Are sourdough starters exchangeable with different bread recipes?
Hello all,
I'm new to baking bread but having been baking almost daily for the last ten days and have benefited greatly already from this site. I have been baking straight doughs and ones with pre-ferments and have been fairly successful. I want to use these types of doughs to learn about techniques,what dough handling feels like etc. before moving onto sourdough style breads. It seem like they are perhaps more forgiving than sourdoughs. I've been using Lahey,Hamelman and Forkish.
I am currently reading a lot about starters thru books,TFL and other websites and forums. Frankly it's making my head spin there is so much information available. My question is this; can I use a starter from another recipe to make breads from Forkish,Tartine etc.? In other words,are starters and bread recipes interchangeable? I know this will seem like sacrilege to many as many people here are strong Tartine/FWSY devotees. My issue is that I would like to build a starter that is as low maintenance as possible,maintains a smaller quantity of starter and also limits waste of discards. I really would not make use of the discards in pancake/muffin etc baking. I have found a few such recipes and am considering starter one this weekend. I currently have FWSY from the library and am waiting for Tartine to arrive.
To build a levain most recipes call for x amount of a "mature starter" plus water,combinations of flours and salt. If I make a 1:1:1 starter with a combination of rye and whole wheat flours can I use this for many different bread recipes? I'm guessing that in general yes but that final,finished results of a baked loaf may vary. This is one important variable and substituting a different starter may result in different finished result than the author intended. Anyway,I think at this point you get the gest of my question. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Best,
Vance