levain based on my starter and feed it with bread flour and the rye flour. But again, since the starter is used to a certain "diet" lol, it may rise a bit slower with a different flour the first time, so i am doing it in 3 stages. By the time I need to use it, it will rise perfectly.
Dont worry much about details and nuances of flavor for your first bake, I would suggest, bake it following the recipe of your choice and then adjust accordingly for your next bake!
good luck! And happy baking!
I think of my starter as the source of the microorganisms that bring leavening (the yeast) and the possibility of sourness (the lactobacilli). To get these microorganisms into your dough really doesn't take all that much sourdough, so the flour that's the food for your starter doesn't much matter. What truly matters is the flour that makes up the bulk of your dough. The flavor is much more the product of the duration and temperature of the bulk rise. So I don't give much of a damn whether my sourdough starter is made with white, whole wheat, rye, or whatever. I've never tasted a difference in the final product that could be accounted for by the starter. Except, of course, that the starter gets the dough to rise and to ferment.
that could be in your starter and even combinations of them. It depends on what kind if flour you use and where it comes from. Scientists have isolated the same wee beasties on many different flours from all over the world but some flour has certain ones that are prevalent on occasion. I remember n study I read where there were different ones on the rye and wheat from one area but these same flours had common ones too. I remember another study where one kinf od LAB only grew on the spelt but hot the other grains in the area.
Wee beasties aren't too particular when fed one flour or another. I keep a stiff rye starter for many weeks in the fridge and it doesn't mind being feed what ever kind of flour I want to make the levain for what ever kind of bread I am making that week. I havenlt found a flour it isn't fond of. I also fold all kinds of different starters I make into the one i keep in the fridge over the course of a year too, It doesn't seem to mind that either.
Happy SD baking