Ive just realised I've added strong white flour to my wholemeal starter. Have I ruined it, or will it survive? The starter was given to me after going to a bread making class about two weeks ago. I kept it in the fridge for week but then refreshed with wholemeal flour it and made two loaves out of it which were pretty good. Ive kept it out of the fridge since then and been refreshing it every day with wholemeal. It smells fine and is obviously alive but has my stupidity killed it off by putting strong white in instead of wholemeal . What should I do?
Anything in strong white flour is also found in wholemeal flour. Your starter is fine. Just switch back to wholemeal at the next refreshment if you want to maintain a wholemeal starter. Some people have found a white flour starter easier to maintain. YMMV.
Changes the whole time. It can be fed any flour. Just change it back if you want a wholemeal starter. My starter at the moment is just a piece of old dough taken from the previous batch.
Hey Lechem and Dorkette
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Thats very kind of you. I really appreciate it. I'm new to baking sourdough but love eating the bread. Toda Lechem, thanks Dorkette for the reassurance. I was afraid I had have to bin it and start agin from scratch.
I usually keep a mostly bread flour starter (strong unbleached flour) and when I refresh it (or make a build from it) I will often add some whole wheat flour or the bits sifted out of my stone-ground whole wheat flour when I make a high-extraction flour from it. You can also use AP flour if that's all you have available, and/or add some bran. Yeast just likes grain to eat!
I have one starter that gets fed nothing else but white bread flour... It's been going for years now.
-Gordon