Hello,
I keep my 100% hydration starter in the fridge.
I top it up with the active starter left over from my next bake.
When I take it out of the fridge I activate it by adding about a cup of flour and a cup of water to a half cup of starter. I let that sit for 12 hours (where it's usually risen to double) and feed again with another cup of flour and water. 4 hours later I have a starter that has doubled in size and that's what I use to bake bread.
On this forum I read of people who can activate a starter to grow to three or four times in volume. This absolutely never happens with mine. Once it goes to double it usually starts to sink again and I know that is a bad sign.
So the question is, how do I get this volcano starter happening and what am I doing wrong right now?
As an addendum. My current starter bakes good bread but I am never quite satisfied with the oven spring and, as some of you might have realised if you read the forum, I am obsessed with getting good ears from my loaves, something which sadly still eludes me. I am wondering if this could be because I'm using a starter which hasn't been activated enough. Anyway. Enough about the ears again. I would just love to know how to produce volcano starter.
Any help gratefully received.
Your starter is not 100% hydration: a cup of flour weight much less than a cup of water. If it doubles with this ratio, it probably pretty active! And you are probably using a rather strong flour?
My 10% hydration starter or levains never more than double actually, but lower hydration grown much higher.
Apologies, I should be more precise. I do indeed have a 100% hydration starter, I was just being lazy in my description. The starter in the fridge is 100% and then I take about 100g of that and add 150g of flour and 150g of water and leave for 12 hours. After that I will add another 150g flour and 150g water and will leave for four hours. So it's always 100%. And it will double. Yes I use a strong bread flour to feed my starter.
Are you saying the higher the hydration of starter the less it will grow in volume? And do you think a 100% starter growing to double volume is active enough to then make bread with?
Yes and yes! 100% hydration starter doubling is good, and it's totally fine for baking. If you have a specific goal in mind you could probably make it more active, but unless there is a reason to, I wouldn't bother. If this process works for you, that's all that matters.
First, you need to do feeds by weight, not volume. With one cup flour to one cup water, your starter must look like soup. There isn’t enough structure there for it to rise much past what you are getting now. And using left over levain to keep in the fridge will work for a while until the balance between the bacteria and the yeast goes out and you start baking bricks instead of bread. Ask me how I know! It needs fresh food so give it a 1:4 feeding of fresh water and flour before putting it in the fridge.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for this reply. I was being lazy in my description. I do indeed weigh the flour and water and it is a 100% starter. I often suspected I may be doing the wrong thing not adding any fresh flour to my starter when I put it back in the fridge. I shall certainly give this a go, thank you.
What does "a 1:4 feeding" mean? Do you mean 1 part fresh flour and water combined to four parts starter?
Be one part starter, one part water to 4 parts flour. So it’s really 1:1:4. At least that’s how I keep my starter in the fridge. It’s thick!
First - just cuz a starter grows 2x, 3x, 4x, pick an x! Doesn't mean it's strong, quite the opposite actually.
Second - just cuz a starter falls, as it should after a time, doesn't mean anything bad.
If growth is your main concern, lower hydration, when fed, stir vigorously until gluten gets developed, and leave it in the sink to catch all the overflow.
Ears - not much to do with starter, unless the starter is bad and that doesn't seem to be the case here. Enjoy!
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68585/methods-and-rationale-sourdough-starter-maintenance-and-elaboration
Thank you, I shall take a read.
don't change it.
The reason other starters may rise more is because they have more flour in the feeding to thicken things up. Much of the gas in a wet starter bubbles up to the surface and pops without raising the starter that much. If your 200% hydration starter works for you in making bread. Keep up what you are doing. What you can do is use more starter in the recipe and less othe liquids. What is your normal bread recipe and rough location? Ambient temps?
A bread dough is more in the area between 50 to 75% hydration and will rise more than the starter just because it can. So as long as the bread is rising and baking up nicely. No need to worry. Enjoy.
Mini Oven
Hydration is figured using weights instead of cups. Divide weight of water by the weight of flour and multiply by 100 to get % hydration. Flour is the food. Water 💦 s the transport. One cup of flour is roughly half the weight of water.
If you thicken up your starter you may change its dynamics and flavour. And prepare for a lot of head room in the jar. I suggest to play around with the recipe instead.
Thank you for this reply.
My usual recipe is 400g flour - 240g water - 200g 100% starter - 10g salt. This gives me a loaf of 68% hydration.
I have experimented with ambient temp. Room temp is about 21 degrees centigrade. But I sometimes put the dough in my oven on the 'proofing' setting which is 30 degrees centigrade. Doing that does accelerate the rise but none of it gets me the ears I so desire.
I think I still have a lot to learn about building structure in the final shaping and also in the stretching. And it sounds like my starter isn't an issue. What I've learned from this thread is that a thicker starter rises more. But I think I'm hearing that the hydration of the starter doesn't really matter in the great scheme of things as long as you are compensating with the rest of the recipe. As long as it's active it's good. Is that right?
I also puzzle over how much starter to use in a recipe. In the one above I have plumped for just under 25% of the total. But what if I changed that to 50% or 12%. Would it affect the structure or taste of the bread? I imagine it would affect the fermentation time. I imagine the more starter used the less time you should bulk ferment. Is that right? Is it all swings and roundabouts?
Your thoughts gratefully received.
about ears, that's more to do with shaping the dough for the final rise before baking and, and leaving enough of the final proof to finish in the hot oven. Proof to about 75 - 80% risen ( what it could do if left to fully proof) and get lots of heat under the loaf when baking.
Think of the dough more like a log with growth rings. If you flatten the dough while shaping and roll up into a log (picture that) then score thru the "bark" at an angel and off to the side, the "bark" will tend to split off the log somewhat while baking and make the "ear."