How can I feed a Reinhart Sourdough Starter? (NOT Mother Starter)
Hi,
It's been about a week since the deadline to use the sourdough starter I made from Reinhart's Pain au Levain recipe. Rather than throwing it out and remaking it with some mother starter, can I just feed this one? If so, how should I do it?
How much do you need? And what is the typical build as described by Peter Reinhart?
Any starter can be used as a mother starter if it's used to inoculate another batch. So whether it's a mother starter or not is no issue. Did you make this starter, allow it to mature then refrigerate it?
Thank you for responding so quickly. I made the 16 oz/458g his Pain au Levain recipe called for. It's used to leaven 16 oz/458g of flour in the Pain au Levain recipe which will produce two-16 oz loaves. Here's the starter formula I used.
1: If its been refrigerated since it was built, looks healthy and has no hooch then it may very well work if you use it. The flavour might be quite sour/tangy though. I do believe he gives an option of adding in some yeast to the final dough so if you do choose to use the starter then add in the yeast.
2: it'll need to be refreshed. However refreshing this starter will involve discard and will basically end up being the very same starter build so you might as well start from scratch.
3: Refresh this starter but discard less. i.e. start off with a higher percentage of starter. It'll peak quicker and while it hasn't had the same starter build recommended in the recipe it'll be refreshed and you discard less.
One example might be to take off half and to the remaining 229g feed...
84g unbleached bread flour
50g whole wheat flour
95g water
So you're only discarding half (less waste) it's fed and left to mature. Will be quicker, just a few hours I'd think.
I'm assuming the mother starter in the original build is also around 70% hydration. If not then this might be off.
Use all of the starter you have built and instead of adding a touch of yeast, which is really just done as a boost, add in enough for a normal yeasted bread. This way you use up all the starter and it doesn't take too long therefore a more balanced flavour.
So it'll be a yeasted bread with the starter added for flavour.
How much do you need? And what is the typical build as described by Peter Reinhart?
Any starter can be used as a mother starter if it's used to inoculate another batch. So whether it's a mother starter or not is no issue. Did you make this starter, allow it to mature then refrigerate it?
Hi,
Thank you for responding so quickly. I made the 16 oz/458g his Pain au Levain recipe called for. It's used to leaven 16 oz/458g of flour in the Pain au Levain recipe which will produce two-16 oz loaves. Here's the starter formula I used.
Unbleached bread flour 62.5%
Whole wheat flour 37.5%
Mother starter 31.25%
Water 70.5%
Total 201.75%
1: If its been refrigerated since it was built, looks healthy and has no hooch then it may very well work if you use it. The flavour might be quite sour/tangy though. I do believe he gives an option of adding in some yeast to the final dough so if you do choose to use the starter then add in the yeast.
2: it'll need to be refreshed. However refreshing this starter will involve discard and will basically end up being the very same starter build so you might as well start from scratch.
3: Refresh this starter but discard less. i.e. start off with a higher percentage of starter. It'll peak quicker and while it hasn't had the same starter build recommended in the recipe it'll be refreshed and you discard less.
One example might be to take off half and to the remaining 229g feed...
So you're only discarding half (less waste) it's fed and left to mature. Will be quicker, just a few hours I'd think.
I'm assuming the mother starter in the original build is also around 70% hydration. If not then this might be off.
The flavour will be better and it'll be stronger.
Or rather a variation on the 1st idea.
Use all of the starter you have built and instead of adding a touch of yeast, which is really just done as a boost, add in enough for a normal yeasted bread. This way you use up all the starter and it doesn't take too long therefore a more balanced flavour.
So it'll be a yeasted bread with the starter added for flavour.