At the moment I have been maintaining 180mg of 100% hydration starter in my fridge and baking a bread at a time a couple times a week using a Levain built from 90mg of my starter. I am thrilled with the state of my mother which is strong and rises predictably and has been producing incredible bread. It's really true that after it matures a few weeks it really takes off. I want to increase the size of my starter now so I am able to cook two loaves at a time while only having to double the amount I add to the mother so the additional feeding is more quickly converted into mother in the fridge. Over the next two days I plan to add an additional 50% to my mother so that I have enough to remove 180mg each time which would only equal 50%. Does this seem okay to everyone? I am reluctant to change anything too much since I am loving the results I get. As a test during my last baking I removed a couple tablespoons of starter and added them to 180mg of new food (90g flour/90g water). When this visibly doubled I removed 90mg and built my usual levain but its rise lagged far behind that of a levain I had started at the same time built from my original mother. I guess I am just looking for any kind of advice on increasing the size of your mother to be able to bake additional loaves. Also at refrigerator temps how long do you think a 50% feed would take to be converted entirely into new mother in the fridge? Thanks guys and a special thanks to Farinam whose guidance has brought many happily consumed breads to my friends and family these last weeks!
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Hi rezpeni,
Everything you've said sounds fine.
Not sure how long you'd need in the fridge for full conversion but a good 24 hours wouldn't hurt. If you're baking regularly, say every 2 or 3 days, there's no need to keep your starter in the fridge. Room temp is fine. Unless you live in a really hot climate, a wheat starter will last a couple of days at room temp without refreshing.
Andrew
Hello Rezpeni,
Thanks for the kind words.
My philosophy is that I replace what I take out. So if you take out 180g (not mg as you wrote) then I replace it with 180g (90g flour and 90g water). The amount of active starter left doesn't really matter - some report leaving only the 'scrapings' as being enough to re-establish. In terms of determining how long it takes to peak when in the fridge the best thing is to do it by observation just as you would if it were on the bench - take it out at regular intervals and note the volume. If the volume starts to decline then it has reached (and passed) the peak.
Hope this helps
Farinam
Thanks guys. I went ahead and did it, I added 90g (yes g not mg) to the 180g, put it in the fridge, then 24hrs later took it out, fed it another 90g and left it out for 4 hours. It rose about a 1/3 and and stirred it and put it in the fridge. Started two loaves with it today and if anything it is even stronger, 90mg of starter to another 90mg of f/w is trippling in 5 hours so no problem. I took my offshoot out and that seems stronger as well after a week in the fridge so everything is cool here. I'm trying to leave it in the fridge as much as I can as it is very warm here at the moment.
btw Farinam do you have any good whole wheat recipies? I've taken to retarding the shaped loaves overnight in the fridge because I love the moister, creamier crumb that results.
Thanks!
Hi Rezpeni,
I assume that by whole wheat, that you mean 100% wholemeal.
If so, my only experience was with the bread making that I was involved in in Italy. Mostly I only have made partial whole meal bread to this stage.
In general though, as you increase the proportion of whole meal flour you have to increase the hydration to compensate for the greater water absorption of the flour. For the bread made with the 'integrale' flour in Italy, the hydration was at least 80% but it required some skill to handle and shape successfully so I think I would recommend not going quite that far.
The approach that I would recommend would be to work with progressively increasing proportions of whole meal and increase the amount of water at the same time to give you a consistency of dough that you can handle comfortably. I have done bread with 25% wholemeal at 75% hydration but that does need some care with handling.
Hope this helps.
Farinam
Farinam thank you that does help. The other day I made the Tartine whole wheat bread which has an 82% hydration level that was crazy to work with.
So a 25% wholemeal recipe might be something like:
180g leaven
375g white flour
125g wheat flour
350g water
10g salt
At 75% hydration would a hand shaped loaf be able to hold its shape proofed overnight in the fridge or do I need a banneton you think?
Good morning Rezpeni,
That would be a good recipe to try. Depending on your flour absorbancy you might need a little more/less water. Try holding a bit back and see how the dough looks and add if you think it needs it. I find it better to add water if it seems a bit dry (much easier to control) than to try to add flour if it is too wet.
I think you should always use some sort of 'container'. You can buy the purpose made gear if you wish. In Italy, we used linen lined cane baskets - I think they were restaurant bread baskets - dredged with integrale. For a boule, I use a colander lined with a rye flour dredged tea towel. For a batarde, an elongated cane basket lined ditto. For baguette you can get away with the tea towel with folds between the loaves but not sure about this technique for retarding unless you have a wicker tray to rest it on. I think it is best if there is some ability for air to 'circulate'.
That said, I have used a large 'vacuum' pack bag, to prevent formation of a dry skin during proving.
Have a good one.
Farinam