I have been baking with wild yeast sourdough for the past 5 years. It all began when I purchased a starter from Sourdoughs International. One starter led to another starter, until I had 5 different ones. Recently, I felt up to the challenge of making my own wild yeast starter from scratch. I had tried this once before, many years ago, with no success at all. At that time I knew next to nothing about wild yeast and how it works.
This starter recipe is awesome because it really works, and it explains why it works. The starter I made is very good. The flavor is amazing and it rises very well. I purchased rye and wheat berries at my local health food store and ground them in a coffee grinder to make flour for my starter. It was kind of tedious to grind but I only needed a few tablespoons. I'm sure that you could just buy freshly milled flour at the health food store and it would work just as well. The wild yeast is on the grains and you just need to provide the right conditons to wake it up.
Procedure for Making Sourdough Starter
Day 1: mix...
2 T. whole grain flour (rye and/or wheat)
2 T. unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice
Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 2: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours. At day 2 you may (or may not) start to see some small bubbles.
Day 3: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours.
Starter at Day 3:
Day 4:
Stir down, measure out 1/4 cup and discard the rest.
To the 1/4 cup add...
1/4 cup flour*
1/4 cup filtered or spring water
*You can feed the starter whatever type of flour you want at this point (unbleached white, whole wheat, rye). If you are new to sourdough, a white starter is probably the best choice. All-purpose flour is fine--a high protein flour is not necessary.
Repeat Day 4:
Once daily until the mixture starts to expand and smell yeasty. It is not unusual for the mixture to get very bubbly around Day 3 or 4 and then go completely flat and appear dead. If the mixture does not start to grow again by Day 6, add 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar with the daily feeding. This will lower the pH level a bit more and it should wake up the yeast.
Starter at Day 7:
How it Works
The yeast we are trying to cultivate will only become active when the environment is right. When you mix flour and water together, you end up with a mixture that is close to neutral in pH, and our yeasties need it a bit more on the acid side. This is why we are using the acidic fruit juice. There are other microbes in the flour that prefer a more neutral pH, and so they are the first to wake up and grow. Some will produce acids as by-products. That helps to lower the pH to the point that they can no longer grow, until the environment is just right for wild yeast to activate. The length of time it takes for this to happen varies.
When using just flour and water, many will grow a gas-producing bacteria that slows down the process. It can raise the starter to three times its volume in a relatively short time. Don't worry--it is harmless. It is a bacteria sometimes used in other food fermentations like cheeses, and it is in the environment, including wheat fields and flours. It does not grow at a low pH, and the fruit juices keep the pH low enough to by-pass it. Things will still progress, but this is the point at which people get frustrated and quit, because the gassy bacteria stop growing. It will appear that the "yeast" died on you, when in fact, you haven't begun to grow yeast yet. When the pH drops below 3.5--4 or so, the yeast will activate, begin to grow, and the starter will expand again. You just need to keep it fed and cared for until then.
Once your wild yeast is growing, the character and flavor will improve if you continue to give it daily feedings and keep it at room temperature for a couple of weeks longer.
After that time, it should be kept in the refrigerator between uses/feedings.
My First Loaves From New Starter:
This starter recipe is awesome because it really works, and it explains why it works. The starter I made is very good. The flavor is amazing and it rises very well. I purchased rye and wheat berries at my local health food store and ground them in a coffee grinder to make flour for my starter. It was kind of tedious to grind but I only needed a few tablespoons. I'm sure that you could just buy freshly milled flour at the health food store and it would work just as well. The wild yeast is on the grains and you just need to provide the right conditons to wake it up.
Procedure for Making Sourdough Starter
Day 1: mix...
2 T. whole grain flour (rye and/or wheat)
2 T. unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice
Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 2: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours. At day 2 you may (or may not) start to see some small bubbles.
Day 3: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours.
Starter at Day 3:
Day 4:
Stir down, measure out 1/4 cup and discard the rest.
To the 1/4 cup add...
1/4 cup flour*
1/4 cup filtered or spring water
*You can feed the starter whatever type of flour you want at this point (unbleached white, whole wheat, rye). If you are new to sourdough, a white starter is probably the best choice. All-purpose flour is fine--a high protein flour is not necessary.
Repeat Day 4:
Once daily until the mixture starts to expand and smell yeasty. It is not unusual for the mixture to get very bubbly around Day 3 or 4 and then go completely flat and appear dead. If the mixture does not start to grow again by Day 6, add 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar with the daily feeding. This will lower the pH level a bit more and it should wake up the yeast.
Starter at Day 7:
How it Works
The yeast we are trying to cultivate will only become active when the environment is right. When you mix flour and water together, you end up with a mixture that is close to neutral in pH, and our yeasties need it a bit more on the acid side. This is why we are using the acidic fruit juice. There are other microbes in the flour that prefer a more neutral pH, and so they are the first to wake up and grow. Some will produce acids as by-products. That helps to lower the pH to the point that they can no longer grow, until the environment is just right for wild yeast to activate. The length of time it takes for this to happen varies.
When using just flour and water, many will grow a gas-producing bacteria that slows down the process. It can raise the starter to three times its volume in a relatively short time. Don't worry--it is harmless. It is a bacteria sometimes used in other food fermentations like cheeses, and it is in the environment, including wheat fields and flours. It does not grow at a low pH, and the fruit juices keep the pH low enough to by-pass it. Things will still progress, but this is the point at which people get frustrated and quit, because the gassy bacteria stop growing. It will appear that the "yeast" died on you, when in fact, you haven't begun to grow yeast yet. When the pH drops below 3.5--4 or so, the yeast will activate, begin to grow, and the starter will expand again. You just need to keep it fed and cared for until then.
Once your wild yeast is growing, the character and flavor will improve if you continue to give it daily feedings and keep it at room temperature for a couple of weeks longer.
After that time, it should be kept in the refrigerator between uses/feedings.
My First Loaves From New Starter:
- SourdoLady's Blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Thanks for the response SDL, I had a hard time finding my way back to your blog. But now I have another problem. While my starter was acting so nicely for the last month, all of a sudden it's not doubling itself when I feed it. The weather has gotten cooler, but i've tried sitting it in warm water, putting in the oven with a pan of boiling wter in with it to create some warmth ( no light in oven) I've even taken it outside and sit it in my car on warmer days and still not much activity. I even added about 1/2 teaspoon vinegar to it, afraid it might start growing mold since it wasn't "working" like it had been. I'm at my wit's end, any suggestions?
Well, after posting the first part of this post, I was reading some more of your blog that I had missed while I was making bread with my starter and discovered , maybe , the answer to my dilemma. I read that if you don't throw away some of the starter each time you feed it that when you have so much the yeast can't keep up with the "meals" and that slows it down. Soooooooo, I took out some of my starter and put it in another jar with the 2T of water and rye flour and set it in the "nuker" with some boiling water. I will check it in a few hours and, hopefully, I have solved my problem. If not, and this is not the answer, I will still need some help from you. You are such a patient person to answer all our questions when I know it's repetitious to you.
hello
my friend gave me two sour dough starters (in two different containers)
I'm curious if I can combine them into one container... will there two cultures combine properly into one state, or is there a good chance something will go wrong
I ask this because they appear a little different from each other. He made them the same way, but one is bubblier than the other, which in turn smells cheesier than the first
-p
pietro, I recently combined two starters, one started with yogurt and one using SourdoughLady's method. They had both performed well but it seemed silly to keep two "pets" so I stirred together 1/8c of each and mixed with 1/2c water and 1/2c bread flour. For all I know they might have had completely different properties, but as far as I can tell nothing "went wrong" and my starter is doing just fine. As yours were made the same way they should be even more compatible. Try a small amount first if you are concerned - of course then you will have three! A.
When you combine two different starters, I believe that the stronger of the two will take over and the weaker one will die off. It won't harm anything to do it, though.
Thank you AnnieT and SourdoLady!
I have another question.
My starter is vigorous. If I want to multiply it's amount faster to obtain more starter for a large recipe, I've read I can up the water/flour to starter ratio.
I suppose the only consideration is that the more feed I give it, the longer I need to wait, right?
If I add 10 and 10 parts of flour and water for every part of starter... I suppose the starter won't mind but that I'll need to wait longer for the yeast to eat the extra feed... or are there other problems to consider?
Thanks!
Giving a starter too huge a feeding can overwhelm it and make it take a long time to get back to peak activity. It is much better to give it successive feedings, increasing the amount each time until you have the amount needed. A good rule of thumb is one part starter to two parts flour and then however much water you want to achieve the level of hydration that you prefer. When building this way to increase the quantity, you wouldn't discard any between feedings but you would need to refeed as soon as you see the starter receed (or soon thereafter) to keep the level of activity at its highest.
Althetrainer's Russian Sandwich bread looked so irresistable that I had to try it right away. The question someone had asked was how much starter you used instead of the yeast. I kept looking for the answer but didnt find one, so I tried to fudge it. I figured a little extra starter wont hurt. I think I used about 30g white and 30g w/w starter. The dough didnt seem to rise much, so I gave it some folds a couple of times but there was very little rise. I started at 2:30 pm so I should have been able to bake it by 8:30 or so, but by 10 when it still had not doubled, I left it out overnite. By 7 am it had come a little over the loaf pan and I would say it had doubled. So I baked it with steam for 8 minutes at 450F and then without steam at 400F for 30m. At which point it sounded hollow and quite dark, so I took it out and it is now resting. It looks good but feels heavy and I didnt get any ovenspring. I will have to wait and see how dense or airy it is.
Q1. Is there a formula for 1t yeast = ? starter.
Q2. Does steam create crust or ovenspring or aids in both? If you wanted a soft sandwich loaf with no crust, would you omit steam?
Salma
Dear all
Interesting topic, I did try my starter couple of time sometime worked some time didn't work out. I almost give up do starter until I found this web by accident. I'm so greatful to join your community. Next time I'll share my experience. I have to run.
:)
my starter is 2 weaks old, plenty of bubbles but no lift, i have done every thing instructed it smells like yeast i feed twice a day i did this the same way last year had a good one but let it die ,so i am not new to this, should i start over i add rye and organic wheat that I grind ...............thank for any info bill
No, you don't need to start over. Try thickening up the consistency by adding more flour when you feed it. Usually that will increase the rise.
I don't show a lot of bubbles, but there's been a visible layer of hooch for the past couple days. Is that a good sign?
At day 11, it smells a bit like alcohol, has some bubbles, but starting to separate more and more every day. It's kind of warm in the laundry/boiler room, where I put it. It wasn't there all the time and it's about 67 in the kitchen, where it was before.
I've made preferment before, and I remember it separated, but worked well. I don't know if it's supposed to smell the same or what.
Thanks in advance for help!
It sounds like you are not feeding the starter enough. At 11 days, it should be active and hungry. You should now be feeding it 2 or 3 times a day if you are keeping it at room temperature. Try thickening it up by giving it some extra flour and then feed it every 8 hours. Be sure to also discard most of the old starter before feeding.
After just few feedings, there's so much improvement!
I was feeding it more flour, but I guess it wasn't often enough. Now it looks so much better, and I think in a day or two will be ready.
(Now I have to wait for the oven to get fixed.........)
I'm into day 2 of making a starter for the first time ever and I am so excited to see a lot of frothy bubbles forming! I used Bob's Red Mill unbleached White Flour and unsweetened pineapple juice and placed it on top of my refrigerator near the back where it's relatively warmer than any other place in my house. This morning I opened and whisked it for a few seconds and smelled it and it does smell like yeast! I will be feeding it another batch of flour and juice in a few hours and I can't wait to see the results the following day! It's such an exciting process if you see results like these. Hope I will be able to sustain this starter.
I followed your directions and thought I had created a successful sourdough starter about a month ago. I made pancakes with it 2xs and when adding the baking soda, it didn't bubble. Now the starter will make successful sourdough bread (that doesn't taste sour) rises regularly and behaves fine, other than no reaction to the BS. So through a thread I started it seems to me my starter isn't acidic, right? I had one person suggest adding vinegar, 1 tsp, to the starter to get it more acidic. I did that this morning, and then fed/discard 2 xs today, then I tested a tiny amount with BS tonight and still now bubbles.
Can you please advise me?
I'm not sure what the reason could be. Try lowering the hydration of the starter so that it is almost like a dough. This usually favors the acids. It could be that the starter is simply just still young and needs some time to develop.
Okay, I will try to make it a more firm starter and just wait it out. I did try the cider vinegar addition, but it hasn't helped yet. So, now I have a couple starters going. thanks for the reply.
Does this mean like the juice from a fresh pineapple? :) I hope so, cause I would love to make some sourdough starter.
I just used juice from a can of pineapple tidbits and it worked just fine. Now, my starter isn't acidic, haven't figured out why yet, but I can't imagine it is because of the canned juice.
My starter is over a month old now.
I can imagine it could very well be the juice, even after a month. Were the bits packed in only water? Or packed in light syrup?
Here comes my "why" speculation (with no scientific facts to back it up) combined with maybe applied reading and mention of this happening with converted Amish friendship starter which also starts up with sugar. Ready? I suspect the sugar in the pineapple syrup has triggered some switches on the genetic code of the beasties somehow telling them they should either feast and produce gas before the normal acid level is reached or they are being told not to produce too much acid. How many generations of beasties it takes for the switches to switch back, I don't know. I can't begin to guess. If we starve them long enough, to the point of forcing them into a dormant stage (where there is more acid) and then revive them, will the starter then be more sour? Will they have switched back to sour producers? Maybe. On the other hand, maybe just adding some acid to the starter will encourage the beasties that like a more acid environment to increase in number and the ones that like a less acid environment to fade away. Either one of these experiments would take at least few days.
The starter may be more acidic than you know. Enjoy your non-sour wild yeast. You could add sour your dough by adding buttermilk, sour milk, yogurt or lactose to the dough or see if you can sour it by dropping the rising dough's temperature down to 50°F for a few hours to trigger acid production.
Mini
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15445/nonsour-sourdough
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15543/less-sour-startersbreads
Mini,
Good advice, I had MrFrost tell me to try to add some acid in the form of lemon juice/vinegar to make the acid increase, but that didn't work. Really the only problem with no acid is when I make pancakes with the throw away starter, and add the baking soda, it doesn't bubble. My pancakes taste good, but they are pretty flat, good for pigs in blanets.
On the juice, I don't remember what it said it was packed in. Maybe after tax season (I'm a CPA) I will try another starter with actual juice and see what I get. Interesting though....
My kids don't really like the sour taste, so that is not such a problem, but I would like fluffy pancakes.
Thanks,
MW
Because the fluffy or rise is caused by a reaction between acid and base, try adding some baking powder instead. Soda needs an acid mixed with it to rise. The other alternative is to stiffen the egg whites before mixing into the batter, results in very fluffy pancakes!
Enough said, I don't want to hyjack the thread.
Mini
I plan on starting a sourdough starter today, and see where it goes from there. It seems everyone is back into sourdoughs... at least from what I've seen. Sourdough pizza crust, bread, rolls, ect. there's so many recipes out there! I think this one is the easiest I've seen yet.
I have a slightly stupid question. What does it mean when a starter is 100% hydration, or 125% hydration, etc? I am looking for recipes online and stumbled upon the "Norwich Sourdough" and I don't fully understand the converstions for the percentage starter. http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/08/my-new-favorite-sourdough/
I'm not good at figuring baker's percentages, either. If you do a search on site you will come up with a lot of discussions about it that may help you.
I grew up in CA in the S. Bay area, and am used to Great Sourdough breads. Due to a job opportunity I moved to GA where good sourdough is just not obtainable. I read your "how to" a few days ago and was intrigued by this method, having failed with a prior water/flour starter some time ago. It gave a nice rise, but none of that sour bite that is so desirable.
I just mixed day 1 up and have it out on the counter. One minor question if you don't mind. The instructions say to cover the starter. How tight should the lid be, just placed on loose to allow airflow, or screwed down firm?
Thanks for the instructions, I'll update this post with my results
Day1: Mixed Juice and Wheatflour
The lid should be loose, in order to let the gasses escape. The purpose of the lid is to keep contaminates out and prevent the surface from drying out. Good luck with your starter!!
Thanks. I was pretty sure the lid was supposed to be loose, but I have seen videos of folks keeping starters in those jars with latches, so I figured I'd double check.
I just fed my starter its Day 3 dose and there are some bubbles forming, and a distinct apple-cider vinegar smell - I sure didn't expect that :o) I do not see any other reference to a vinegar smell. Is this normal or something I should be concerned with? I did see vinegar was a possible additive later in the process, but I have certainly not added any at this point.
I also, just noticed that you posted these instructions almost 5 years ago! I am humbled that you are still here tending the post, doing everything you can to ensure us newbies get the advice and guidence we need. My sincere thank you.
The smell is fine. It is caused by the fermentation process, which is good. You are on the right track!
I love helping people learn sourdough. It has always fascinated me and I want to share what I can with anyone who wants to learn.
Well, it's day 8, and still no bubble action, and the vinegary smell has all but dissipated. My speculation was that was from the pineapple juice fermenting, but that's just a guess.
Since there are no signs of yeast action yet, I will be giving it the apple cider vinegar dose recommend with tonight's feeding.
EDIT: Day 9. Normal feeding Day 10 (today): Feeding + a second dose of the apple Cider vinegar. Still no sign of yeast :(Don't give up on it! Don't add any more vinegar. Are you keeping it in a warm place? If it is too cool it will take a lot longer to activate. If you have any rye flour, add a spoonful of it with each feeding for a few days. What kind of water and what kind of flour have you been feeding it?
Distilled water is not a yeast killer, however it does not contain any of the minerals that sourdough needs to be healthy. The distillation process removes all that. Spring water is what you want to buy if you are using bottled water. If you have well water, that is okay, and some people's tap water is good if it does not contain chloramine. Chlorine is okay as long as you let the water sit a few hours to let it dissipate. Chloramine does not dissipate upon sitting.
Sounds good! I would thicken it up a little now that the yeast is awake. Add a bit more flour than water--your mix of WW and unbleached is good. Feed it twice a day now. You should notice a good volume increase. When it doubles in volume in 4 to 6 hours, then you should be able to try it in a dough. Be patient as it may take several hours for the dough to rise with a young starter.
To expand the qualtity of starter, just give it larger feedings. I like to do this in two or three stages and not one huge feeding all at once. When you are expanding the starter, you don't need to discard any before feeding as long as the feedings are done before the starter loses its activity. If the starter has been in storage in the fridge then you MUST always discard before the first feeding when it comes out of the fridge.
My rule of thumb is to bake when the starter peaks in 6-8 hours three times in a row. It's something I've stuck with for my other two jars of starter and it seems to work out quite well.
So, something that I am a bit confused by...with the starter recipe that I have made before at some point I add enough flour to make it more dough-like. When do I get to that stage with this?
At present (day 7 or so) it has the consistancy of crepe batter.
Well I have been feeding and babying a starter for a few weeks now. I have made lots of delicious flapjacks and english muffins from it but not yet attempted a "loaf of sourdough" until today. I am from the SF Bay area (recently moved to Denver) so my sourdough bar is very high.
I made the dough and let it proof at room temperature for a day then retired shaped rounds to the refrigerator overnight. In the morning I sat them on the counter until double, scored the top and put them in a 450 oven (lots of steam) for 20 minutes, reducing the heat to 360 to finish.
The crust is lovely, the crumb a bit disappointing as I was wanting big holes, but it was 50% whole wheat flour so I dunno... does that make it harder to get holes? The crumb is moist and has a lovely texture. Should actually make fantastic sandwich bread.
I was nervous about getting good oven spring and loft so I think I fed them a bit too much honey, the final flavor does have a mild sour tang, but also kind of sweet =/ It was a great big case of if a little is good a little more is better, alas, but the taste is delicious overall.
I know I posted on here before that I was going to start a starter... er, that never happened. We were making a big move and it seemed I didn't get to do it. But, I do plan to do it. I'll be using fresh pineapple juice and whole wheat flour. I'd love any tips you all feel free to offer me. :)
Blessings!
Sorry I missed your post. Did you start the starter yet? If not, what are you waiting for? You will love it! Just mix it up and ask questions as they come up. I will help you get it going. Patience is the key! A starter generally takes a week and a half or more to get going.
Hello and thank you for your instructions. I am trying out 3 different starters right now and yours is one of them. My other starters really took off but I am wondering if I am having trouble with yours because of the high temps here. Mid to upper 80 F. I am using organic whole wheat flour and mixed fruit juice. The fruit juice has pineapple, apple, grape and carrot juice. It has tiny bubbles but no growth and not very bubbly. Any thoughts? Do you think this will take longer because of the warm climate? I have no cooler place to put it.
Also, I seem to keep getting liquid on top very quickly, within 2 hours of a feeding. I guess this is hooch but it doesn't smell alcoholic.
After several more days, re-reading blog posts on here and cleaning up some mold, I think my starter is viable here in Thailand...took about 8 days :)
Sounds good--8 days is about normal. Now that it is alive, you should feed it more. Starters are very hungry beasts, especially in your warm climate. If you see hooch forming on top (liquid), then that means it is very hungry. You may need to feed it 3 times a day now, or if you thicken it up you could get away with twice. It is still developing its strength and flavor, so you don't really want to put it in the fridge just yet.
I am at day 5 of my starter, when i feed it, do i continue to take out a 1/4 and discard the rest? Or do I just add the four and water and not discard anything? I feel like discarding is such a waste, but this fine? Why exactly do we discard?
Now I should wait a couple of weeks doing this?
Do you have a good recipe suggestion for when my starter is ready? this is my first time making sourdough!
and correct me if im wrong, but starters will last forever? i can now save some of this starter and continue to feed and it and use it for others breads?
thanks!
I'm a longtime lurker at TFL, and registered just to add a tidbit to this thread. I finally decided to tackle a starter, and used this formula. I got a good start and things were going well to day 4. Then I started combining the 1/4 cup flour, water and starter, as directed. Things started going downhill. I pampered the starter, keeping it under a lamp, feeding more often. Nothing seemed to help. I occasionally noticed tiny pinpricks of bubbles on the surface of my soupy starter, and that's the only thing that kept me from pitching it and starting over. I kept feeding, going on to day 13, and despite my pampering, my starter seemed doomed.
Then I read another starter thread here on TFL, and a lightbulb went on. By adding 1/4 cup of flour and water as feedings after day 4. the hydration of my starter was becoming astronomical! I immediately changed to a 1:1:1 formula BY WEIGHT, and land-o-goshen, if things didn't immediately pick up! Woohoo!
The problem with a thin starter is that you get no bubbly feedback to tell you the yeast is growing. In fact, it appears I had good growth, I just didn't know it. The bubbles just rise and burst. With a thicker starter, the bubbles have some resistance, are easily spotted, and they have some glutenous structure to rise against. It's taken only two feedings at 1:1:1 by weight to get great progress.
Maybe this will help someone else in the future. This post will be a long way from the start of this thread, but I've read all the posts a couple times, so others must do that as well!
Hey sourdough lady
Thanks heaps for your post! you have given me something to take my mind off some difficult periods. I have a huge passion for baking bread but have never taken the time to try sourdough. I have peter reinharts bba book and have been making some great multigrain/ciabatta/pizza and baguettes using his amazing recipes.
day1 - day2 - day3: I was going to use his recipe for a sourdough starter, but googled sough dough starter and found that people were having more success with the method that you were using. I went and bought some stone-ground organic starter, and wholegrain organic. All local milled flours. I started with 2T flour to 2T of orange juice. It is winter here and has been getting colder- frosts at night and highs of 12C. I put on window sill where it gets a little sun during the day - its the warmest part of the house. My wholegrain starter looked too watery and had a layer of brown water after each day, there was no rise or bubbles. And my rye wasn't as watery, but had a few bubbles - no rise in the rye either.
day4, day5: I switched to discarding but 1/4c and adding 1/4c water and flour. Now I thought that I have killed my wholegrain starter since it is doing absolutely nothing! so I read a comment saying the extra liquid on top means it is runny or hasn't been feed in a while. So I added 1/4 + 1/8 of water to 1/2 of wholegrain flour to make it less watery since I thought it was dead. My rye since it had not many bubbles I left for another 12hrs- (36hrs between feed) to see if there was any more activity since I thought the temperature might be slowing it down. I have also switched to keeping my sourdough in the hot water cupboard instead of on the window sill. I thought the sunlight might kill it.
day6: Wow, from making my wholegrain with more feed, it almost overly doubled in size and is now dropping down. My rye starter is still the same with just a few odd bubbles coming through.
My questions are:
Was feeding my started double a bad thing? Was adding slightly more flour bad (1/4 + 1/8c water with 1/2c wholegrain flour)? Shall I add more water next feed to make more watery again? Shall I adjust my feeding sizes? Where is the best place to put my sourdough starter during the day in winter?
Thanks so much for your contribution to this sight everyone, this is a awesome community!
Mark
My starter is 2weeks old... awsered all my questions almost. am now feeding my starters on a 1:1:1g ratio... here is my 3rd atempt. Just a bit heavy on the bottom. I've got a blog now so and am soo keen... loaves are starting to fly out of oven. Just wish my terricotta baking stone would hurry up!
Wow - i've finally got around to producing a starter using flour, water and a warm study. It smells good, and it behaves as it it supposed to.Now to do something with it!! M
Hi Maggie
Have fun working with your new starter!
Robyn
Hi: I was successful in getting starter going (I'm on my 5th day), but according to Peter's Bread book Crust & Crumb, I'll be needing a couple of CUPS of this starter to add to my sourdough bread, and I don't/can't figure out how to scale up the amouts given so I end up with a quart of starter. HELP!!! I gotta feed this puppy asap!
Waiting to Rise in So. Oregon!
ken
After reading up on sours including this very useful thread, I just started my first starter with tangerine juice, rye flour, and some Greek yogurt to add lactobacillus. Wish me luck. I have taken the important safety step of showing hubby the container so that he won't, in a fit of enthusiastic dish washing, consign the starter to the dishwasher!! LOL
hit save twice -- oops
Just checking in ...
Last year (fall 2010) I made a starter using this pineapple juice 'recipe' and whole wheat which I transitioned to (quality) bread and later AP flour.
The yeast were so active that feeding 3~4 oz starter with 2 oz water and 1 1/2 ~ 1 3/4 oz flour in a quart deli container would blow the lid off the container within an hour (at room temp) and the starter would crawl most the way out of the container in an impressively short amount of time. This level of activity made it sort of hard to give away, the bubbling up and blowing the lid off the container made transport a bit difficult. Problem is it didn't have a whole lot of 'funk' to it.
This year (fall 2011) I made a starter with stone ground rye and spring water. Went from rye to whole wheat to white whole wheat to unbleached AP. The funk is fantastic but it's not very active. Probably too much bacteria.
So I stopped by to see how much vinegar to add to the water to get the pH / acid up to needed levels (1/4 tsp per 2 oz water). The first feeding seems to have increased the bubbly a bit at the cost of a little funk, I guess thats how it goes.
This fall (2012) I'll just start out with pineapple and rye.
.
to start mine. It is day 6 and all goes well. It seems to me that you could increase the flour at this point to get a stronger culture - faster? 1 to 1 water / flour is a starvation diet if it wasn't being fed every day - right? Just a thought. Thanks for the easy way to start sourdough. I want to see if it is better than what I have been using. I used Clayton's Complete Book of Breads in 1973 to start my last one using nothing but flour and milk. It took two or 3 tries instead of 1. I've done everything I can to kill it off over the years but those old beasts are remarkably tough and nothing has worked to put them down for the count. But I will keep trying no doubt. Thanks once again.
Yes, 1:1 would be starvation in an established starter. At this stage of the game it isn't. Once your starter becomes very active and bubbly you will want to increase the feedings. If you feed too much at once in the early stages you will be drowning your starter. There aren't enough yeast cells yet to consume a lot of food. Your starter will tell you when it is hungry. It will collapse and eventually form a layer of hooch. This means it has used all its food. I prefer to feed a young starter that has become active two or three times a day instead of giving it one very large feeding. After it is about three weeks old you can give it larger feedings if you want.
Hello Sourdo Lady,
Thanks for the recipe. A lot of help. I substituted lemon juice for pineapple juice because it's what I had around the house. I mixed together 1/4 cup rye, 1/4 cup all-purpose, and 1/2 cup lemon juice.
Do you think this will work? I have no idea. No biggie if it doesn't; I can always throw it out and start again!
Thanks for your help!
I have never used lemon juice myself, but I have heard it can be done. I do believe that lemon juice has a much higher acidity level, though, and should be diluted before using. You might want to discard half of your mixture and then refeed with more flour/water. Too much acidity can be harmful. Orange juice or apple juice can also be used if you don't have pineapple juice. Good luck!
Thanks SourdoLady.
I took a whiff of the starter today and it smelled like straight lemon. The thought then occurred to me that the lemon juice might need to be diluted. I'll toss half and add some flour and water. We'll see what happens could be a success or an epic fail! Either way, it'll be fun.
Cheers,
Nersh
I started one earlier this week. It is day 4 and so far it has behaved as you have desribed
Today I noticed a vinegary odor to the starter
so far so good. Id did seem to go plat and stayed like that through day 6. On day 7 is tried the 1/4tsp cider vinegar and it did in fact wake up the yeast and now it is starting to grow. It's bubly and yeasty smelling
I haven't been making sourdough bread too long, but my starter is a wild yeast one. My question is: In reading some recipes for sourdough bread on other sites, their sourdough starters included sugar and vinigar, why would this be ? The bread looks great, more like a sandwich bread. Thanks for your feedback on this.
The only ingredients that are necessary (and traditional) to make a starter are flour and water. That being said, there are also other ingredients that can and have been used but are unnecessary. Sugar is like junk food to a starter and most people do not use it. Vinegar will increase the acidity of your starter and this can help in the begining stages of creating a new starter, but once your starter is active it will create plenty of its own acid and is not needed. Some people put vinegar in the bread dough to give their bread a more sour flavor and others use a product called 'sour salt' or citric acid. These souring additives are what is put in a lot of grocery store sourdoughs to give it that really sour flavor that many people really don't like. Then they think that homemade sourdough breads will taste like that too and they will tell you that they don't like any sourdough breads. The truth is, many homemade sourdough breads have no sour taste at all--they just have an awesome flavor that commercial yeast breads don't have. YOU can control how sour or mild your bread tastes by the way you feed and ferment your sourdough.
In fairness, my second try started looking good but I forgot to feed it on a timely basis and rip. I purchased a glass measuring beaker with a plastic lid specifically for getting your starter right. I received my copy of Peter Rienhart's Whole Grain Bread a week ago and noted that some of his testers had trouble with their starters, which was overcome by stirring. I will try.
Every day is a new adventure. Thanks for sharing your knowledge SourdougLady! Thanks, this is a great thread!
Regards, Brian
SS
As you are feeding your sourdough starter a day or two before you add to a recipe, I want to know, "do you stir the starter down first before measuring," or just pour out the measured amount you need as it's rising ? I don't remember ever reading about this anywhere, thanks for your help.
Linda.
Yes, you would stir it down before measuring. If it is really active and bubbly (as it should be) you will still have lots of air bubbles in it. Ideally, weighing your starter as well as all your ingredients would be the way to go. Not all recipes are written to be used with a scale, though. When you measure ingredients you must be prepared to make adjustments to the amount of flour or water to achieve the proper consistency of dough. Sometimes this can be a challenge for a newer baker who is not used to proper dough consistency.
Thank you for your response SourdoLady, much appreciated. I have not made many sourdough breads, but love experimenting.
Thanks sourdough lady, I now have a successful sourdough starter and have also successfully leavened my first loaf! I think the biggest difference was stirring the flour/pineapple juice starter. Nothing much happened for the first 3 days, then I stirred the starter on day 4 and when I returned home laterI found this:
The seed hav at least tripled, so I proceeded to start both an all purpose and light rye starter.
Best regards, Brian
That's fantastic! Your starter looks very healthy. Have fun baking, now.
Concerning discarding all but 1/4 of the starter when beginning to develop it, can that we used to create anothere jar of starter? I imagine at that point the discarded amount is still too immature ot be used to leaven a bread but can it be used for flavouring of loaf that already calls for yeast?
There wouldn't be much point in using it to create another jar of starter, unless you have a friend who wants one. Yes, of course you can add it to a recipe that has other leavening. You are right about it being too immature to leaven bread in the earlier stages. Feel free to add it to another dough, quick bread, biscuits, or pancakes. Keep in mind that you may be altering the hydration of your recipe a bit and may need to compensate for that.
“Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter Day 1 - Day 7 followed directions, everying went OK but it did not expand or smell, on day 15 tried using starter on live drill as prescribed in the recipe for making bread. It did not rise bout baked it anyway and have a goog hard ball.
Have continued to add flower, water and apple cider vinegar but it does not rise. Filed under floppy”
OK, so I have been nurturing the starter along for 11 days now and it is seems to be doing very well. Initially you said to feed it once a day but then I saw you write this so I am a little confused.
"It should be fed two or three times a day once it gets real active. It is ready to bake with when it consistently doubles in volume within a few hours (4 to 6) after being fed."
My starter doubles in even less time than that and I have been feeding only once a day. I made a small variation as I was getting lazy about measuring out 1/4 cup and discarding the rest, so the last few days I've just added the 1/4 H2O and flour. Will that screw it up?
I'm rambling a bit, sorry. The main question is; how do you increase the volume of the starter. For example if a recipe calls for 1 cup of starter and you don't have that much? And also when a recipe calls for 1 cup of starter does that mean AFTER you feed it and it has doubled? ANd does it matter if it is a firm starter or liquid one?
One more thing, I have a recipe for Volkornbrot that calls for instant yeast AND 2 tbsp of starter. Do you think the starter in this case is more for taste?
Thanks for y our help.
To increase your starter amount, you simply give it larger amounts when you feed it. In the beginning stages you only need to feed it once a day because it is not active yet. Once it gets active it will consume more food. Instead of feeding 2/3 times a day you could just give it one larger feed per day. After about another week of keeping it at room temperature you can move it to the fridge. When kept in the fridge you will only need to feed it once a week (or when you take it out to bake with it).
Yes, it is very important to discard before feeding (or use the discard amount in a recipe). If you don't do this, over time your starter will become more and more acidic and begin to degrade. It will start to not rise your bread well because the acids will eat the gluten. Put the discard into some pancake batter if you don't want to waste it.
Yes, when a recipe calls for 1 cup starter it would be used after being fed and at its highest point before it begins to fall, or soon thereafter. Stir it down before measuring. Many recipes will call for weighing it instead of measuring. In that case it wouldn't matter if it is stirred down first. Yes, it matters if it is firm or liquid. Most recipes will specify. If your recipe doesn't, then usually it is safe to use 100% hydration (equal parts water/flour by WEIGHT)
On your recipe that calls for 2 Tbsp. starter, does it have you do a preferment with the starter? Usually when such a small amount of starter is called for that is how it is used. I would follow the recipe as it is written. Good luck and have fun!
Paul, What do you mean by hooch? Here in NZ during Prohibition it meant illegal booze. My 1st sour dough starter I'm at present developing is a homogenous mixture.
Maggie, hooch in a starter is the alcoholic by-product that is produced after the mixture has fermented to a ripe stage. If a starter is kept well fed you shouldn't see any hooch. Sometimes with a very liquid starter you will get separation just because the excess water floats to the top. Hooch will have a definite alcoholic smell. I guess the old-timers did drink it, but I can't imagine that it tasted very good!
Dear SourdoLady & other contributors of this thread,
Let me first thank you for the wonderful information & tips on soudough. After being a passive observer of this thread for a long time, I finally decided to make my own starter in Oct 12 by using the pineapple juice method. It has worked far better than my expectations. It kept to the schedule. After first week, I was feeding it 1:1:1, twice a day & leaving it on countertop. But as I live in hot climate (85 - 95F avg room temp), the breads made were coming out quite sour even after retarding the dough in refrigerator. But once I started keeping my starter in fridge & taking out only when I needed to bake, I am getting some superb breads. Lately, I also started baking Jim Lahey's no knead bread & its variations, which is well received at home. So the next step was combining the two. Now instead of instant yeast I use 50 gms of starter, straight from fridge, and reduce the flour & water in recipe by 25 gms, each. The flavour of the breads is great. If I have time to monitor (high temps can really skew all timelines), then I slowly build the starter to final dough over 2 or 3 builds, but the climate here is such that even the fridge cold starter gives a wonderful rise in few hours. I even manage to get a wonderful sourdough bread in my bread machine for my kids, who prefer soft, sandwich loaf.
Curently, I am trying different recipes from Peter Reinhart, using my starter. As there are not many resources available for hot climate sourdough baking, I have to go by my own instinct and look of the dough. I am reading conflicting views on retarding of sourdough (for bulk fermentation or after shaping) in fridge for hot climates. What is your take, SourdoLady? We do not like a distinct sour taste in our breads, but prefer a mild sour flavour.
Thanks in advance.
Alpana
It sounds to me like you are doing a fine job of figuring out the behavior of your dough in your warm climate. I don't know too much about baking in a warm climate, but I think you already have a good handle on it. As far as retarding in bulk or after shaping, I think it is purely personal preference. I always do bulk because it is just so much easier to fit in the fridge that way without worrying about it getting smashed (I have boys who are not very careful). Are the breads you are baking now mild or sour? Usually the longer it ferments, the more sour it gets. That goes for the starter as well as the dough. The addition of some wholegrain flour will also give your bread more sour, as it tends to ferment quicker.
Hi SourdoLady,
Thanks for your reply. My reason of doing bulk in fridge instead of post shaping is due to space. As of now, the taste is pleasantly sour, but I think we will prefer it a bit more mild. I am thinking of giving Yeast Water a try and see if it works better for us. Having said that, I have really no major complaints about my sourdough. I use it quite interchangeably or in conjunction with Instant Yeast. For wholegrain breads, I just increase my starter to one cup, directly in the final dough, adjusting the flour & water, to keep my fermentation short & this seems to take care of the extra sourness I encountered when I first tried with either less starter or using starter with more builds. I have also learnt to do my long fermentations during night instead of day and use as cold ingredients as possible, so it is long enough to develop a nice flavour but not too long to make it very sour.
i've tried this in a canning jar. it doesn't seem to be as active as the ka starters. what am i doing wrong?
claudia
I first heard of and learned to make sourdough bread in 1974 from a school friend who, after we had spent a few years apart in the Army, wound up in another kind of school with me. I made two large loaves every weekend from then through about 1985 when adult and family demands cut into my free time, and, sadly, bread baking ceased its fearless roar.
A few weeks ago, however, with kids grown and gone, wife grown and gone, and living with a fat cat named Bismarck, who I inherited from a baker's widow, I thought that I sensed a camel's nose in the tent flap. I didn’t really mind. It was a cool night, and her breath smelled faintly familiar. The cat gave me a significant look, licked his chops and winked. Then it hit me! The camel was a dumpster diver and had been eating unsold sourdough and salt rising bread. I was reborn! My life had new meaning! I would start baking again! The cat was in the formerly empty nest; I had adjusted to not having a wife; and it never would have worked out with the camel anyway. I tried salt rising first, never having previously succeeded at it, and, with help from my new best friend on YouTube, I actually managed to bake delicious salt rising bread on two occasions.
The giddiness of that success felt great but left me a little weak kneed, so I took a little time off, but, then, tonight I saw a possum on a tree that fell several years ago during Hurricane Ivan. It was a sign that it’s time to put the band back together; my wild sourdough yeast buddies and me. See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzOHq5WbQ8k
Tonight I mixed up a concoction that used to work and it smelled great, but, keeping up with the times and the apparently unanimous acceptance of SourDoLady’s discovery, I went a little crazy and added some pineapple that the camel had left in the dumpster. While I wait for the starter to start, I have a cat who needs some voice lessons. I'll let you know if the starter works, and, of course, if the cat learns to sing. But, of course, the starter must work. Otherwise, my neighbors will be on the news saying, “We’d have never thought it of him. He was a quiet man. Ya know? Sort’a stuck to hisself wit dat cat and made bread. Ya just never know?”
About 36 hours into the process mentioned in my March 9 posting, my first attempt at making a starter since 1985, which was begun ca. 4:00 a.m. on March 9, 2013, was doing the jitterbug and blowing bubbles. I used a combination of equal parts barley, oats and wheat. I did borrow from SourdoLady's pineapple idea, but used clippings from the top and hide of a fresh pineapple, bound in a small net and suspended in the mouth of a Mason quart jar above the other ingredients. We had some cool weather Saturday and Sunday, so I sat the jar on a heating pad on its lowest setting from bedtime until mid-morning to try to maintain a warm temperature. I also couldn't resist giving the net/bag an unscientific but, nevertheles, curious poke, thump or shake, now and then. In any event, the "starter" appears to be, if anything, ahead of schedule, so I plan to do the first discard and feeding sometime on Monday.
I have a natural starter, it rises about half of its volume then flattens. it gets little bubblies all over the top but does not expand again. I am wondering if the ACV trick is what I need to do.I used whole wheat flour in the beginning, now I feed it either that or AP flour, usually alternating. For my liquid I use just water. I have tried to make bread with it, but unless I add active dry yeast to my recipe it takes over 24 hours for my loaf to rise. This just does not seem normal to me. Any advice? I am going to seperate some of my starter and try the ACV.
I followed this recipe, except I added 1 Tbsp organic rye flour, 1 Tbsp Whole Wheat flour, 1 Tbsp unbleached bread flour and 1 Tbsp unbleached all purpose flour and the pineapple juice the first day. I wanted to cover all the bases and have the greatest chance of capturing wild yeast from the various types flour. I only added the flour listed above, pineapple juice and later water to the starter.
After a few days I only fed the starter all purpose flour. The starter was kept in a Gladware container on the kitchen counter, loosely covered. I stirred it twice a day. It was the consistency of a thick pancake batter. The room temperature was about 70-F at night and 78-F in the daytime.
After 7 days, I baked a boule that rose in about 4 or 5 hours. This is the best starter that I have had up to now, and the first I started from wild yeast. Thank you.
I followed this recipe, except I added 1 Tbsp organic rye flour, 1 Tbsp Whole Wheat flour, 1 Tbsp unbleached bread flour and 1 Tbsp unbleached all purpose flour and the pineapple juice the first day. I wanted to cover all the bases and have the greatest chance of capturing wild yeast from the various types flour. I only added the flour listed above, pineapple juice and later water to the starter.
After a few days I only fed the starter all purpose flour. The starter was kept in a Gladware container on the kitchen counter, loosely covered. I stirred it twice a day. It was the consistency of a thick pancake batter. The room temperature was about 70-F at night and 78-F in the daytime.
After 7 days, I baked a boule that rose in about 4 or 5 hours. This is the best starter that I have had up to now, and the first I started from wild yeast. Thank you.
Was reading through the comments and questions on this post and I am humbled by the wonderful, helpful, response from SDL and others. You guys rock! I used this recipe to start my first attempts in May this year and have had 100% success with all my bread and I was an absolute beginner! Follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. I am always pushed for time so my schedule is like this........ My starter lives in the fridge all the time. If I'm baking, I measure a generous 1/4 cup of starter into a glass bowl the day before baking and use that to build a starter dough/sponge/mother starter (as in Peter Reinhart's book). I then feed the remaining starter and leave it out of the fridge till it starts getting active and then pop it back into the fridge. That way I don't have an accumulation of starter that has to be discarded. I'm rather emotionally attached to my starter and always feel like a serial murderer when I discard any of my colony...... Sure it makes hooch which I just stir back in and sometimes I give it a little extra feed using equal quantities whole wheat flour and water, but it has never let me down and I love that earthy, yeasty smell and taste....... Wonderful. Thank you Sourdoughlady!
I finally succeeded in getting a wild yeast starter going with just flour and pineapple juice. My first starter from just flour and pineapple juice. I used a tablespoon each of 4 flours to hedge my bets and it worked. Hodgson Mill Organic Rye Flour, Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Unbleached Bread Flour and Unbleached All-Purpose flour. I used pineapple juice from a can of pineapple packaged in its own unsweetened juice.
.
The first day I added 1 Tablespoon each of the 4 flours above along with enough pineapple juice to make a thick, pancake like batter.
.
I placed the sourdough starter in a Gladware container, loosely covered by the lid, on the kitchen counter. It was about 70-F to 78-F day to night. I stirred the batter, to incorporate air, twice a day.
.
On the 3rd day I added an additional 1 Tablespoon each of the 4 flours above along with enough pineapple juice to maintain a thick, pancake like batter.
.
On the 4th day the first bubbles appeared. I started feeding the starter unbleached bread flour and pineapple juice.
.
On the 5th and 6th day I added additional unbleached bread flour and pineapple juice.
.
On the 7th day I started feeding unbleached bread flour and water. The starter is really active and foams up a couple of hours after feeding.
.
On the 8th day I made a loaf of sourdough from the starter. It rose quite well and made a nice loaf of bread, but it was not real sour.
.
The starter is now about 3 weeks old and smells nicely yeasty and sour. I am going to attempt Peter Reinhart's San Francisco Sourdough (from Artisan Breads Every Day), using my new wild-yeast sourdough starter.
I realize my question seems a bit stupid, but I just started my own starter and I find it strange that I should be discarding most of it everyday before a new feeding? Why should I throw away a part of the starter when I can clearly see it bubbling almost uniformly?
I mixed 50 grams of King Arthur bread flour with 50 grams of King Arthur Whole Wheat four and 100 grams of salt water. I let it sit for 24 hours and no bubbles. Day 2, I added the same amounts without dumping anything. Day 3, Started to get a few bubbles, not many. I dumped half of it and replace it with equal amount of the 3 ingredients. Day 4, I woke up and looked at my starter and it was in full bloom. I gave it the float test and it floated. I dumped half of it and fed equal amounts of the 3 ingredients. Day 5, it hit the NORMAL stall. There were no bubbles and it looked like a thick pancake batter. I dumped half of it and replace with the three ingredients. Day 6, still no bubbles. I dumped half of it and replace the same 3 ingredients. Day 7, still no bubbles. I dumped half of it and replace the same 3 ingredients. Day 8, the starter was fully bloomed and it passed the float test... It was ready to use to leaven a loaf of bread. I live 500 feet from the beach in Hermosa Beach. The ambient temp of my house was about 70 degrees. I didn't find to need to add any juice or anything else. I think people get freaked out when their new starter hits the normal stall and they start putting in stuff to speed it up. Just wait the stall out and keep dumping half and feeding it. Within 10 days you will have a good starter going.
I made a starter using apple yeast water which I cultivated myself. For the 1st 2 days, the starter was very active and easily tripled in less than 6 hours. However, from day 3 onwards, the starter got sluggish and only rose a little in 12 hours. The first time, I thought my started died so I dumped everything and started all over again, and the same happened. Its day 5 now, the starter has some bubbles but it very sluggish. What should I do? I really hope to be able to revive the starter.
Hi Sourdough lady,
with this recipe, to ake the starter. I was wondering, instead of keeping 1/4 of the mixture and discarding the rest of the mixture, can we just make two batches of starters?
Janis
Hi I was recently given a starter from a friend who had been making successful loaves with the parent starter. The starter had stopped bubbling and appeared to be quite dormant. I mixed it and fed it the bread, filtered water and gave it 1 tsp of cider vinegar. It began bubbling but was quite runny so I increased the amount of flour I was giving it and have continued on for the last 2 days doing this. The starter seems to be quite active (bubbling) but I cannot get it to the point where it floats in water when I test it. Does this just need time or should I start again?
My starter was made on Valentine's Day, (02/14/2016); I've followed these directions, and I'm at the point of putting in the 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider into the mixture each day; the mixture looked flat and dead for about 3 days, but today it is "soupy" and very "bubbly" on top.
Questions:
1. Am I headed in the right direction?
2. When do I stop repeating "Step 4"?
3. Once in the refrigerator, how long can I go between feedings?
4. How do I get this small starter amount to the volume of what I need to make a 1st sour dough loaf?
5. My starter was covered throughout this process, and in a proofing box. Should I have done this uncovered?
Thank you from Maine!
is the 2 T flour and 2 T juice as in 2 T = tablespoons
new to this
many thanks
I have been making sourdough bread for sometime and I have noticed that after a day or two it becomes dry and heavy. It does have moisture in it but it seems to migrate to the outside of the loaf(does that make any sense?).
I have been trying to work the dough a little wetter so that I can have larger bubbles and bread that stays more moist, something like the sourdough bread at Whole Foods. I used to only use the sourdough starter for my bread, but I have been experimenting with adding commercial yeast to the mix....with very small success.
So, the question is, how do I get a light, sourdough loaf with larger bubbles that stays moist for a longer period of time?
I am just embarking on my first 'starter' and appreciate your in-depth description of how it will react (or not) during the process.
I would be very interested in the recipe you used to produce the very nice loaves pictured above.
Thanks in advance.
Is there a recipe for the loaves that are pictured above?
I am on my fourth bake with my "mother" Mavis and that makes a grand total of 8 loaves of bread that I've ever baked ;) I am using a recipe that is for newbies and uses store bought yeast as well as 2 cups of the mother..I'm almost brave enough to try a starter only recipe..wondering if it will taste more sour? also do you have a recipe suggestion for a novice? Thank you