April 13, 2020 - 11:50am
What to feed my starter during shortage?
I don't have all purpose and it's very hard to get flour right now. Here's what I do have:
- Whole Dark Rye
- Whole Wheat flour
- Bread Flour
- Pastry flour
I was feeding it 50% dark rye and 50% whole wheat but it's wayyyyy too thick to even mix together. So I could either change the hydration or switch to another flour mix.
Thoughts?
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WW and Dark Rye will supercharge your starter. They would be good for the feeding right before a bake.
Bread Flour and Pastry flour will work fine for "maintenance" feedings, and even the last feeding before a bake.
In my local grocery, I noticed they still had "Wondra" flour for making gravy, and plain "cake flour". Those would be just fine too. But being bleached, keep them under 50% of the flour.
Just don't use any "mixes" that have salt, sugar, oils, or baking soda/powder in them.
What we in the U.S. call "corn starch" would also work. "Corn flour" in the UK. It's pure starch, white in color, and is not "maize flour." I have used it, but not 100%. Maybe 25% of the flour that is being fed to the starter.
I have fed my starters up to 25% Maltodextrin. I had bought that at a homebrewer supply store for making a sports drink. That seeemed to work. Costs more than flour or corn starch, though.
Anything that is not wheat flour, you want to keep as a minor part of a feeding, because you don't want to get your yeast used to it. You want yeast and LAB that is optimized for wheat flour. Something about natural selection, but also the natural and added enzymes of wheat and malted barley flour that we normally bake with.
Hope this helps, and good luck.