August 16, 2021 - 3:42pm
Bread Code liquid starter
Has anyone tried making Bread Code's liquid starter? The video tutorial did not go over the feeding schedule very clearly. With a 100% hydration starter I know when to feed it based on when it peaks, but this isn't possible with a liquid starter. Does anyone have a rough idea of how often I should feed it? Thanks
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Hendrik says feed it once a day. Keep it at room temperature. I assume that means something like 18-24C range.
Proportions are:
3 Tbsp starter
2 Tbsp flour, he uses whole wheat, but any other flour is OK
1 cup water
In grams: 50g liquid starter, 50g flour, 250g water
You can scale it according to your baking needs, for example, 10g starter, 10g flour, 50g water. Or 100 g starter, 100g flour, 500 water, etc.
In my experience, it is indeed the best starter, the most ancient form of sourdough, and it keeps refrigerated very well too.
Hi Mariana! Just for clarification on this method: Give the jar(1) a vigorous stir, pour 50 grams into a clean jar(2), then add the flour and cup of water and discard what remains in the first jar(1)?
Hendrick uses an expensive PH meter to check the yeast activity. I'd love to do that, but I'm hesitant to drop $200. He gives an affiliate link to a cheap alternative, which I bought and then returned when it completely failed to work. C'est la vie!!
I can’t remember if we’ve chatted about pH meters before or not, but I can recommend the Hanna Bread and Dough pH meter. It was around $150 CAD or so if my memory serves me correctly.
Hi Slideslinger,
you don't need to stir. You can stir, of course, or use its bottom sediment only (If the liquid portion is gone to be used in bread dough) or simply the liquid portion (top layer), it would work either way. Because it is a very liquid starter, it continuously stirs itself due to gasses and sourdough microorganisms are floating everywhere.
Then add clean water to that starter, mix, and add to flour, mixing as you pour it in. Liquid into dry.
Here's one example: one 1Tbsp starter, 1 generous tsp bread flour or whole grain flour, 1 tsp of sugar and malt syrup each (together it is 3tsp or 1Tbsp total of food for 1 Tbsp starter), 1 cup warm water. 12hrs at 28-32C until pH goes down to at least 4.0 and it is gassy, somewhat like coca-cola.
Testing that it is ready to bake with, how soon will it double in volume? 100g bread flour +100g very liquid sourdough.
Well, it turned out that 12 hrs at 28C was not enough time to propagate enough yeast. The little test sponge doubled, rising to 300ml mark, but slowly, it took more than three hours to double. It must double in 2-3 hours to qualify, so to speak.
Bubbly surface, looking great, but too slow, not enough yeast cells.
So I gave it another chance. I added to 180g of that test sponge another 180g water and 180g bread flour and watched it. It doubled under 3 hrs at room temp and was ready to be used as a 'starter' or levain, or sponge as part of bread formula.
It rose from 400ml to 800ml in 3 hrs at 26C.
So I mixed bread dough based on that leaven and after one hour of bulk fermentation I shaped it into a loaf and after 3.5hr proof at 32C it was ready for baking.
It was for sandwiches, so I kneaded it well to obtain fine and soft crumb.
I don't see how pH relates to yeast activity at all. If I wanted to test yeast activity, I'd simply mix a bit of starter with white bread flour and see how soon it would double. And out of interest - to see what would the maximum volume be, to be on the safe side, i.e. to be sure that it can make bread dough.
Example. This is how the test dough behaves when the starter ferments as in Hendrik's recipe, full 24 hrs between feedings. 100g bread flour, 70g liquid starter (only liquid portion, no sediment), to obtain bread dough consistency. It quadrupled in volume in 8 hours at 24C, so it is a good starter.
If left to ferment until maximum volume, full 12 hours, its rise is simply mindboggling: here, see for yourself, the initial volume vs final volume of the test portion, a 7-8 times increase in volume.
pH is to control the acidity, to make sure it is in the safe zone, at least 4.0-4.5 units. It can go way below that, of course, all the way to pH = 3.5, but it has to be at least that low, at least 4.5. A simple piece of litmus paper size of the nail on your pinky finger is enough to know that. I use THIS ONE.
It is not expensive and one roll lasts me for years, because you don't have to test pH each time you feed your starter and want to see if it's ready. Once or twice is enough to make sure that the method of feeding it once a day works and both its pH and gassing power are good to go at the end of the 24 hour fermentation.
best wishes,
m.