Calling sourdough starter experts!

[stclair]

As I can’t find yeast for love nor money, I’m on day 3 of a sourdough starter (from bbcgoodfood recipe). What I am confused about is the pouring off of half the starter when ready to bake. Is this to be used to add more flour and water to keep the starter going? Otherwise It seems wasteful! If it isn’t, why pour it away?

LaurieSchaffer thanks, worth a try,

Duvet, your proofing times sound really short. Sourdough is a longer process than breads with regular yeast. My bulk fermentation step is at least 5 hours. I don’t go by the doubling method as I have an autolysis step for 3-4 hours after the initial mix (basically encouraging gluten formation by letting the flour self ferment), I then add the salt and do 3 cycles of stretch and fold with half an hour of rest in between. I then shape, place in banneton and let proof in the fridge for 24 hours.

I have never had a poorly proofed loaf using this technique.

Thanks @LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow I'll consider that option for sure. Tonight I've cleaned the jar out all brand new and sparkly, and put a muslin over the top instead of plastic to see if that helps. I've been noting my progress with daily photos and I changed from muslin to plastic. The next day it bubbled and had rise but now I'm only getting tiny bubbles. I also have two starters on the go, i can't remember why I did that 😂
So hoping for results tomorrow 🤞

Love Reading everyone's progress. I struggle with some of the terms, I've yeah that many recipes and guides my brain is fried. I wish I understood it all a bit better.

@Mominatrix Do you have a recipe you could share for what you follow?

Finally thought I'd brace this thread

Have been following the CleverCarrot steps to make a starter, and finally, after 2 weeks, it seemed lively enough to risk, so I halved their measures and had:

75ml starter
250g flour
125ml water
15ml olive oil.

Made a beautiful dough which I left to autolyse for 30 mins then whipped into a ball and left overnight where it doubled

Went to work it for baking and it was horribly sticky - more like cake mix. I felt I had to add some flour to make it workable, which seemed to do the trick.

It's now sitting on a tray (we lack moulds) waiting for an hour before baking.

What on earth is that tart/sharp smell ? It's familiar but I can't quite place it.

My DGM was the village baker back in Italy - she'd be turning in her grave right now ...

I had a great result for my first loaf using the Fabulous Baker Boys recipe.

https://www.hobbshousebakery.co.uk/blogs/recipes/140081991-sourdough-bread-recipe

My starter was about 2 weeks old and pretty active by then. Made using just flour and water.

I'm pretty chuffed. Thanks for all the tips and recipes on this thread

My loaf has come out lopsided! Aargh - what did I do wrong?!

On the plus side, I'm scoffing it now slathered with lovely French salt crystal butter, and it tastes delicious.

Am jealous of all of you who have managed to bake something! my starter is 9 days old, and is producing a large amount of hooch. I read this can be a sign that it needs to be fed, so fed twice yesterday.

This morning there's even more hooch on the surface! It still smells quite sour, rather than yeasty (though I don't think it's gone bad).

Any advice would be gratefully received!

@Pomegranatemolasses Is it really warm in your house? Mine was doing that, but moving it to a cooler place helped it

Oh ok, thank you @Livingoffcoffee. I suppose it is warmer than usual (though my teenagers would beg to differ!).

I'll try moving it to a cooler place and see what happens.

Well DW liked it - definite sour tang but lovely with butter.

Not bad for a first attempt and certainly not bad enough to put me off trying again

@Pomegranatemolasses how much do you have in the jar??? If I understand right, If it's too big and you're only feeding it a little amount, it eats the food too quickly hence the hooch. I've read so much and mostly there's a ratio when you feed a starter. Mine (which had now came back to life) is based on 50g starter, feeding with 100g each of water and flour. So I think that makes mine 1:2:2 so is had plenty of food. This is hard to explain 😂 some use the ratio 1:1:1 (clever carrot I think) so when you feed it, there's equal amounts of starter, water, flour.

It might be worth bearing in mind 🤷‍♂️

I cleaned both my jars out last night and changed the lid from plastic back to muslin. I realised by looking back at my pictures it all went horribly wrong when I changed from the muslin to plastic so I guess there wasn't enough air getting in.

I changed it initially because it was forming a skin on top (too much air) . From 2230 (15hrs) last night there has been a rise, loads of bubbles and they've literally sprung back to life. There was a little skin on so I've removed, stirred them both and upped the layers of muslin from 2 to 4 to see if that's enough air getting in without the skin forming. I'll check them later tonight for feeding. One passed the stir test but sank about a minute after so I'm getting close 😁😁. I'm so disproportionately excited and happy about this!

Just posted this in case it helps someone else

@Myshitisreal, thank you for this. I think you’re right about the size of the starter. I began with 150g flour and 150g water, then stared pouring off half and adding 150g each of flour and water to the starter. Do you think these proportions are wrong?

@Livingoffcoffee, here is the recipe for my sourdough loaf.

Day 1, night:
Take starter out of fridge and feed it a total weight of 160g (flour + water).

Day 2, morning:

In a large reaction proof down (glass or ceramic), dissolve 150g of ripe starter into 500g of water.

Next, add 150g of strong wholemeal flour and 600g of strong white flour. Mix with hands or a wire kneader in bowl until all flour is incorporated into a shaggy blob. Cover and leave at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours and a maximum of 5 hours.

In a small cup, combine 12g of salt with 20 g of water and pour over flour mixture. Use your finger to create deep intents and leave covered for 10 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough approximately 20 times to incorporate the salty slurry, then cover for 30 minutes.

Uncover bowl and do 4 quarter turn of stretching and folding, then recover for 30 minutes. Repeat 2 more times.

Cover and empty bowl onto a flowered surface and shape loaf. Place in benneton and cover. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then place in fridge for 12 (min) - 24 (max) hours.

Day 3:

Preheat oven to 220c with baking stone or baking dome in it (LaCloche or dutch oven). After oven has been at temperature for at least half an hour, reverse banneton onto baking stone/La Cloche and use a rame/very sharp blade to made slashes at the top of the loaf. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

Pomegranate, that sounds like quite a large amount of starter!. You should be decanting quite a bit more than half (at least 2/3) and feeding it with a total mass of food equaling at least double that of the remaining starter - ie, starter mass = x, ending mass after feeding = 3x.

@Pomegranatemolasses if I understand right that means When you feed it you are left with 150g starter, 150g flour and 150g water so that's equal ratios (so 1:1:1). Let me read your post again 😂

Following as I am on day 3 of mine - its bubbling and starting to smell

I think @livingoffcoffee is right, too high temperature. www.dovesfarm.co.uk/hints-tips/bread-making/guide-to-sourdough-making optimim temp is 70/75 degrees. Do you have a thermometer 🤒 make sure it's not in direct sunlight

@Myshitisreal, do you think I should discard a lot of my starter, leave say 50g, then add 50g flour, 50g water? My ratio is still 1:1:1 then. Or should add more feed to less starter? Thanks for your advice!

It's up to you 😁. The more you have the more you have to feed it if that makes sense. As long as your proportions are right I don't think it matters as such. Have you tried dropping a tsp worth (unstirred) in a glass of room temperature water. If it floats its ready to use 😁😁 just wondering after it going though food quickly. (google float test for more info)

If you do scale it down, I don't throw away the discard, I keep it and bung it in a tub in the fridge. Then if something goes wrong you could use some discard to try and revive. I'm going to start a discard recipe thread now. It makes amazing pancakes

ok perfect, thanks so much.

ok, I've just weighed out 150g starter and added 150g each of flour and water. I actually think I was really underfeeding the poor thing!

Perfect see how it goes now sure. This link is pretty good www.theclevercarrot.com/2018/03/troubleshooting-your-sourdough-starter/