Hello everyone, names Shawn and only been making sourdough for a few months with limited success. I think the biggest problem is my starter, a 65 year old transplant from California, isn't really rasing after I feed it. Sometimes it does but like today,I separated 25 grams and discarded the rest, then fed it ap and water at 50g each. Been almost 4 hours and its had almost no movement. I've tried several brands of flour, both ap and bread flours and I cant get consistent results. Tried both in oven with light on and in a room with a steady 72 degree temp. I switch out the storage jars on the weekly.
Thoughts?
If it was me I’d feed 25g of starter with 25g of flour and 25g of water.
If my starter is behaving sluggishly or otherwise out of the ordinary, I include some rye flour in the feeding. My usual feeding is something like 8 g of starter with 16-18 g of flour (50/50 mix of AP and whole wheat) and 16 g of water. For the sluggish feeding, I would go with 8 g of starter, 8 g of the 50/50 mix, 8-10 g of rye flour, and 16 g of water. Also, I feed (i.e., refresh the starter) once each day.
Others have suggested rye flour to pep up a starter, so I make no claim of originality, but I have witnessed the effects, and it does work.
Happy baking.
Ted
If you are feeding a starter that hasn't been fed for a long time, it may take longer to re-activate, and it may take 2 or 3 feedings to get really frisky.
And I second the suggestion to add a bit of rye flour to the feeding. In fact, I keep a jar of what I call "sourdough food" that is a mix of 70% AP, 20% whole wheat and 10% whole rye. My starter thinks it's yummy.
Happy baking!
David
When making or reactivating starter one should feed according to the strength of the starter.
If it is slow then feed less often. If it is fast then feed more often.
If it doesn’t rise much then feed less. If it rises a lot then feed more.
If it stops then skip feeds.
If you don't feed according to the starter's needs it will slow it down considerably.
Another thing to consider, if you are still running into problems, is the water you are using, which is...?
I never had any luck with wheat flour starters, but this rye starter was easy to create and remains easy to refresh
Creating & Maintaining a Rye Starter
Someone with a better palate than mine might taste the rye in a white wheat flour bread, but that wouldn't be terrible, either.
And the discard makes terrific pancakes and muffins.