Sourdough breadmaking

[number2]

_Rodders_ said:

Binned my starter the other week.

It was slowly turning black in the back of the fridge making me feel guilty.

It's like a weight has been lifted

My original starter - from 2020 covid days - got forgotten about in the fridge towards the end of last year and went a bit mouldy so I binned it too .

As luck would have it, my missus went on some kind of corporate retreat. One part of which was fermentation/bread making, and she brought me home some of their starter which I'm now looking after .

[M5-911]

[url]

Baguettes making as my son doesn't really like the bread over here.
|https://thumbsnap.com/tijTHMAS[/url]

[number2]

Baguettes look good. I keep meaning to make some - I bought some of the 'moulds' over a year ago with the best intentions .

[M5-911]

number2 said:

Baguettes look good. I keep meaning to make some - I bought some of the 'moulds' over a year ago with the best intentions .

Honestly, don't bother with the moulds. Roll them on a kitchen towel with plenty flour. That the closest you will get to how we make them in bakeries. Put the seams side up (tourne à gris) when proofing then turn then over for the cooking. Baguettes at home are challenging but you can get decent results.

[number2]

Cheers M5. I'll give it a go. I've reached Sourdough perfection now, so time for a new challenge .

[M5-911]

number2 said:

Cheers M5. I'll give it a go. I've reached Sourdough perfection now, so time for a new challenge .

I am not sure if you can get translations on that video but he is a great teacher. This is a home made version:

https://youtu.be/60K3Fe5j_J8?si=-UxzlsO3PnaYTGBd

This is a more professional approach:

https://youtu.be/O5B_nYulA7E?si=Ip5G9gp39ffjf870

[illmonkey]

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

Second one mixed sat evening. Mandatory cheese and ham sarnie. Will make a little bruschetta with it later too.

[oddman]

illmonkey said:

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

To me that looks like your starter isn't lively enough.

I refresh my starter on the day before making dough and make sure the leaven is very active (float test) before putting dough and leaven together

[illmonkey]

oddman said:

illmonkey said:

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

To me that looks like your starter isn't lively enough.

I refresh my starter on the day before making dough and make sure the leaven is very active (float test) before putting dough and leaven together

So, like I said?

[oddman]

illmonkey said:

oddman said:

illmonkey said:

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

To me that looks like your starter isn't lively enough.

I refresh my starter on the day before making dough and make sure the leaven is very active (float test) before putting dough and leaven together

So, like I said?

I think I had a bit of a comprehension failure on your first line

A reasonable test of a starter is whether it will double in size before 24h has elapsed. I use a Weck jar with steep sides with an elastic band around it at the level of the freshly mixed starter.

A good test for the leaven is if it has a convex surface it shows it's really active or float test. If mine fails the float test I stick it a warm place for an hour which usually gets it going.

I use a mixture of Doves Farm organic rye and spelt flours as the substrate for the starter. I think they have a pretty high concentration of natural yeasts and bugs.

ETA - todays effort cooling

Edited by oddman on Monday 29th January 09:15

[Bowside]

Just to add to this and share some experience of lazy starters. Mine has been living in the fridge for about a year and only fed monthly after draining off the grey water and scraping the top layer away.
This has been fine, but when I got round to using it, I just couldn't get it to be seriously active again. It would 'fizz' a bit, but not double in volume.

The solution was to very accurately use equal portions (which you might all already know), so 50g lazy starter, 50g WARM water, 50g Canadian Flour - left it for about 6 hours and perfect starter has returned.

My main lesson learnt, is to not just dump a bit of flour and cold water in periodically and expect anything special to happen. It stays alive, but only just!

[Nemophilist]

Please can I have some advise from the sourdough pros here?

I’ve been successfully making lovely sourdough for quite a while from some starter given to me from a friend who’s been baking years.

I sent away on holiday. Kept it in the fridge and when I returned I started to feed it again and all appeared fine.

However each loaf smells kind of musty, like a faint mildew smell.

I’ve smelt the starter and it smells like a starter but there is a faint smell on it. No sign of anything untoward and when I feed it, it still rises as it should.

I left baking for a week and decided to just feed it every day for a week but I’ve been overnight proving my latest loaf and it still smells musty.

Have I killed it?

Friend will give me more starter if I need to but if I can revive this one I’d be happy

I’ve attached images of the starter and my latest loaf before it was going in the oven after an overnight prove and knock back.
Although not too sure it’s worth wasting the electricity on baking it as it doesn’t smell great

[Nemophilist]

Well I baked it

It looks ok. Something definitely not quite right though

[Whoozit]

To gee up a starter, give it two or three feeds. Start with just the scrapings in the jar, feed equal amounts flour and water. That gives the beasties the best chance to grow a good population and crowd out anything else that has crept in.

[M5-911]

Nemophilist said:

Please can I have some advise from the sourdough pros here?

I’ve been successfully making lovely sourdough for quite a while from some starter given to me from a friend who’s been baking years.

I sent away on holiday. Kept it in the fridge and when I returned I started to feed it again and all appeared fine.

However each loaf smells kind of musty, like a faint mildew smell.

I’ve smelt the starter and it smells like a starter but there is a faint smell on it. No sign of anything untoward and when I feed it, it still rises as it should.

I left baking for a week and decided to just feed it every day for a week but I’ve been overnight proving my latest loaf and it still smells musty.

Have I killed it?

Friend will give me more starter if I need to but if I can revive this one I’d be happy

I’ve attached images of the starter and my latest loaf before it was going in the oven after an overnight prove and knock back.
Although not too sure it’s worth wasting the electricity on baking it as it doesn’t smell great

Nothing unusual, as you left it I unattended for a while it has "developed" a bit more that what you are use to. Looks like it restarted well so I would not bother feeding it at 100% like most of starters.

Go with 10% of starter=

Get let say 30g of you starter then mix it with 150g of water and 150g of strong bread flour. By using little starter you might be able to get rid of the smell you don't like quicker than if you proceed with equal quantities.. I rarely feed with equal amounts.

[oddman]

M5-911 said:

Nothing unusual, as you left it I unattended for a while it has "developed" a bit more that what you are use to. Looks like it restarted well so I would not bother feeding it at 100% like most of starters.

Go with 10% of starter=

Get let say 30g of you starter then mix it with 150g of water and 150g of strong bread flour. By using little starter you might be able to get rid of the smell you don't like quicker than if you proceed with equal quantities.. I rarely feed with equal amounts.

Agree. And if you want to diversify the starter use some different flour. I use Doves Farm organic wholemeal rye flour and spelt four - it seems to have a fair load of its own bugs and keeps a pretty healthy culture.

[Nemophilist]

Whoozit said:

To gee up a starter, give it two or three feeds. Start with just the scrapings in the jar, feed equal amounts flour and water. That gives the beasties the best chance to grow a good population and crowd out anything else that has crept in.

Thank you. I tried this and it’s back to a good starter again

[Whoozit]

Nemophilist said:

Whoozit said:

To gee up a starter, give it two or three feeds. Start with just the scrapings in the jar, feed equal amounts flour and water. That gives the beasties the best chance to grow a good population and crowd out anything else that has crept in.

Thank you. I tried this and it’s back to a good starter again

Happy it worked for you