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[02ebz06]

All this bread talk has got me in the mood to make some.
So here is my starter tale...
The dried starter I took out of the freezer was the first starter I have ever had. Bought it from KA.
Looked on the bottom of the jar and it had a date of 3/26/12.  It's been in my freezer for over 9.5 years!!!
So wasn't sure what the outcome would be.
All the pics below were taken in the morning before being fed.
Starter was fed morning and night with a 1:1:1 ratio of starter:flour:water.
Day 1:  2 pics - Starter with 20g of each.
Day 2:  Just a couple tiny bubbles.
Day 3:  Some bubbles in morning, and rose about 50% by night feeding time. Put the mark on the jar.
Day 4:  EUREKA!!!  More than doubled overnight.

I was amazed how healthy this starter got in 4 days for being 9.5 years in freezer.
Well feed it a few more days before splitting it out for bread, pancakes, and crackers.
Probably Monday will be bread making day.  Plan to make 4 loaves.

One thing I noticed, it had a different aroma than the starter I have been using.
Don't know it that is due to the age or if it smelled like that 9.5 years ago when I first used it. Maybe why I didn't use it after that. 
Guess I will see if that affects the products any.
 

[Bentley]

Good to see more bread making!  I am making a loaf with todays discard.  I am expecting a bad outcome, so I have already prepared myself.  It seems all the vids I have seen, folks have 13 to 13.5% protein in there flour.  I cant seem to find anything locally that high.  I see the KA bread is 12.7%, that is what I am using, just not sure it is going to be enough.  I had hoped that the 00 Tippo might be higher, but I see it is probably about 11%, so no hope there.

[Bentley]

I wish I was better at math. 

I see that Vital Wheat Gluten flour is 75% protein.  I know there are some good math folks on this site.  If I have a recipe that calls for 375 grams of flour that has a 12.7% protein content, how many grams of Vital Wheat Gluten flour do I have to add to get to 14%.

I would get a problem like this in math class and just accept the Zero!   

[02ebz06]

I went the easy way and googled it.   
https://foodgeek.dk/en/vital-wheat-gluten-calculator/
That's a pretty handy tool.
I plugged in the numbers:

[Bentley]

Boy the internet can be an amazing tool, I had no idea.  Thank you.  To late for this loaf, but what a great tool for the future.  Now I hope the internet is correct about the protein content in Vital Wheat Gluten flour.

[02ebz06]

I just bookmarked that page. 

[Bentley]

Well, my 1st what i would call true Artisan Sourdough in in the oven.  I think I over proofed it, right on the edge.  Will see.  The lame did not cut smoothly, so that's what leads me to believe over proofed!  But I am tempering my expectations!

[02ebz06]

Not sure how you are doing it, but I found the trick for me is to pull the Lame very fast.
It just drags and pulls the dough if you do it slow.

[Bentley]

With tempered expectations, I am OK with the results.  We have a long way to go, but I knew that.  No more loafs till at least day 14.  I wil try some sourdough pancakes with the discard from tomorrow, and will have them on Sunday.  I was so certain that I had cut to deep.  One of 2 things happened, I did not cut as deep as I thought, or the starter simply did not provide enough bounce.





Supposed to look like this. We are not there yet, but I am encouraged!

[Free Mr. Tony]

That looks pretty good considering a young starter and a new process for you.

Do you have an electric oven? Did you cook directly on a stone, or in a dutch oven?  Did you spray water on it or use steam at all?

[02ebz06]

Looks pretty good.
We will be making sourdough pancakes tomorrow as well.

[Bentley]

It is an electric oven.  I decided I would buy four 8 x 4 tiles and use as my stone for now.  The recipe I used called for it to be cooked on a stone/steel @ 485° for 20 minutes with a cloche. And then another 20 minutes at 430°.  No spray or water pan. 

Do you have an electric oven? Did you cook directly on a stone, or in a dutch oven?  Did you spray water on it or use steam at all?

The starter discard made into an overnight sponge.  Will mix rest of ingredients in tomorrow!

We will be making sourdough pancakes tomorrow as well.

[Bentley]

2 days in a row with out a lot of growth, start to worry a little, but will just stay the course.  It seems to be heavier and was more blob like if that makes sense, like there was fermentation, but the started was so thick it was harder to rise up the sides. 

Should your started lean to the runnier side?

[Free Mr. Tony]

It's pretty stiff when first mixed. The longer it sits around the runnier it gets. If I don't feed mine for a couple days it's very fluid. I typically add a few extra grams of water and a few less grams of flour when I feed just to make it a bit easier to mix up.

Most of mine don't do much leading up to takeoff.  Several days of just more of the same.  About day 11 or 12 you start to get a feeling it's about to blow.

[Bentley]

After 48 hours of nothing pleased to see this activity this morning.  I was certain I had screwed it up! Am now at the 50% Wheat/50% White flour stage.

One more week, then I will try a loaf. Am I correct in assuming I would want to feed the starter the night before, then use it in the morning, or when it is the most active?