Hi All,
I just thought I would post a few photos of my starters, as an update to my initial "new guy" post in the beginners forum, and because there has been recent discussion about the importance of quality flour. I don't regard my flour as particularly fancy - I specifically want to bake without too much fuss or expense, and am having great results with mainstream flour, cool Melbourne room temperatures, and chlorinated tap water!
I run two starters for fun. The first was made from scratch six weeks ago with no prior experience, as described here:
http://sourdough.com/forum/new-guy-tenterhooks-first-starter
I still feed it daily with 50g flour and 50g water. The flour is 80% white bakers flour and 20% wholemeal rye. I purchase the rye from my local health food shop - the brand is Lotus. The white flour is just mainstream bakers flour purchased from my local bakery. I usually use Westerns or Manildra depending on what is in stock. It's not wholemeal, and I think it is bleached. I only use the 20% rye in the starter, and [usually] 20% in the sponge. I do not add rye to make up the dough, because I like white bread.
The second starter was purchased from Queensland:
http://www.basicingredients.com.au/BrettNoysCulture.html
I only feed this with the white flour described above. No rye. These days, it is just as active as my home-made 20% rye one. I feed this daily with 50g water, and 50g white flour.
Photos:
The jars that I use. Holes drilled in the lids to let 'em breath. I fed these at late last night, and they have more than doubled in volume since.
Close up of the one with 20% rye.
The white one.
Overhead view.
Plenty more photos of my loaves here:
http://sourdough.com/gallery/v/user/jas
Hope this helps new folk to not freak out too much about problems in sourcing specialised flours.
J.
I just thought I would post a few photos of my starters, as an update to my initial "new guy" post in the beginners forum, and because there has been recent discussion about the importance of quality flour. I don't regard my flour as particularly fancy - I specifically want to bake without too much fuss or expense, and am having great results with mainstream flour, cool Melbourne room temperatures, and chlorinated tap water!
I run two starters for fun. The first was made from scratch six weeks ago with no prior experience, as described here:
http://sourdough.com/forum/new-guy-tenterhooks-first-starter
I still feed it daily with 50g flour and 50g water. The flour is 80% white bakers flour and 20% wholemeal rye. I purchase the rye from my local health food shop - the brand is Lotus. The white flour is just mainstream bakers flour purchased from my local bakery. I usually use Westerns or Manildra depending on what is in stock. It's not wholemeal, and I think it is bleached. I only use the 20% rye in the starter, and [usually] 20% in the sponge. I do not add rye to make up the dough, because I like white bread.
The second starter was purchased from Queensland:
http://www.basicingredients.com.au/BrettNoysCulture.html
I only feed this with the white flour described above. No rye. These days, it is just as active as my home-made 20% rye one. I feed this daily with 50g water, and 50g white flour.
Photos:
The jars that I use. Holes drilled in the lids to let 'em breath. I fed these at late last night, and they have more than doubled in volume since.
Close up of the one with 20% rye.
The white one.
Overhead view.
Plenty more photos of my loaves here:
http://sourdough.com/gallery/v/user/jas
Hope this helps new folk to not freak out too much about problems in sourcing specialised flours.
J.
Category:
Replies
Been reading your posts & I am very surprised there is old flour in *your* house!
Yes, I agree, fresh is best. I'm currently making around 16 small loaves per week (the neighbours & my daugher's school friends are getting plenty of gifts), so nothing is around long-enough to get stale.
J.