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Making sourdough starter for bread makingDay 1:
Ingredients: 1/3 cup rye flour and 1/4 cup water
For the flour, I use stone-ground rye. Nothing special, just what I got from the
grocery store. My water is tap water run through a filter. Before I had a filter on
my sink, I used bottled drinking water.
Mix the flour and water in a bowl. It will be thick and pasty, kind of like the
oatmeal that's left in the pot if you don't come down for breakfast on time.
Once all the flour is mixed in, put it in a pint-sized or larger container and cover
with plastic wrap. Leave it out on the counter.
And that's it for today.
Day 2:
Ingredients: 1/4 cup unbleached AP, bread, or high gluten flour; 1/8 cup water
There should be little, if any, change in the culture from yesterday. Again, I'm not
really particular about the flour. I would just recommend staying away from
bleached flour. I am using AP flour for this batch.
Mix the flour, water, and all of the starter from yesterday in a bowl. It will still be
thick but a little wetter than yesterday.
Put it back in the container (no need to wash it), press it down as level as you
can get it, and mark the top of the culture with a piece of tape on the outside of
the container.
Put the plastic wrap back on top, and you're finished.
Day 3:
Ingredients: 1/4 cup unbleached AP, bread, or high gluten flour; 1/8 cup water
Around Day 3 or 4, something happens that puts terror in the heart of the
amateur sourdough maker: they get a whiff of their starter. When you check
your starter on Day 3, you may notice a strange, and not at all pleasant, odor.
And unless you know better (which you will now), you'll swear something is
drastically wrong. In fact, I would venture to guess that that smell has been the
ruin of more amateur sourdough growers than anything else. It's an acrid, sour,
almost rotten smell, and it's perfectly normal. And rest assured, your new baby
sourdough starter will soon outgrow it. So, take heart, and press on.
You may also notice that your starter has begun to come to life. It probably won't
grow a lot, maybe 50%, but you will start to see bubbles, like these:
Regardless of the amount of growth, stir down your starter, throw out about half
(no need to measure, just eyeball it), and mix the rest with today's flour and
water. You will get a slightly more doughy-looking mass:
Once it's well mixed, put it back in the container (still no need to wash), pat it
down, and move your tape to again mark the top of the starter. From this point
forward, keep your starter at a moderate room temperature, 70-72 degrees F.
Lower is OK (it will just grow more slowly); but don't keep it at a higher
temperature, or you will encourage the growth of the bacterial beasties at the
expense of the yeasty beasties.
Put the plastic wrap back on the container, and take the rest of the evening off.
You worked hard today.
Day 4:
Ingredients: 1/4 cup unbleached AP, bread, or high gluten flour; 1/8 cup water
And now, a word about measurements. If you bake regularly, or even if you've
just been nosing around baking sites for a while, you are no doubt aware that the
ingredients in most artisan bread recipes are listed by weight rather than
volume. I measure by weight for my baking and for maintaining my
sourdough starter.
You might wonder why, then, am I using volume measurements here? Two
reasons: first, I have tried to make this starter as simple to follow as possible --
no special tools, no monkeying around with the scales, just a couple of
measuring cups and a bowl. And, when it comes to starting a starter, the
measurements aren't as critical as when you actually go to bake with it. So for
now, we're just using measuring cups.
Today is another one of those days where novice sourdough starter makers often
lose heart. Your starter is now coming to life, and like most living things, it kind of
has a mind of its own. Up until now, we followed the clock, making our additions
every 24 hours. Now, we will be letting the starter dictate the timeframe.
Before you do your Day 4 additions, you want to make sure your starter has at
least doubled. If it doubles in less than 24 hours, you should still wait until the 24
hour mark. If it takes more than 24 hours, be patient. Let it double. It
may take another 12 or 24 hours, or it may take longer. Again, be patient. It will double. Just give it time.
If your starter hasn't doubled after 48 hours, you can boost it with a shot of rye
flour. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of rye flour and a bit of water (try to keep the
hydration level about where it was) and mix it up. Then wait for it to double
before proceeding with the Day 4 additions.
Eventually, you'll end up with a nice, bubbly starter:
You can see that mine more than doubled. But I still waited for 24 hours. Once it
doubles, throw out half of the starter, then mix the rest with the flour and water,
and back into the bowl it goes:
Replace the tape and plastic wrap. Then wait for it to double. It could take as
little as 4 hours, or it may take more than 24 hours. This time, you can move on
to Day 5 at any point after doubling. It's OK if you let it more than double; it's
also OK to move on right when it hits the double mark. So, hurry up and wait.
Day 5:
Ingredients: 3/4 cup unbleached AP, bread, or high gluten flour; 1/2 cup water
Once your starter has at least doubled, it's time for the final mix.
Combine flour, water, and 1/4 cup starter in a bowl and mix well. Transfer to a
clean container with room for the starter to at least double.
OK, one last time, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter until it gets
nice and bubbly. Don't worry so much about how much it grows, just so that it's
bubbly looking. This will probably take around 6 hours, but, again, don't stress
about the time. Let the starter tell you when it's ready.
When your starter gets bubbly, pat yourself on the back: you are now the proud
parent of a bouncing baby starter! Put a lid or other cover on your container and
put it in the refrigerator. Let it chill overnight, and you can begin using it the next
day.
Day 6 and beyond:
By today, your starter is ready to use. The flavor will continue to develop over
the next several weeks to month, so don't be disappointed if your first few loaves
aren't sour enough for you. I would still recommend beginning to bake with it
right away, especially if you have never made sourdough bread before. That
way, you can hone your skills while your starter develops its flavor.
Feeding your sourdough: If you keep your sourdough in the fridge, you
only have to feed it about once a week. And you can minimize your discards by
keeping only what you need and feeding it when you want to bake with it. I
recommend a 1:1:1 (starter:water:flour) feeding, which means each feeding
includes an equal amount, by weight, of starter, water, and flour.
Start by weighing your starter, subtracting the weight of your container. Then
add an equal amount of water and flour directly to the container. So, for
example, if you have 100 grams of starter, you would add 100 grams each
of water and flour. I generally add the water and flour at the same time, although
some people recommend adding the water first and whisking to dissolve
the starter before adding the flour.
If you feed your starter right out of the fridge, as I do, warm your water to
lukewarm (90 - 100 degrees F). After you mix in the water and flour, leave it out
on the counter for a few hours, then put it back in the refrigerator. It's best if you
feed your starter a few days before you intend to bake with it.
To illustrate, here is an example of my feeding routine, starting with the Day 5
starter and assuming that I finished making the starter on Friday night:
Saturday morning, I take out what I need to bake bread (2/3 cup using my normal sourdough bread recipe) and return the rest of the starter to the refrigetator.
Wednesday of the next week, I get out the starter, weigh it, and add equal amounts of flour and water in a 1:1:1 ratio, as outlined above. My goal here is to build up as much starter as I need to make bread on the weekend, and enough left over for my next build. It's OK if I have more than I need to bake with. If I don't think I'll have enough after a 1:1:1 build, I will increase my ratio of flour and water, maybe to 1:2:2 or 1:1.5:1.5. In that case, I will let it sit out until it almost doubles before returning it to the fridge, which might take a bit longer, as I'm using less starter relative to flour and water.
Friday night or Saturday morning, I again take out what I need to bake with and return the rest to the fridge, to be fed again mid-week.
This is just an example of how I keep my starter. You can feed yours more often
if you bake more than I do. It's also OK to let it go more than a week between
feedings. If you do that, though, you might want to feed it a few times before you
bake with it.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10251/starting-starter-sourdough-101-tutorial