I came across your quick and slow/overnight builds just recently from an earlier blog post. This was a game changer. I typically only have 30 grams or so of starter because I’m an infrequent baker. So my way of building took a LOT longer. Your way is so much better. Thank you!
This is so timely for me. My starter has been a little less strong these past few weeks, I've done the process for a few days to revive it but I like having some great options from this post!
One thing I would appreciate you covering is long-term starter storage. I'm going to be away from home for over a month later this year and am not sure of the best way to "preserve" my starter. I will probably feed it just before I leave and put it in the fridge, but I'd like to have a back-up in case that goes wrong. I know lots of people keep a frozen starter as a back-up, but I'm not sure of the best way to freeze it - let it mature, then freeze? feed and freeze right away? cover with plastic wrap before freezing? I've even heard of people smearing some on parchment paper and letting it dry, then freezing as starter "chips".
Tom, I've left my starter for over a month during travel and all you really have to do is feed it a higher ratio of flour (so it becomes thicker and has more food for the long period). Just put it on the fridge and you're good to go! When I get home, I do a couple of feeds to get it reved up again. Easy peasy!
what Heather said. I am currently maintaining multiple starters and for those I'm not using regularly I am lowering the hydration to 60% and sticking them in the back of the fridge and refreshing them once a month or so.
I already maintain my starter at 75% hydration, but decreasing that even farther for my time away makes sense. My concern is that even for a week between feedings, my starter gets pretty gray-looking on the surface. I usually scrape that off and use the fresher stuff underneath to refresh my starter. I do use fresh-milled whole wheat to feed my starter, so maybe that has something to do with it. I love the bread that it makes, so I'm not inclined to change my method. But it probably wouldn't hurt to add some bread flour in the mix for the feeding before I leave.
you can switch to white flour for storage and back to ww for baking, it won't really make a difference in the result, and I promise you it will store better/longer. Whole grain flours are not ideal for long term storage.
I keep all my discard in the freezer and just keep adding it to a screw cap one quart round container (the ones from ziploc). I defrost and use for recipes that just call for discard so I’m not depending on it for leavening, but I’m pretty sure something survives because if I defrost it for a day or two in the fridge, it starts showing some signs of fermentation. I think if you wanted to do freezer backup, definitely don’t feed and freeze immediately. I’d let it rise to peak and then freeze. You need enough microbe density to survive the freeze-thaw. I’ve got some dried chips in the freezer from my last house move several years ago - haven’t tried them recently to see if they still work but that’s probably the ultimate backup. You just spread really really thin on parchment on a sheet pan and ambient dry until it flakes and is totally dry. Can take a couple of days depending on how thin you spread. And like Heather said, one month in the fridge is totally fine. In my student days, I routinely neglected my starter for up to a couple of months or so and always managed to revive it within a few feedings, haha. But her advice to do higher flour % is wise.
I used to do the ~6hr build on prebaking days but since I found the almost-no-knead sourdough recipes on here I mostly just use the starter from the fridge (I feed it ~ once a week and use the discard for granola, and just bake whenever I need). It actually worked as well when I was in a hurry a few weeks ago (but for that I put the dough into the oven with a pot of warm water to help it along...)
Rightly or wrongly, I feed my starter with rye flour even if it's going in the fridge (the version with white flour just never turned out that great and doesn't make as nice discard granola lol) :))
Thanks for the refresher, as it were, Andrew! I am familiar with the first two methods you write about, but the “booster” technique is new to me. Other than rescuing an overripe starter, why would one use that? Does it improve the loaf? Under certain circumstances?
At this point, I have time to bake only rarely (maybe every month or 6 weeks), but I refresh my starter just about every Sunday, and it seems to be pretty solid!
Annie - I've been maintaining my starter on a weekly-ish basis (keeping it in the fridge in between) for years, and it's been doing just fine like that. But most bakeries feed their starters on a twice-daily basis at room temperature, and I've been exploring what that sort of pampering will do to a starter and its performance. What I've noticed is that as I baby mine a bit more, it is a little faster to proof and a bit more open-crumbed than it used to be. Doing booster feedings is an another way to supercharge the activity of your starter without much extra effort. (It's also, as I said, a way to mellow out the flavor since it favors yeast over bacterial growth.)
I wish I had this information when I was just starting out, it would have saved me so much frustration! I suffered with an overly acidic starter for months, until I read a random post on someone's blog.
I feed my starter with fresh ground whole wheat flour twice a week, and then do an expansion the day before baking day. Most of my baking is whole grains, so feeding it with the same makes sense to me. It's good to know that for longer storage, white flour would be better. Also, if more feedings equal a more open crumb, I'm all for that. My wheat grinder runs too warm for larger amounts of flour, so I grind it a little on the coarse side, and that makes a more open crumb challanging.
I came across your quick and slow/overnight builds just recently from an earlier blog post. This was a game changer. I typically only have 30 grams or so of starter because I’m an infrequent baker. So my way of building took a LOT longer. Your way is so much better. Thank you!
This is so timely for me. My starter has been a little less strong these past few weeks, I've done the process for a few days to revive it but I like having some great options from this post!
One thing I would appreciate you covering is long-term starter storage. I'm going to be away from home for over a month later this year and am not sure of the best way to "preserve" my starter. I will probably feed it just before I leave and put it in the fridge, but I'd like to have a back-up in case that goes wrong. I know lots of people keep a frozen starter as a back-up, but I'm not sure of the best way to freeze it - let it mature, then freeze? feed and freeze right away? cover with plastic wrap before freezing? I've even heard of people smearing some on parchment paper and letting it dry, then freezing as starter "chips".
Tom, I've left my starter for over a month during travel and all you really have to do is feed it a higher ratio of flour (so it becomes thicker and has more food for the long period). Just put it on the fridge and you're good to go! When I get home, I do a couple of feeds to get it reved up again. Easy peasy!
what Heather said. I am currently maintaining multiple starters and for those I'm not using regularly I am lowering the hydration to 60% and sticking them in the back of the fridge and refreshing them once a month or so.
I already maintain my starter at 75% hydration, but decreasing that even farther for my time away makes sense. My concern is that even for a week between feedings, my starter gets pretty gray-looking on the surface. I usually scrape that off and use the fresher stuff underneath to refresh my starter. I do use fresh-milled whole wheat to feed my starter, so maybe that has something to do with it. I love the bread that it makes, so I'm not inclined to change my method. But it probably wouldn't hurt to add some bread flour in the mix for the feeding before I leave.
you can switch to white flour for storage and back to ww for baking, it won't really make a difference in the result, and I promise you it will store better/longer. Whole grain flours are not ideal for long term storage.
I keep all my discard in the freezer and just keep adding it to a screw cap one quart round container (the ones from ziploc). I defrost and use for recipes that just call for discard so I’m not depending on it for leavening, but I’m pretty sure something survives because if I defrost it for a day or two in the fridge, it starts showing some signs of fermentation. I think if you wanted to do freezer backup, definitely don’t feed and freeze immediately. I’d let it rise to peak and then freeze. You need enough microbe density to survive the freeze-thaw. I’ve got some dried chips in the freezer from my last house move several years ago - haven’t tried them recently to see if they still work but that’s probably the ultimate backup. You just spread really really thin on parchment on a sheet pan and ambient dry until it flakes and is totally dry. Can take a couple of days depending on how thin you spread. And like Heather said, one month in the fridge is totally fine. In my student days, I routinely neglected my starter for up to a couple of months or so and always managed to revive it within a few feedings, haha. But her advice to do higher flour % is wise.
Thanks! Great advice!
I used to do the ~6hr build on prebaking days but since I found the almost-no-knead sourdough recipes on here I mostly just use the starter from the fridge (I feed it ~ once a week and use the discard for granola, and just bake whenever I need). It actually worked as well when I was in a hurry a few weeks ago (but for that I put the dough into the oven with a pot of warm water to help it along...)
Rightly or wrongly, I feed my starter with rye flour even if it's going in the fridge (the version with white flour just never turned out that great and doesn't make as nice discard granola lol) :))
Thanks for the refresher, as it were, Andrew! I am familiar with the first two methods you write about, but the “booster” technique is new to me. Other than rescuing an overripe starter, why would one use that? Does it improve the loaf? Under certain circumstances?
At this point, I have time to bake only rarely (maybe every month or 6 weeks), but I refresh my starter just about every Sunday, and it seems to be pretty solid!
Annie - I've been maintaining my starter on a weekly-ish basis (keeping it in the fridge in between) for years, and it's been doing just fine like that. But most bakeries feed their starters on a twice-daily basis at room temperature, and I've been exploring what that sort of pampering will do to a starter and its performance. What I've noticed is that as I baby mine a bit more, it is a little faster to proof and a bit more open-crumbed than it used to be. Doing booster feedings is an another way to supercharge the activity of your starter without much extra effort. (It's also, as I said, a way to mellow out the flavor since it favors yeast over bacterial growth.)
Thank you for the reply, Andrew! Maybe I will try it next time I bake
I wish I had this information when I was just starting out, it would have saved me so much frustration! I suffered with an overly acidic starter for months, until I read a random post on someone's blog.
I feed my starter with fresh ground whole wheat flour twice a week, and then do an expansion the day before baking day. Most of my baking is whole grains, so feeding it with the same makes sense to me. It's good to know that for longer storage, white flour would be better. Also, if more feedings equal a more open crumb, I'm all for that. My wheat grinder runs too warm for larger amounts of flour, so I grind it a little on the coarse side, and that makes a more open crumb challanging.