Day 3 dawns and I finally get to engage a bit more with my Sourdough starter.
It’s been sitting for two days. Like a child, it must now have a morning and evening feeding – twelve hours apart.
I raised the lid on the glass container and there were bubbles, loads and loads of them.
Maybe too many?
Mary from Mary’s Nest said a wide glass jar allowed for better fermentation. I did place it on the benchtop near the, oh so warm, slow cooker all of yesterday, and it WAS a warm day weather-wise. Perhaps it was too hot for the yeast?
Have I killed this sourdough baby before it has even had a chance to grow?
Would there be bubbles and fermentation if I had indeed, killed it?
Some many questions and doubts arise in my head.
Peggy and Sandy? Is this okay?
The mix smelt really yeasty, but perhaps too yeasty. I did a quick image search on Google. It didn’t look like mould but maybe it smelt like it? I decided to feed it and see if it would grow. If it was dead, it wouldn’t grow, would it?
More tomorrow.
And I will feed it at 8.20 pm tonight.
A Home by the Sea 
Amanda, your starter looks good! There’s no such thing as too many bubbles in a starter. The bubbles are a sign of life – the yeast is busy digesting the flour & producing sugars and gas. The warmth probably accelerated it. Keep checking and feeding it. It looks like you have a happy starter baby
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That is really good to hear, Sandy! Thanks for the reassurance. I will keep feeding it. The bread making is the biggest hurdle, I feel. What quantities do you feed your starter with?
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Nowadays I use a 100% hydration starter – that’s an equal quantity of water to flour by weight. It’s the most straight forward to calculate. I’m in maintenance mode now, so normally I’ll take it out of the fridge, discard most of it and then feed it at a ratio of 1 part old starter – 1 part water – 1 part flour. You are in build mode, so you might not want to discard yet, depending on what method you’re following. (Looks like you’re not following the video you shared since that’s a rye starter and you’re doing a wheat starter)
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I had thought of going to equal parts by weight, Sandy and I might still do that. However, I like that I can just measure a cup of this and that and I am done. I didn’t follow the video I shared as I had seen a previous one with Amy… using half whole wheat and half white which appealed to me, as that is what I used to make bread with, years ago.
She measures 3 tablespoons of the starter ands the food. I found Mary’s video confusing when she said, remove half and feed. This was too subjective for me! I wanted to be more precise.
But since then, Chris Riley’s comments and my small mistakes have made me relaxed about the quantity kept.
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I admit that I didn’t watch all of her video – I skipped around a bit. I didn’t like that she was using fresh ground flour from rye berries because that’s so unrealistic. Most home bakers do not mill their own flour and even fewer start out sourdough baking with a rye starter.
I agree with Chris that you shouldn’t get too stressed with the feedings. Once the starter gets going, it’ll be pretty resilient.
BTW According to my favorite website, a 1:1 ratio by weight works out to be a scant 1 cup of flour to 1/2 cup of water.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/feeding-and-maintaining-your-sourdough-starter-recipe
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I skipped about a bit on the video too as it goes for a full 30 minutes. She repeats the instructions a fair bit. I like that she says it is adaptable though.
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I made my own sour dough starter last year Amanda, in fact, I have a feeling I may have also followed the same instructions that you’re using. I had similar doubts to, but it all turned out fine. When you realise that a sour dough culture has been the way bread has been predominantly made throughout most of time, and you remember there have always been good cooks and bad cooks throughout time too, you start to realise it’s not something scary after all. In times gone by ingredients couldn’t be wasted, so any mistakes with the sour dough culture tended to correct itself in a day or two. There’s so many do’s and dont’s written about now that it seems like it’s a real science instead of an art. Don’t be fearful of Amanda, it really does work out. I stopped measuring growth, and just went ahead feeding when I remembered. I kept it in the corner on the bench regardless of temperatures (again thinking about times gone by). The bread almost always worked out fine, even though each loaf was different. I never did get used to the bread proving baskets though. I found it easier to just make free form loaves. You may like to look up recipes for using discarded culture. My two favourite things were home made crumpets, and pancakes/pikelets. I enjoyed making it, but I didn’t keep it up when we travelled north for the winter. One day I may give it another go.
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Thanks for your advice, Chris. It is most encouraging to hear that sourdough is so forgiving. I think I mixed up the quantities already and fed it the am feed in the pm timeslot. Hopefully, I can correct it in a day or two. I did see one video about making a fried pancake that looks delicious – like one of those things to find at the street stalls at the markets – langoush or something or other. The Moth will like me to make crumpets!
I love that it is so simple! I also will be heading to free form loaves… was thinking of making bagettes. Did you ever try those?
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Yes I made baguettes in a special baguette tin (with holes). With a tin of water at the bottom of the oven to create steam they turned out really good. I bought silicon crumpet rings from Spotlight for about $2 each. They were really, really easy. Just grease a frypan on the stove top and put the rings inside with a knob of butter. Then drop the discarded starter inside (i don’t remember if I had add anything, but I don’t think I did). Then cook on a gentle heat until the top is completely set. I also made a flat bread with the discarded dough, that was easy and nice. I think I made more with the discards than actual loaves.
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I might do the same, Chris. Make more from the discards. I was just planning on shaping the baguette and cooking it on a flat tray. Do you think that would work?
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