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[Bentley]

Very crusty, maybe a tad to long in the heat. It certainly seems like it will be good sandwich bread, i will put it through the slicer.  And I will try to make a starter again and start all over again later in the week! 

[BigDave83]

I have not tried but have thought about it. My understanding is the yeast come from the flour and air. Most that I had looked at were using Unbleached flour or rye flour. The bleaching I believe kills off the enzymes or whatever we are dealing with.
Most I have read or watched on YT were several day events, before you get something that you can use.

Here is one I was thinking of trying when I get around to it.
https://melissaknorris.com/podcast/5-tips-on-how-to-get-started-with-sourdough/#wprm-recipe-container-27737 She also has a video of it on YT,

2 others I had seen on YT were Brian Langetstrom and Joshua Weissmann.



Would sourdough make for a good garlic bread?

[Free Mr. Tony]

The link that you posted was using an already established 1:1 ratio sourdough starter as your base, then adding more flour to get a "stiff" starter as opposed to the more liquid 1:1 starter.

I have got several starters going over the years, and they almost always take about 2 weeks to get moving. The simplest I can make it is take 100g water and 100g unbleached flour (as stated above it will not work with bleached flour) and mix together. Let it sit for 8 hours or overnight. In the morning, take 50g of that mixture, add 100g water and 100g flour. Mix. Do that again in the evening. Then morning, then evening.  And so on for about 2 weeks.

You will see varying level of activity here and there throughout the process, and then one day it will just kind of take off. It will start doubling every 6 to 8 hours. At that point, you can just feed it once a day (doesn't really matter when or even if you forget for a couple days). You now have an established starter that will raise bread consistently.

A tip for less hassle with the cleanup.  Go to Gordon food service or restaurant supply store that sells the plastic deli containers and lids. You can get a bunch of them for not much money. Use a fresh one every time you feed the starter. Just throw the used one in the dishwasher. So many people try to use glass jars for their starter and it is a mess. 

[Free Mr. Tony]

Would sourdough make for a good garlic bread?

Sourdough starter can make any kind of bread. It's not really sour at all unless you manipulate the process to make it sour. If you use starter at its peak with room temperature rises the bread won't taste a whole lot different than using commercial yeast.

You can use starter off peak or long fridge fermentation times to get a more sour flavor if that is what is desired.

[02ebz06]

I add Sour Salt (Citric Acid) to give mine a more sour taste.

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My understanding is the yeast come from the flour and air.

Here is one I was thinking of trying when I get around to it.
https://melissaknorris.com/podcast/5-tips-on-how-to-get-started-with-sourdough/#wprm-recipe-container-27737 She also has a video of it on YT,

Yeast does comes from the air.
And I'm guessing that depending on where a person lives live may have a lot to do with the amount in the air.

Instead of going through all the water/flour and twice daily feedings for a month to maybe get a colony growing, why not start with an established colony?

I dry the discards,  grind it in a coffee grinder, put it in packets and freeze it.
Then, when I want to make sourdough bread I take a packet out of the freezer and in 3-5 days I have starter ready to go.

[Free Mr. Tony]

I add Sour Salt (Citric Acid) to give mine a more sour taste.

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My understanding is the yeast come from the flour and air.

Here is one I was thinking of trying when I get around to it.
https://melissaknorris.com/podcast/5-tips-on-how-to-get-started-with-sourdough/#wprm-recipe-container-27737 She also has a video of it on YT,

Yeast does comes from the air.
And I'm guessing that depending on where a person lives live may have a lot to do with the amount in the air.

Instead of going through all the water/flour and twice daily feedings for a month to maybe get a colony growing, why not start with an established colony?

I dry the discards,  grind it in a coffee grinder, put it in packets and freeze it.
Then. when I want to make sourdough bread I take a packet out of the freezer and in 3-5 days I have starter ready to go.

I have mine dried like this as well. Between the 2 of us we should be able to get you something in the mail that will be up and running as soon as you add water.

[02ebz06]

I have mine dried like this as well. Between the 2 of us we should be able to get you something in the mail that will be up and running as soon as you add water.

Anybody that wants a starter, PM me with your address and I'll get in the mail to you.

[Bentley]

I wish I had understood the recipe.  I also think that King Arthur could be a little less ambiguous.  I also looked at a couple of videos that took days to make the starter.  No issue with that, just wish I had know it.  I think I will buy a little whole wheat flour tonight and start on the process.  I understand the concept of wild yeast in the air, i do not understand how it gets into the starter as every video I looked at had a top on the starter, so I have no idea how it is getting in.  So we will take a rest from baking and work on a starter!

[Free Mr. Tony]

I wish I had understood the recipe.  I also think that King Arthur could be a little less ambiguous.  I also looked at a couple of videos that took days to make the starter.  No issue with that, just wish I had know it.  I think I will buy a little whole wheat flour tonight and start on the process.  I understand the concept of wild yeast in the air, i do not understand how it gets into the starter as every video I looked at had a top on the starter, so I have no idea how it is getting in.  So we will take a rest from baking and work on a starter!

I've seen quite a lot of information that points to the yeast getting started from the flour rather than what is in the air. I'm sure the air also contributes but the flour has what it needs either way. I keep a loose lid on mine but don't close it all the way. Once you get it going that could be an explosion. You can also use cheesecloth on top.

Give it a full two weeks at least before becoming discouraged. All mine have been nearly 2 weeks on the nose before becoming reliable.

Also, you don't need to use whole wheat flour. Mine is just King Arthur bread flour.

[Bentley]

It appears it will be a 2 week process.  I just wanted to have some whole wheat in the loaf.

[Free Mr. Tony]

It appears it will be a 2 week process.  I just wanted to have some whole wheat in the loaf.

You will use a small amount of starter per loaf. You can add whatever flour you would like to the actual dough. A whole wheat starter will add very little whole wheat flour to the final product. That being said a whole wheat starter will work great.

[Bentley]

Day two of the Whole Wheat starter.  Did not see a lot of activate after 24 hours, but also realized the kitchen is to cool, specially at night when we turn the heat way down.  The youtube video I am going by says his kitchen is about 71°.  So I turned the light on in the oven and that holds pretty steady at 70°, so hope to have a little more activity over the net few days.

For some of you this is info you have known for years, for those like me, maybe interesting. Just so you have an idea of this starter, start off with 50g of water and flour.  Today I added another 50g of both water and flour.  Tomorrow I will have 200g of starter I will add 100g of both water and flour.  Day 4 is where it gets interesting for me and I have questions for you guys that are old hat at this starter stuff.

So it appears when I get to day 4 I will have 400g of starter and I will start "discarding" starter (the King Arthur recipe is making more sense now).  I will take 150g of starter and add 150 g of water and flour and discard the rest of the starter.  1st question, will there be anyway to tell if the discard at day 4 would be viable to use in a loaf, or am I best this early in the process to put it down the drain for the microbes in the septic?  2nd question, do you all average in that 150g range on what you use as feed?

He goes on to do the 150g of starter, water and flour, for the next 3 days.  He says it can be used by day 8, but you probably need to go another 7 days before you have a strong starter.

A couple of final questions, in say an 800g dough loaf, about how many grams of starter will you use?  The answer to this next question will have significance on the previous questions I guess. How often do you all feed your starter if you are only baking say a couple of loafs a week?

Have not seen much activity in 1st 24 hours, but I am going to attribute that to room temperature, will see if we have some bubbles tomorrow after 24 hours at 70°.

[02ebz06]

1st question, will there be anyway to tell if the discard at day 4 would be viable to use in a loaf, or am I best this early in the process to put it down the drain for the microbes in the septic?

2nd question, do you all average in that 150g range on what you use as feed?

1st answer:  For "most breads" they call for "fed starter" which means you have fed it within the last 12 hours.
                  Ideally you want the starter just near the peak of it's rising before it starts falling.
                  Doesn't mean you can't use it if it isn't, just results may not be as good.

2nd answer:  I use less, 40-50 grams.  Once it starts getting active, you start increasing the amount so you can get to the amount the recipe calls for.


For discards, we make sourdough pancakes and sourdough crackers (KA recipe, we like them with Rosemary in them).

[Bentley]

That is like this recipe in the beginning.  It was 50g of each the 1st 2 days.  In the video, his is very active in the 1st 24 hours, no so much in day 2,3 & 4, then in day 5 very active.  But by that time he is on day 5 he is up to the 150g of starter.  This person is the 1st to say that ambient temperatures will effect it and that don't be worried if it basically stalls!

2nd answer:  I use less, 40-50 grams.  Once it starts getting active, you start increasing the amount so you can get to the amount the recipe calls for.

[02ebz06]

That is like this recipe in the beginning.  It was 50g of each the 1st 2 days.  In the video, his is very active in the 1st 24 hours, no so much in day 2,3 & 4, then in day 5 very active.  But by that time he on day5 he is up to the 150g of starter.  This person is the 1st to say that ambient temperatures will effect it and that don't be worried if it basically stalls!

It does take longer with the colder temp.
I have a proofer I use to keep temp in the 70's.