May 5, 2020 - 3:37pm
Question, how much actual starter
Afternoon,
I found this recipe and it looks great...
https://honestcooking.com/peter-reinharts-new-york-style-bagels-wild-sourdough/
- 500 g (4 cups) bread flour
- 500 ml (2 cups) non-chlorinated water
- your ripe 100% hydration wheat sourdough starter
- Make the sponge: This is a great way to refresh your starter and make a sponge for bagels at the same time. Mix whatever quantity of wheat starter you have with the water. Whisk until foamy. Add flour. Mix thoroughly until all lumps are gone. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Cover loosely with plastic or lid and leave for at least 6-8 hours. Sponge is ready when very foamy and stretchy, and when 1 tsp of starter dunked in a glass of cold water doesn’t sink. If you are working office hours, this portion of the process is best done in the morning, one day before you want bagels. Go to work, by the time you are back the starter should be ready.
This is the first part the recipe. Im confused because it doesn't actually give me how starter to use. I have a lot..
Can anyone enlighten me please.
Thanks !
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I'd say 200-250 g.
thanks !
50% starter while not wrong is a lot.
Hmm. This recipe is calling for a sponge, which is a pre-ferment. I'd be wary of using a ton of starter in a sponge, because the starter flour has already been fermented once, then you're going to ferment it more in the sponge, and then more again in the dough. Too-long fermentation can lead to too much enzyme activity and gluten breakdown in your final dough. I would use between 75 and 125 grams, which is between 15 and 25 percent.
Note that however much you use is how much you will also have left over as your newly-refreshed starter. If you have a lot of starter now, whatever doesn't go into the sponge can be treated as discard and saved to use for pancakes or what have you.
"Note that however much you use is how much you will also have left over as your newly-refreshed starter." I guess that is really the answer to the question. You could do this stage with any (reasonable) amount of starter. The more you use, the faster it'll go. Towards either extreme you'll have issues, but there's probably a reasonably wide range where it would be more a matter of personal preference than something that's clearly better or worse.
I would bet if you were looking at the book instead of a post on the internet, there's probably a certain amount of starter that you'll have on hand if you are following the book's instructions for starter maintenance. And that's likely the amount that the author intended would be used in this recipe, since the wording seems to indicate that you should use your entire starter.