I just watched a video where the baker fed her sourdough starter—and made her levain—by adding more starter to the mix than flour/water. She placed 200g of starter in a jar and added only 100g flour and 100g of water.
The starter seemed to work just fine, doubling up as it ought, and puffing up the bread as it ought as well. The finished bread come out fine.
So, of course, now I'm curious. Because every other starter recipe I've seen in videos and in books advocates equal or less starter in the mix. Some way less (1:10:10). I've seen recipes where the starter is down to 5g. But never have I seen a 2:1:1 ratio.
Her starter, by the way, was pure rye flour. It seems to me like the starter would eat up all the food very quickly and need only a short 6 hours to double up, yet she left her starter/levain to ferment for 10-14 hours. Maybe the aim is to create a super-hungry starter?
Thoughts? Opinions?
We think alike!
Video here: https://youtu.be/T1LyR2RtxxI
This recipe was posted 2015. She has a two newer videos about making and maintaining starter which are more conventional (white bread and rye, and more flour/water instead of more starter). She also uses a lot of cute Weck jars. This Is the maintaining one: https://youtu.be/lwNlLo4pIj0
If the starter amount is higher than the amount of food, it will just eat it up faster.
I recently had to postpone the starter's maturity by a few hours because I got busy, so I just gave it a little snack (the ratio was probably like 3:1:1) to chew on until I was ready to use it.
It's odd though that she left her starter to ferment that long, especially with rye flour. Maybe she left it in a quite cold area? But yeah, creating a super hungry starter might be her goal? Though I don't know what's the point if the starter is most active at full maturity level...
Jey, the major issue with using large amounts (+50%) of starter in a bread dough is dough degradation. Given enough time as the starter ferments, it is impacted exactly like the final dough and is subject to degrade and weaken or destroy the gluten. Large amounts of prefermented levain will weaken the dough.
Also, from a standpoint of flavor - longer fermentation = increased flavor.
Dan
to feed with low flour and water ratios. (2:1:1). Any indication of temperature?
Ice cold water and/or frozen flour can slow things down too. Don't forget the temps!
As I said in another reply, that video came out in 2015, and as of April of this year she’s changed her tune. Her newer videos have a very conventional recipe for a starter—very conventional, in fact. But the 2:1:1 rye starter apparently worked for her for however long before that 2015 video and up to 2019, which had me curious to know why she why she might have such an unconventional recipe, and how it might work.
I will add that the original bread she makes with the rye stater puffs up modestly and has a tight crumb. The bread she makes with this new “normal” starter puffs up beautifully and has a far more open crumb.