Starter Help

txsjohnny

I was planning an making some sourdough pancakes so I used some of my sourdough starter that I was going to discard to make the batter ahead of time. I fed the starter this morning because the recipe calls for "fed" & "fairly thick" starter. I fed the starter with some Walmart brand all-purpose flour. I left the starter out while I went to my classes today (I left at 9am) and returned home about 5pm. What I saw I did not like. Little grey/black dots all over my sourdough and even up some of the sides where I had mixed in the flour this morning (see picture). When I took a spatula to the mixture I could see that the mold was only a very thin layer floating on top of the rest of the batter, but mold scares me. Especially when it is not green but grey or black. I think it is the flour from Walmart. Let me qualify that statement. The first time I used this AP flour after I purchased it, it ended up ruining my secondary batch of refrigerated starter. I feed both of my starters weekly and this particular starter when I pulled it from the fridge was inudated with mold everywhere, like some mad science experiment! So I was shocked and saddened. Shocked that mold would grow in my starter at such a rapid rate (I feed every 5 days). So my white flour starter I had to throw out but there was enough to salvage underneath the mold that I started a new batch. Now my whole wheat starter that I feed with only King Arthur brand whole wheat flour has never exhibited any problems with mold. I have had a white flour starter for some time now but trying to pinch pennies I regretfully bought the cheapest AP flour at Walmart and now I am regretting it. Am I right in thinking the Walmart flour caused this since using this flour twice in two seperate starters has resulted in an outright full fledge bloom of mold? I am considering throwing away this bag of Walmart flour and vow to never buy it again. I need to add that I made the pancake batter in a clean, (freshly sanitized from the dishwasher) stainless steel bowl. Trying to understand if that may have attributed to the rapid mold growth. So confused. 

up
258 users have voted.

Replies

Post Reply

Already a member? Login