Making my own sourdough ... ask me anything

[Auggie]

Last edited Fri May 3, 2013, 03:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Had to make the seed culture and mother dough. Easier than I thought, just takes forever.

Baking day is tomorrow, Day Eight!

[madokie]

1. I tried to get a starter going about a month or so back

and wasn't successful. I mixed flour and water, first time to a consistency of a thick dough and it proceeded to dry out so I threw it out and I tried again and this time I made it more watery and after a few days it did start smelling sour but never did start working. After about 10 days to 2 weeks I threw it out.
Help me out please.
I want to use the yeast in the air to get my starter going. I did this years ago and I was able to get a starter going but didn't know what to do with it after I had it so I threw it out too.
What am I doing wrong.

[Auggie]

2. I recommend Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day

Make sure you're using unbleached bread flour and filtered water, mineral water, or un-pasteurized/unprocessed pineapple, orange or lemon juice.

At signs of fermentation, anywhere from 24 to 36 hours, add more flour and liquid. You are creating a seed culture from which you make a Mother Dough, then a Starter Dough, then the final bread dough. The process, for me, took seven days from the start to final dough, which is currently undergoing cold, and final, fermentation. I plan to bake on Day 8.

Last bit of advice: invest in a good kitchen scale and measure ingredients by weight, not volume. Follow directions and it's virtually foolproof.

Good instructional tips are out there if you Google Peter Reinhart. Good luck.

[madokie]

6. I'll be picking up a scale tomorrow

while I'm out. Seems that is the one thing I wasn't doing and everyone says it the most important part
Thank you

[Auggie]

7. I'm sure you'll use it for more than making bread too

a plastic dough scraper is very handy as well. I use one like this -- costs about $1.00.

[Major Nikon]

4. "yeast in the air" is a myth

Yeast spores are everywhere, including almost certainly in your kitchen, but that's not what is going to get your culture going. You're after the yeast that's already in your flour. That type of yeast is well suited for feeding on flour, which is exactly what you want.

My guess is you were using bleached flour(the bleaching process will kill all or most of the yeast spores) or you weren't feeding the culture properly.

Here's a simple and virtually foolproof way to start a culture. It assumes you have a kitchen scale, which will make your breadmaking life much easier. Weigh whatever implement you are using to keep your culture in empty, and record this as your baseline weight. This will come in very handy later on. I use a round 6qt polycarbonate tub and cover from the restaurant supply store. Make sure that you set your water out in a pitcher overnight. This will de-chlorinate the water. It will also create room temperature water which is also what you want. It's best to feed the culture at or around the same time every day. I use rubber gloves to mix my culture as it tends to be a bit acidic and not great on your hands doing this every day.


Day 1:
Hand mix 200g whole wheat flour, 300g white flour (unbleached), with 500g water. Make sure all the flour is hydrated. Cover and leave in warm spot in your kitchen (around 70-75F ideally).

Day 2:
Throw out all but 300g of your culture, which is most of it. Add the same ingredients you added on day 1 and mix well. Cover and leave in warm spot in your kitchen.

Day 3:
Throw out all but 200g of your culture. Hand mix 100g whole wheat flour, 400g white flour (unbleached), with 500g water. Make sure all the flour is hydrated. Cover and leave in warm spot in your kitchen.

After day 3 you should start seeing some action from your culture. It should be bubbling a bit and it may smell a bit like beer. This is a good thing. Yeast makes ethanol as a by-product.

Day 4:
Throw out all but 150g of your culture. Hand mix 100g whole wheat flour, 400g white flour (unbleached), with 500g water. Make sure all the flour is hydrated. Cover and leave in warm spot in your kitchen.

Day 5:
Throw out all but 100g of your culture. This will seem like you are throwing away everything but what is coating your bowl or tub. This is OK and is what you want. Hand mix 100g whole wheat flour, 400g white flour (unbleached), with 500g water. Make sure all the flour is hydrated. Cover and leave in warm spot in your kitchen.

Day 6 and every day thereafter is a repeat of Day 5. After about 7-8 days your culture should be doubling about 8-12 hours after the feeding (depending on temperature). It should be quite bubbly and have a beer like smell. At this point you are ready to make bread with your culture. Feed it in the morning, and after about 8-12 hours it will be ready to use to make bread. At this point you can scale down your ingredients for the daily feedings, such as cutting the amount of flour and water by half. Just make sure the weight of the flour and water are equal. This will give you a 100% hydration level. Or you may wish to change your hydration level at this point also. You can also use bleached flour at this point, just make sure about 1/4th or so of your total flour mixture is unbleached. I like to use rye flour and bleached flour to feed my culture. If you don't want to feed your culture daily, you can take about a cup of it, put it in a covered mason jar, and store it in the refrigerator for about a month. To bring it back to life, just start doing your daily feedings again and in a day or two it will be ready to use again.

[madokie]

5. All right, Thank you

Best instructions I've read yet. again thank you

[Major Nikon]

10. Here's the key to keeping it going

You want your culture to be sour or somewhat acidic in order to create an ideal environment for lactobacilli, and a less ideal environment for spoilage bacteria. Old starter (at 24 hours) will have a nigher Ph than the starter will when you feed it. Therefore you can regulate the Ph by using more or less old starter when you feed. I like to keep the starter at 20%, or 100g of old starter to 500g of new dough. Starter kept more often in the refrigerator will typically be more acidic because you aren't feeding as often.

Get used to the sights and smells of your starter. That way you will know if it's going bad.

Here's some more information:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Sourdough_Starter

It starts out by saying that starter from different areas will taste different. I don't believe this. The taste of your sourdough is going to be much more dependent on what, how, and how often you feed it. Other than that there seems to be a lot of good information.

[Major Nikon]

3. It took a week to get my last starter going

Are you feeding it daily or refrigerating it?

[Auggie]

9. Baking Day ... the results:

Near perfection!

Crisp crust and a soft but chewy inetrior with nice air holes ... and with that wonderful sourdough taste thanks to lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.I am very, very pleased with this first effort.