A hearty "Hello" to all ! I am sure glad I found you! A year ago I have made a few attempts at sourdough baking, not bad, not spectacular, until the starter died. Now I just finished creating a new starter, it seems very healthy, doubling in less than 12 hours. Before I embark on my first baking journey, I have a few questions about the amount of starter, more specifically: what happens if I use more starter than the recipe calls for? I have a recipe that calls for 300 g rye flour, 300g spelt flour, 400 ml water, 3 TBS sourdough starter. After the proofing period, one adds half of the above amount of flour again ( a total of 900 g flour). 3TBS seems to me to be a small amout of starter, in comparison of other recipies I have seen. And I have all this starter rearing to go to work.... I know I know, follow the recipe first, and then play around with variances, but..., its not in my nature -:)
Many thanks in advance!
Do
Replies
We may not have enough information from your posting to help you towards the right direction. Indeed, 3 TBS of starter does sound like too little starter for a happy, healthy fermenting loaf. The addition of a further 300g of flour makes little sense at all when you've not indicated any addition of more water. The dough at that point should be near impossible to mix with 44.4% hydration level.
There's an absurdly simple formula for sourdough breads that is advocated by many bakers. It's called the 1-2-3 formula popularized by Ms Flo Makani, the writer of the baking blog, Farine. You start with one part, by weight, 100% hydration starter. The water is 2 parts by weight of the formula. By now, you've probably guessed that the flour is the 3 parts by weight component of the formula. Salt is, as commonly used, 2% of the flour weight. This will give you a dough of 71% hydration which works out just fine for most breads. If your shaping and slashing skills are good, you should be able to get a fine looking and tasting loaf when you use a home oven and baking stone.
Do some searching for more information on this subject then give it a try at home. You'll be more than pleasantly surprised at how effective the formula is.
Well, I already posted a long reply yesterday, but somehow it does not show up. So let's start over.
Thank you for the info above with the formula, I'll make note of it.
I got the recipe I am referring to from a German link, http://www.top-getreidemuehlen.de/rez_brot1.shtml . I tried it last year, liked the flavor, wanted to repeat it. But I can't remember if I increased the sourdough, or not.
In short: Blend 300 g spelt four, 300g rye flour, 400 ml water, 3TBS sourdough starter, and let proof for 8-10h till the dough has almost doubled. Now knead in abt 250 - 300 g rye & spelt flour , add 1TBS salt, (1TBS caraway, corriander, fennel seed all optional). Form dough, it should be able to maintain form on its own, and let sit for 2-3 h . Bake for abt 45 min.
Hi Do,
I have a book, Jake O'Shaughnessey's Sourdough Bread Book: A Most Complete Compendium of Fine Old Sourdough Recipes, where the bread recipes call for 1 TBS of sourdough starter in 1.5 c flour and 1 c water for 24 hours, and then anothed cup of flour is added and it is kneaded into bread. I have been told a few times that this is too little starter, but I have also been baking amazing bread for two years using this method.
I imagine the amount of starter in the above recipe is fine. More starter might help it rise faster. Less starter may develop a different flavor. It seems like a pain to add starter after the proofing, so I'd probably add it all in the begining.
I've made loaves out of just starter, and they were very sour, but crumby crumb(!!!)!!! I suppose I could have refined the proofing into just the right loaf. Sour Dough isn't an exact science. Work, and work, and work until you find the right loaf your for yourself!!!
TheGreenSpyder
I've made loaves out of just starter, and they were very sour, but crumby crumb(!!!)!!! I suppose I could have refined the proofing into just the right loaf. Sour Dough isn't an exact science. Work, and work, and work until you find the right loaf your for yourself!!!
TheGreenSpyder
Thanks for all your replies! It really helps to learn about different experiences people are having.
Just to keep you posted, we followed the recipe pretty well, except that we used a bit more water as we grind the flour ourselves and it turns out a little coarser than the store bought version. And we let the dough rise 11 h because it took this time for it to double. Amazingly it had started out very hard, but in 11 h it turned very soft and fluffy! The end result was a beautiful loaf of bread, great consistency, pleasant flavour ( we added salt, caraway, fennel, and coriander seeds), but perhaps a tad too sour for our liking.
I am wondering if adding a little more starter would allow the dough to rise faster and therefore it would be less sour?
Do
Doris just a comment about home milled flours. Home milled flour will take more water than regular flour so keep that in mind as you use it to make bread.
Well yes we are learning that we have to adjust our recipies bec. of the home milled flour. In fact, the loaf is quite dense and a bit hard. I also obseved that my better half has defrosted another bread, and quietly lets me finish eating our experiment....
[quote=dorisw]
A hearty "Hello" to all ! I am sure glad I found you! A year ago I have made a few attempts at sourdough baking, not bad, not spectacular, until the starter died. Now I just finished creating a new starter, it seems very healthy, doubling in less than 12 hours. Before I embark on my first baking journey, I have a few questions about the amount of starter, more specifically: what happens if I use more starter than the recipe calls for? I have a recipe that calls for 300 g rye flour, 300g spelt flour, 400 ml water, 3 TBS sourdough starter. After the proofing period, one adds half of the above amount of flour again ( a total of 900 g flour). 3TBS seems to me to be a small amout of starter, in comparison of other recipies I have seen. And I have all this starter rearing to go to work.... I know I know, follow the recipe first, and then play around with variances, but..., its not in my nature -:)
Many thanks in advance!
Do
[/quote]
I'm just curious: how long is the initial 'proofing' period?
I'm heading back to the original question here, and it sounds like the initial mix is probably a "starter growth" type of stage (preferment?) then you have a second stage fermentation with the added flour - in essence, you have greater than 50% starter.