Sourdough Starters

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Mikey
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Sourdough Starters

#1 Post by Mikey » Fri Feb 11, 2011 2:24 pm

As promised at the meeting, here are the materials from the seminar:

:shock: As daunting as all of this may seem, it's quite easy once you've tried it. Keeping a sour around can be really rewarding if maintained properly. If you can mix equal parts flour and water together, than you can build a sourdough starter.

Ingredients Needed
Organic All-purpose unbleached bread flour, about 2 pounds for the first week. It's critical that the flour is organic, as the process of chemical bleaching as well as the addition of herbicides/pesticides is detrimental to the very fragile micro flora you're trying to propagate.
Malt flour, about 1/2 tsp. The malt flour is made simply by grinding some 2-row in a coffee grinder until it is powder. Speaking in terms of quantity/quality of enzymes, that powder is gold. This is exactly what your starter needs to kickstart fermentation.
Organic whole wheat flour, 75 grams-- the fresher the better. If you have any unmalted wheat in your grain inventory, this can also be processed in a coffee grinder.
Water, about 1L for the first week. Same as the flour, avoid using treated tap water. Filter it, let it sit long enough to have the chlorine evaporate, whatever.

Starting the Starter
The following schedule is a guide for starting a starter from scratch.
During this process the starter should be held at 80˚F to encourage fermentation.
A mature culture will be able to multiply approximately 2-2 1/2 times in volume in 8-10 hours.

Schedule
..........................Flour......................Water................Starter................Time Before Next Feeding


*Day One AM.....75g Whole Wheat,...........150g.................-----..........................24 hours
......................75g Bread Flour

Day Two AM........100g Bread Flour............100g..................100g.........................24 hours

Day Three AM......100g Bread Flour............100g..................100g.........................24 hours

Day Four AM........100g Bread Flour............100g..................100g.........................24 hours

Day Four PM........100g Bread Flour............100g..................100g.........................12 hours

Day Five AM.........100g Bread Flour..........100g...................100g.......................6-8 hours

Day Five PM..........100g Bread Flour..........100g...................100g.......................6-8 hours

Day Six AM...........100g Bread Flour...........100g....................30g........................12 hours

Day Six PM............100g Bread Flour..........100g....................30g........................12 hours

*Add 2g of malt flour (1/2 tsp) to the first feeding to help initiate fermentation.

In a small mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, bread flour, malt flour, and water. Gluten development isn't important here, just make certain everything is well incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap, or store in a plastic container with a lid. This mixture will sit out for 24 hours, at 80˚F.
After 24 hours, the mixture will have multiplied in volume 2-2 1/2 times.
Stir the mixture, as it may have separated a bit. Remove 200g of the mixture, and throw it away. Make sure to put it in the garbage, not the sink. This may seem like a no-brainer, but as a colleague of mine discovered, constantly dumping that goo in the sink will eventually lead to costly visit from the plumber. :(
The remaining portion of the starter is broken up in the 100g of water, and then incorporated with the 100g of bread flour. Cover and ferment at 80˚F for 24 hours.
Repeat this on day three. Then twice on day four, 12 hours between refreshments.
By now your starter should have some vitality to it. Aromas of butter and yogurt should be present now. Taste it-- there should be a little bit of acid detected, but it should be fairly subtle.
Twice again on day five, this time fermentation should only take about 6-8 hours.
By day six, the amount of starter is reduced to 30g, refreshments done every 12 hours. Fermentation temperature is also reduced, to 74˚F.

Tips
In order to achieve consistent results, make sure your technique is consistent. Take temperatures of your flour, water, room, and completed starter. Record data. I make markings on the containers that I'm fermenting in, so growth in volume can be observed.
Try to refresh at the approximately same times, every day. These yeasts are critters of habit, and are way happier if they are used to the same feeding schedule.
If your starter hasn't doubled in size in 24 hours, be patient. Let it ferment another 2 hours, maybe longer. The times given are merely guidelines.
Once you have a healthy starter, it can be held in the fridge for 2-3 days of the week(preferably not all together)
Using the same refreshment schedule, starters can be made from other types of flour. Even though the yeasts are mostly the same, the flavors and aromas put out by the fermentation of different flours can be really amazing. I really enjoy whole rye sours, because the unique proteins in rye allow for quite a bit more acidity. Other common flours can be whole wheat and whole spelt.
Experiment--try substituting sours for commercial yeast. Sourdoughs have an extended shelf life over their yeasted counterparts. Just remember to subtract the quantity of flour and water from the final dough.
Feel free to pm me if you have any questions, I'm happy to help.

Cheers,
-M.

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