So i got a starter but i had to be away from home for 2 weeks so it had to sit in the fridge for that amount of time. I added some organic unbleached white flour to it and water to it and it did nothing. So i took out a tablesppon or so of that starter and put it in another container with the flour and water and ive been feeding it every 12 hours after i remove half the mixture. It does bubble up a bit but only about 1cm (if that). Im about to give up on it and start with a brand new one. The recipe in my bread book has yeast and unsweetened yoghurt in it. Just wondering if anyone has used that version before!
elliehen,
Mar 14, 9:27pm
My apologies, this is not an answer to your question, but I was looking for a recent thread to add this link to a Lauraine Jacobs' recipe that even her husband can make ;)
angel. Just leave it alone. Don't refresh it every 12 hours. It is nothad enough time to repopulate, therefore you are not yet getting enough gas to rise anything or form bubbles.
when I refresh (re feed or whatever it is people call it) I use less than a teaspoon of starter and in the fridge it takes about 3 days to show signs of life and another day or so before I get any rise from it.
Two weeks is not a long time in the scheme of wild yeast life. One poster on here was away from home for many months and her starter bounced back.
buzzy110,
Mar 14, 10:26pm
To answer your second question - I am not sure what you are referring to. Is the starter made from commercial yeast and yoghurt or does the bread recipe itself have these two products in it!
True wild yeast (starter) does not have commercial yeast or yoghurt in it.
Edited to add, I have just read elli's link and I see that Dean Brettschneider, no less, has given a recipe using unsweetened yoghurt to get the starter going. If Dean suggests it then I wouldn't argue. His skill and knowledge are legendary. However, I wouldn't be brave enough to try it myself.
angel404,
Mar 15, 2:32am
Hey ladies. I would imagine my starter was made from flour and water. I havent done anything to it today then so ill just leave it and see what happens. My other one had a fruit fly in it so i biffed it just in case. How long is too long for it to not rise when its on the bench! I have a lid on it but its not sealed. Should it be sealed!
buzzy110,
Mar 15, 7:07pm
I use a lid but allow air to get at it so you are doing things right. I doubt very much that your wild yeasts will not eventually start to repopulate the colony. Once that begins to happen in earnest their gaseous waste will start to stamp definite signs of their presence.
Just be aware that this can happen when you are not looking (like overnight) and the rising and sinking back will have occurred leaving very little evidence that it has happened. If your starter gets a layer of water on the top it has done its thing and settled back. At that stage you should refresh. I find that I'll get results, after that has happened, and in Auckland's warm weather, by afternoon, and by early evening it is good to make your sponge with and leave overnight ready for dough making in the morning.
Good luck.
dibble35,
Mar 15, 11:46pm
thanks for that, I keep meaning to start a starter and maybe this will get me motivated to try it tomorrow
angel404,
Mar 16, 5:18am
Hey buzzy what do u mean by "make your sponge with"! My starter still hasnt shown any signs of life (that ive seen) in the last 24 hours. Will keep waiting though :)
dezzie,
Mar 16, 5:45am
Your sponge is your starter, its just another name for it.
wellystretch,
Mar 16, 6:09am
Not a criticism but I can't even fathom using a tablespoon of starter lol (wholesale Italian and German sourdough baker of 7 years) Buzzy is correct from my experience, once a starter is stable it is very hard to 'kill'. One place where i worked had a '30 year old' starter, another made a new starter from scratch every couple of months. I've used rye starter, firm, doughy starters, very liquidy starters, apple cider based, potatoe based starters . .all sorts. 50/50 flour/water feeding every 12 hours is in my experience the easiest to use, and provides reliable results, very firm german style starters however have the best taste by far for me.
Angel, an alternative if you find you don't want to use starters is to do up a yeast based sponge the night before, and leave it in the fridge overnight to do its thing, off the top of my head its something like 5% honey, 2-3% yeast, and about 70-80% water, that's bakers percentages BTW. Flour works well in a 1/5 rye to 4/5 white ratio. Mix it with any standard yeast based bread recipe at about 30% (you can go much higher than this of course), will add awesome textures and flavours to your bread, and it will rise much quicker. The sponge should last up to a day in the fridge before it starts losing 'power', and it will expand to about three times its initial size, so get a big container lol.
wellystretch,
Mar 16, 6:21am
Cover it, but make sure it can breathe. Take your stable and active sourdough out of the fridge the day before at about lunchtime to get it up to room temp, feed it at tea time and leave it out overnight, next morning feed it with warm water 25 degrees( or higher if your brave enough, yeast will start to die at about 45 degrees), leave this for an hour or two and it should look very happy. (should being the operative word). Different yeast strains act differently at different times of the year, weather etc . some can handle off the supermarket shelf flour and tap water all day every day, some need spring water and a voodoodoctor lol, its not a set formula. best you can do is experiment and find the right combination of environment, storage place, medium, temp,, ingredients and feeding times etc that allow your starter to flourish and you not to have to look after it all the time.
angel404,
Mar 16, 3:07pm
Thanks guys. I fear im not very good at this starter thing. My current starter is sitting on the bench after having done nothing for nearly 2 days. Theres no water on top or anything.
bernice1,
Mar 16, 3:52pm
I find this is a really good recipe for the starter and the bread.I have now shared my starter with at least another 10 people.I make a loaf every two or three days, varying the style with different types and mixes of flour.
Edited to add: remove the rhubarb from the starter after a couple of days.
dibble35,
Mar 16, 7:36pm
Ok guys/gals. Made my sourdough starter using an Alison Holsts recipe. think its a bit of a cheats way. has yoghurt and 1teaspoon yeast in it along with flour and water. but we will see how it goes. says to leave it in a warm room. Would hot water cupboard be OK.! ours isnt overly warm 25* ish as well insulated, or is on the bench better, suppose it might collect more 'wild yeasts' on the bench than in the hot water cupboard - Its quite a thick mix to, thicker than I thought it would be, like a really damp dough.
angel404,
Mar 16, 8:46pm
Dibble thats the same recipe in my bread book. Let me know how it goes and ill try it as well if its good.
buzzy110,
Mar 16, 9:32pm
No. The sponge is the first step in the making of the dough. You take all of your starter, minus a teaspoon (which you use to innoculate the next feed) and mix it with 1 cup of water and one cup of flour (that is my sponge anyway. That is left until it is gaseous. This ensures you have a huge population of wild yeasts for your dough.
It works this way. By having a large and viable population of yeast you will be able to knead your dough immediately. Kneading is done so that you can create long, strong, elastic gluten chain bonds which traps gases in the dough, causing your dough to rise.
If you try to knead dough without plenty of yeast the above process will not occur and your bread will not come out properly.
buzzy110,
Mar 16, 9:39pm
for a commercial baker 1tspn of starter to innoculate the next batch does sound a bit ridiculous. However, for the home baker, who probably would only bake once a week (that's me), 1tspn is ample. It gives my starter a bit of time to get going, especially as I leave it in the fridge. By the time I want to use it, it is OK. If I used more, to 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water (no hotter than 28C btw) I'd have starter bursting out of my fridge after a day. Don't really want to spend each day feeding a starter and throwing half of it away until I bake again.
dibble35,
Mar 16, 11:29pm
Buzzy, you've probably said it already somewhere, but i've read so many sourdough starter recipes and most of them are different. Can you clarify how YOU do your sourdough bread please. Once you have your starter up and running, you keep it in the fridge! and you dont feed it at all! does it get stirred daily! when you want to make a bread you get it out. tip all but 1 teaspoon into a bowl and add 1cup water and 1cup flour into it to get your sponge, leave till it gets gaseous! where. on bench!, hot water cupbord! and then what is your recipe after that please. Then to get your starter going again you add your 1 teaspoon leftover starter to 1cup flour 1 cup water. Then does this go back into fridge straight away! or what! If i wanted to make bread more than once aweek as you do should i be keeping it out of the fridge and feeding it, if so how often! Sorry for all the questions but nobody has really explained it well, and as i said everyones recipe is diff. Thanks so much.
dibble35,
Mar 17, 4:17pm
well angel, signs of life and a really yeasty beery smell has permeated my hall way as well as the hotwater cupboard, hope nobody moans at the smell in the towels/clothes, so many diff recipes to try and decipher, according to this Alison holst one i dont feed it at all for the next week and then it should be ready, yet others say to throw 1/2 of it away and feed every 24hrs for the next 4-7 days or till when it is a bubbly froth. Trial and error i guess, I just want to make bread!, hopefully next weekend
dibble35,
Mar 17, 4:24pm
thanks ellie, I've read about the first 4 pages and been scribbling down notes, come across 1 basic white bread recipe so will try that when my starter is ready, It says to leave on the bench for 18hrs - is this a normal time frame for sourdough to take to rise! I know it takes longer than regular yeast but can it be done in 1 day( sponge raised overnight), then made into dough first thing, raised again for !hrs then baked in time for lunch/dinner !TIA
uli,
Mar 17, 7:03pm
No - a normal time for an established starter is to raise the loaf in 2 to 3 hours. If your yeasts are not strong yet (that can take a few months of refreshing the starter) then add a bit of bakers yeast to the final dough - not the starter!
dibble35,
Mar 17, 8:48pm
So uli,I make the sponge, raise that/leave it overnight, make the dough(including extra yeast if needed) place in tin and raise this for 2-3- hrs, thanks
cookessentials,
Mar 18, 12:17am
angel404, there is a wonderful book called "Sourdough" by Yoke Mardewi which I have and it is a really beneficial book to have. She also has a book called "Wild Sourdough:The natural way to bake" which I have yet to get,although, I must say I am very happy with this first book so far. She has various sourdough starters, including gluten free ones which is great. There are some fabulous recipes. She suggests non-metallic containers and bowls. A glass, ceramicor a BPA free plastic bowl is fine to use. You need a pop-able lid, so that when the carbon-dioxide gas is expelled, your glass container wont explode or break. Dont use a screw top lid or airtight preserving jar - if it is glass, you will end up with a massive explosion. The ph of the sourdough starter is about three or four which is very acidic and will react with any metal utensils, unless you have very good quality stainless steel. Any time your starter is not being used, it needs to live in the fridge. The best temperature for sourdough is between 18-28C but a lower temparature just means it takes longer to ferment your starter or dough. Levain or sourdough starter culture is simply created by mixing wholegrain/wholemeal flour (preferably organic rye) with water. You are basically encouraging the wild yeast, normally occuring in the grains, to grow and create the fermentation.
cookessentials,
Mar 18, 12:22am
I am keen to make her Sourdough fig upside down pudding cake which looks fabulous! as well as her Sourdough English muffins and buckwheat linseed bread.
cookessentials,
Mar 18, 12:23am
I am keen to make her Sourdough fig upside down pudding cake which looks fabulous! as well as her Sourdough English muffins and buckwheat linseed bread. This is her website that you may find interesting. http://www.wildsourdough.com.au/she takes sourdough classes as well which I would love to try.
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