Hi, I am newly registered to the forum, although I have been lurking and reading. I have been baking with sourdough for a long time, trying various starters. I just recently had to give up wheat baking, so I decided to try out Peter Reinhart's recipe for 100% rye in The Bread Baker's Apprentice, since I had to make a new starter anyway. I ended up making an all-rye "barm" starter, following his instructions, but trying out the bread with spelt flour instead, which came out relatively successful although still somewhat dense.
I'd like to try some of my "regular" recipes with my new starter and making adjustments to use spelt flour, but I am not exactly sure the best way to convert the "barm" into a regular starter for the purpose of other recipes. In his recipes, you take a certain amount from the mother culture and feed it prior to baking... so I am assuming that is the equivalent of a ready to go starter, but I am trying to figure out how to convert quanties so I end up with the correct amount of starter for baking.
Has anyone tried his method and can shed some more insight?
Thanks!
I'd like to try some of my "regular" recipes with my new starter and making adjustments to use spelt flour, but I am not exactly sure the best way to convert the "barm" into a regular starter for the purpose of other recipes. In his recipes, you take a certain amount from the mother culture and feed it prior to baking... so I am assuming that is the equivalent of a ready to go starter, but I am trying to figure out how to convert quanties so I end up with the correct amount of starter for baking.
Has anyone tried his method and can shed some more insight?
Thanks!
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Replies
Hi Acceber,
It seems to me that you are probably right... A sourdough culture is still a starter, no matter what you want to call it. I think I like the comment that Mike from SourdoughHome.com said in his June 08 blog about Peter's books and terminology.
"Part of the problem comes from his non-standard use of baking terms. If I had nickel for every time someone told me they were making a barm of their sourdough, I could retire. Or when they tell me they are making a poolish from their sourdough.
Though it was used elsewhere, barm is a largely British practice that was an early alternative to sourdough. It used yeast from fermenting beer to raise the bread. It is a good technique, but like bakers yeast, it is an anti-sourdough. You can't make a barm out of a sourdough any more than you can make a vegetarian meal of pork chops. "
So if you didn't use Brewers yeast or beer to grow your current "starter", you should be safe to feed it and use it like any other starter used here.
No more wheat? Can you explain...?
I just started reading Ed Wood's Classic Sourdoughs - he has a lot about spelt and rye and about techniques for using them in sourdough breads he calls them weak flours.
Also If you still have your wheat starter and want to convert it to spelt it is pretty simple. Per Ed Wood "to make sourdough bread with 100% spelt, it is easy to transfer your culture from bread flour to a total spelt flour base." If you need more info let me know but basically use a small amount of wheat starter in a clean jar, say...
10g wheat starter
add
25g water
25g spelt flour
Mix well and cycle this through the activation process (ferment) at 68-82F for 12 hours. Repeat, each time using the new starter for your 10g of starter - through another 4 cycles and you should be at very close to 99 to 100 percent spelt.
If you don't have a scale for grams, use equal weights of water and spelt approximately 1T starter to 1/4 cup water and 1/3-1/2 cup spelt flour. You don't want to waste the spelt unless you can still use the transitional starter somewhere.
Hope this helps.
Terri