Sourdough starter
How to make and maintain a sourdough starterThere are many ways to make a sourdough starter.Yeast and bacteria are around us, the only challenge is to find the microbes you want and isolate them so you can use their ability to transform the dough.Some specialists recommend looking for yeast and bacteria from sources such as buttermilk, potato water, grapes, and more.Yet, as the leaven will be maintained only by flour and water, we can assume that most of the microbes are present in these two products.For this reason, I suggest you start with a high in bran flour mixture, which almost always gives good results, provided you are ready to pay attention to the details and patient enough to wait until the end of the process.We start with a 50-50 mixture of whole grain wheat and rye flour.Wheat is rich in bran, so it provides a high probability of success.In inoculating the culture with the yeast and bacteria we are looking for. It is also high in minerals, which helps the Levain develop.Rye flour is high in fermentable sugars that can provide immediate nutrition to wild germs, and its high amylase content provides the conversion of starch from both flours into sugars as fermentation of yeast. These changes work to remove yeasts and bacteria that we are not looking for. Through this process, the types of yeast and bacteria we desire begin to dominate over all others.Initially, the leaven smells quite unpleasant, but that's because hundreds of different yeasts and bacteria are present at that time and they all add their various by-products to the mixture. Over time, the smell changes to fruity and slightly acidic.After 5 days the amount of gas in the leaven is so great that you could probably use it to make bread already. However, the presence of the desired yeast may not be achieved.By the time 10 consecutive days of feeding have passed, the leaven is close to the stabilized environment we are looking for.If you want more yeast activity in your leaven, feed 3 or even 4 times a day.Keeping yeast at a lower temperature slows down the activity of yeast when increasing the levels of acetic acid.Everything below 10C is risky because most of the yeast we need for bread does not multiply at these temperatures.But as most people do not print each day, two practices could be recommended:1. Continue to feed the leaven at least twice a week and keep it for several hours at room temperature before storing it in the refrigerator to maintain its viability.2. When you decide to bake bread, take 30g of the starter in the refrigerator and make Levain .Mix 30g yeast, 30g flour and 30g water. Leave at room temperature until doubling. Then repeat this two more times - until you get an active and strong levain. You can increase the amount depending on how much levain you need. Just keep the 1: 1: 1 ratio, yeast, flour, water.Keeping a starter in a refrigerator is probably not the best option for professional use.Frequent feeding encourages more yeast activity and less acidity, while smaller and/or less frequent feeding create less yeast activity and greater acidity.Temperature also affects culture; higher temperatures stimulate yeast activity and lighter acidity, while lower temperatures slow down yeast activity and produce a more sour taste.
Author: Nikolay's Kitchen
Day 1
- 50 g Whole Grain Flour
- 50 g Whole Grain Rye Flour
- 90 g Water at 30C
Day 2-10
- 50 g Starter from Day1
- 50 g White Bread Flour
- 30 g Water at 20C
Mix 50g whole grain wheat flour and 50g wholegrain rye flour in a clean container with 90g of warm water (about 32C) and keep the mixture covered at a temperature of about 30C for 24 hours.I have never had a case when this method does not work.At lower temperatures, you may succeed, but the chance of success is not always guaranteed.After the first day, we start feeding it twice a day, taking the only 50g of the starter and adding 50g of white flour and less water 30g and keep the mixture at a lower temperature of 20C.