Hello. Post number 2 for me - I posted on a general forum first but this forum is obviously more appropriate.
I'm on my first starter. I am keeping it in a fat baby bottle at the moment, which I thought was apt seeing as it is only a baby! It's a week old today and is active but not ready.
It is approx 80% organic white and 20% organic rye flour. As for the water, I add about as much as I think is about right. I accept that this is probably NOT the right approach if I want to get a starter going quickly - that I would be wiser to follow an established 'recipe' to get going, but I am enjoying playing around with it. I have noticed that when it is thin the bubbles still come but it doesn't really expand. I've also noticed that more regular feeding seems to keep the acetone / acidic odour at bay somewhat.
I have only been adding small amounts of flour and water up to now - say, a tablespoon of flour and similar amount of water, but I'm about to ramp up the amounts and go for the bake in the next few days. I'll have to find a slightly larger container I expect (?)
My question is this: do you, the more experienced bakers, tend to estimate flour and water amounts or do you weigh everything religiously?
Regards
Mike
Replies
Weigh your ingredients, especially when beginning. A splash of this and a dash of that cannot be consistently repeated, and one persons cup will not match anothers.
Weighing is much more consistent even for your own trials. And while you may still need to adjust ratios slightly depending on the weather, at least you have a known starting point.
Thanks for your replies guys. I've gone out this morning and bought a digital balance from Tescos (£12.50) - it weighs down to 1g and up to 5kg.
I threw away most of my existing starter and made up the feed according to Dom's advice. First thing I noticed was that the mix is a lot thicker than the ones I have been producing. I made it about two hours ago and it has already started to bubble - good news. Next I'm going to get a bigger jar and hopefully I'll be baking in a week or so, fingers crossed. It is about 20 degrees in my kitchen in north west England.
Thanks again.
Mike
Sounds like a great temperature to start your experiments with - and you should be able to get some decent flavour in your breads, too.
Let us know how it goes!
Weighing is definitely the repeatable method.. I wasted a long time weighing the starter and flours, and then the main part of the water, then adding more water "as necessary". That's why I haven't published my recipes here yet !
The only problems with Tesco balances, at least if yours is the same as mine, are that they *eat* batteries [ CR2032 x2 in mine], and although they indicate to a gram, I wouldn't trust them to better than two or three grams (with good batteries). Mine often fluctuates within a gram or two. But, I'm using mine several times a day (I'm on insulin - I weigh *everything* to work out how much carbohydrate I'm going to eat). If you only use yours for bread, perhaps the batteries will last longer ;-)
Good luck with your breads.
ĸen
Again, thanks for the comments guys.
Hi Ken, mine only takes a single battery, so let's see how mine lasts! I had already discovered, when I first weighed out water, that the balance wasn't too accurate. I'm hoping that they're good enough all the same.
My starter has recently been rehoused into a larger and more luxurious glass jar. I have been feeding, feeding and then throwing away most of it and starting a 'run-up' again. It isn't quite doubling in height, but that isn't far off hopefully. There are plenty of bubbles and bits of froth showing every so often.
Question: I've been feeding it on organic strong white and rye. Now that my starter is alive, can I now swap to ordinary strong white flower, or is it important to stick with the organic? Do I risk stopping it in its tracks?
cheers
Mike
It's happiest on organic unbleached flour but ordinary white bread making flour is OK. Stay away from bread mixes, though!
Well, it was all going well. I had a big, doubling, frothy starter and I was preparing for my first bake.... I was going to try the Aussie Miche recipe, which requires a 65% hydration starter. As soon as I changed the hydration the starter was stopped in its tracks! No bubbles, no lift.
I've put a little pinneapple juice in it this morning in an attempt to revive it.
Any ideas?
Cheers
Mike
...and I'm back on track.
Wish me luck guys - I'm going in tonight! Going for a mainly white miche, with a bit of rye.
Mike
Like a pancake! I followed the recipe to the letter, except that I didn't have a banneton so I left it in the bowl. When I turned it out it just flowed like slime all over the baking sheet. I've just peeked in the oven and I have a two cm deep pancake baking.
Back to the drawing board!
Mike
You don't have to change the hydration of your culture - you could have just created a 65% biga as the stage 1 build, then followed the recipe as stage 2 build and final dough. Then you may not have had the apparent problems with the culture. You may not have had a problem anyway - a stiffer culture is slower to rise so you may just have need to give it more time.
But assuming that it wasn't your shenanigans with the starter that was the problem, even if you have no banneton you have a few options once you have finished bulk fermentation. You will still absolutely need to preshape and shape the dough or you'll get pancake - just leaving it in the bowl as is won't give you a nice rise in the oven. You could have just shaped the loaf, covered it and left it freestanding for the final rise - it doesn't HAVE to go in a banneton or bowl.
So when you followed the recipe to the letter, did you preshape and shape the dough after bulk fermentation? When you left it in the bowl for final proof, did you prepare the bowl as if it were a banneton?
"When you left it in the bowl for final proof, did you prepare the bowl as if it were a banneton?"
In a word, no. This is probably where I went wrong huh!
I'll give it another go in a day or so and let you know how I get on.
cheers
Mike