These are helpful videos. When I first started out a few months ago I had sooo much discard and am just learning how to better maintain my starter. Thanks
@@JulRug That’s a good question. I should make a quick video about that;) As the jar gets a little crusty at the rim, I will use a paring knife to scrape the dried Starter back into the jar. Generally I might change it once every couple of months, but I do a pretty good job scraping it down with the a dedicated silicon spatula, so it is never out of control crusty. Thanks for the question.
So made dough on Wednesday and put my leftover starter in the fridge because 2 loaves is a lot for us. I turned one loaf into foccacia (sort of worked as I added the oil in the stretch and folds) and the boule I baked yesterday is pretty dense (used 100% WW) so I want to bake again now that I have regular bread flour. Do I just follow the same steps here even though it has only been 2 days? Also, if I am baking ever 3 days, can I do the fridge method but just use 1-1.5-1.5?
@@chrisdickson1813 There are lots of options to manage your Starter. If you plan to bake every three days try this ruclips.net/video/HZjTo28ej04/видео.htmlsi=2U9hcpCw5PL0Eb5Q I like a 1:2:2 ratio and you can certainly scale it to whatever makes sense for the size batch you are making. You can also adjust your ratio to accelerate (1:1:1) or slow down (1:3:3) the activity your Starter. 100% Whole wheat/grain breads are never as light and fluffy as the results produce from straight bread flour. A blend can be a nice middle ground. You can experiment with making a percentage of your total flour weight whole wheat, dark rye, spelt etc. If your Starter has been in the fridge for just a couple of days it will be more active, but you will still need to temper, discard, and feed it. A 1:1.5:1.5 ratio would be fine you might even be good at 1:1:1. Experiment and see what works, but the “Micro Method” might be a fun change of pace. Thoughts? Thanks.
@@roxipadrid1226 Levain is just activated Starter. You can separate some Starter and feed just what you will use in a recipe. A.k.a making a Levain. To keep my Starter healthy, I choose to feed my Starter and once it is active, I measure out what I need and make dough. I feed my leftover Starter and continue the process of maintaining it for daily baking or put it in cold storage if I want to take a break. It feels more efficient to just feed the Starter and have 40g left over to keep the party going. Depending on the type of dough I’m making I generally do not do an autolyse. I produce a great result without it.
@@roxipadrid1226 Here is the method for managing your Starter with daily use. Maybe this will give you a better view of my method. ruclips.net/video/iWbVr_Ulr80/видео.htmlsi=E4T2GqcLvZRtCr9S
@@roxipadrid1226 Here is another option. ruclips.net/video/HZjTo28ej04/видео.htmlsi=a5QZVYdxp2a40KKG The micro method really minimizes discard, but it can help you see how I just use one Starter and how little you need to have on hand.
@@roxipadrid1226 I’m always looking to streamline my process without compromising my results. Bakers have very strong feelings about Autolyse and Levain. I think there is a lot of wiggle room here. I mix my water and starter. I add the flour and the salt. I mix my dough. This works great for a standard bread flour only recipe. Thoughts? Thanks.
@@thestrengthkitchen Thank you so much for your quick response. I asked the question because doing a Levain and Autolyse is very time consuming and I bake every other week. I was told it strengthens the flavor but I would love to skip these steps.
The technique of tempering I plan to incorporate. I had been feeding at 9 at night (so my starter was cold at feeding time) and leaving it out on the counter overnight. In the morning, it had doubled, but usually not much more than that--nothing like your very active starters produce. Thanks for that tip; now, I am confused about the regularly scheduled maintenance (RSM) which I must do since there are some weeks when I have no time for bread making. Let's say I can't make bread for 2 weeks. I need to do a RSM. Taking my starter from the frig, are you suggesting that I should temper the starter before feeding it, allow it to exercise overnight, feed again, then store in the frig? Or do I place it in the frig after it has leavened? Apologies for my confusion. I even read the transcript and still came away unsure.
Good question. Thoughts on this... Regularly Scheduled Maintenance and Bread Making...Your Starter has been under refrigeration for 1-2 weeks. Day 1 12:00pm Remove the Starter from the refrigerator. DO NOT skip tempering your Starter. If you pull it out at 9:00pm it will be too cold to become active overnight and it WILL NOT be ready to make dough in the morning. There may be a layer of gray liquid on the surface of the Starter. Mix it all together and scrape down the sides of the jar. Leave it at room temp until 9:00pm tonight. You may see it come to life as it warms to room temperature, nothing crazy just a little bit of action. 9:00pm Discard the Starter down to 50g. Yes, you are throwing away 150 of Starter. If it has been 10-14 days since your Starter was fed and put in the fridge; it will likely have a layer of gray liquid on the surface. This is “hooch” or alcohol that has fermented out of the Starter. It is a result of the Starter breaking down. I don’t recommend using this discard for some type of “Sourdough Discard Recipe”. The discard bakers use to make “pancakes” or “tortillas” is from a healthy Starter that is not being managed properly or used regularly. Feed the 50g of Starter 75g of Water. Mix it thoroughly to distribute the Starter into solution. Measure in 75g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid and place on a folded kitchen towel at room temperature. Day 2 7:00am Use 160g to mix an 800g batch of dough; or mix two individual 400g batches using 80g in each. 7:15am You will have 40g of Starter left in the jar. If you don’t want to make bread again for a few days or a week do the following. Feed the 40g of Starter 80g of Water. Mix it thoroughly to distribute the Starter into solution. Measure in 80g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid. Label it with the date and put it in the refrigerator. It will be safe there for 7-14 days. This process can repeat every 7-14 days. The amount of discard you produce is minimal and it is a discard that you wouldn’t want to eat anyway. This is an easy way to set yourself up to bake bread on the weekends. What if you don’t want to make bread? What if you just want to feed it and put it back into the fridge? Maybe you don’t have time for this project. Whatever the case may be here is your option for getting back in the fridge without making bread. Day 1 12:00pm Remove the Starter from the refrigerator. DO NOT skip tempering your Starter. If you pull it out at 9:00pm it will be too cold to become active overnight. There may be a layer of gray liquid on the surface of the Starter. Mix it all together and scrape down the sides of the jar. Leave it at room temp until 9:00pm tonight. You may see it come to life as it warms to room temperature, nothing crazy just a little bit of action. 9:00pm Discard the Starter down to 50g. Yes, you are throwing away 150 of Starter. If it has been 10 days since your Starter was fed and put in the fridge; it will likely have a layer of gray liquid on the surface. This is “hooch” or alcohol that has fermented out of the Starter. It is a result of the Starter breaking down. I don’t recommend using this discard for some type of “Sourdough Discard Recipe”. The discard bakers use to make “pancakes” or “tortillas” is from a healthy Starter that is not being managed properly or used regularly. Feed the 50g of Starter 75g of Water. Mix it thoroughly to distribute the Starter into solution. Measure in 75g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid and place on a folded kitchen towel at room temperature. Day 2 7:00am The Starter should have come to life and tripled in the jar overnight. You have approximately 200g of Starter in the jar. Discard down to 40g of Starter. Feed the Starter 80g of Water. Mix the Starter and Water thoroughly. Measure in 80g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid. Label it with the date and put it in the refrigerator. It will be safe there for 7-14 days. The natural question is going to be, “Why didn’t we just put the Starter in the fridge last night after feeding it?”. You could do that but the Starter needs exposure to the environment outside of the refrigerator. It will help it become more resilient and have better flavor if it can have a couple feedings before going back in the fridge. Don’t feel bad about the discard this morning. Think big picture. It is not much more than a ⅓ c of volume, which is not really enough to make something out of. Think of how many discards you would have done over the course of 10 days if you were not baking and your Starter was living on the counter? You have saved a good amount of flour by keeping your Starter in the fridge. I buy my bread flour in 25# and 50# bags. A 500g batch of dough costs me $0.55. I’m all for product utilization but, throwing away 80g of flour just doesn’t hurt my feelings. This is a small, but necessary step to keep the goal, the goal, which is maintaining a healthy Starter on my terms, without dealing with an excessive daily discard.
@@thestrengthkitchen Thank you for such a detailed reply. I know you covered this in the video, but I am grateful that your points were clearly laid out here. You have addressed the areas I was confused about perfectly! You are truly one who loves teaching his craft and of all the videos and blogs I have reviewed, yours is the best for my type of learning. Thank you!
Hi>. Love your videos. Learned much from them. I do have a question, I fed my starter Friday night to perk it back up and I saw in the morning it had about tripled in size. However, I got sidetracked and couldn't get to making my bread. When I returned, it had just about deflated to its original size. I figured I should discard and feed it again. This morning it was ready again but we decided to head to the beach instead and I placed it in the fridge till my return. I just checked the starter and it did come down a bit but not too much. So my question is can I use the starter right out of the fridge to make the dough or should I wait till it comes to room temperature and hope it doesn't completely flatten out again. I realize you may not answer me at all but thought I would put the question out there in the event someone can give me this answer. Thank you
I would bet that it could leaven bread, but to be safe I would discard and feed to set yourself up at a time when you know you will be available to Mix, Stretch, Bulk Ferment, and Shape. I feel like things go sideways when you try to force things to happen. However, you are your own science experiment. Try it and see what happens. Maybe this is compatible with your environment, Starter, and timeline. I’m all for experimenting. Thanks for the question, and I appreciate the support. Let me know how it works out.
@@thestrengthkitchen Wow! Honestly didn't think I would get a response. Yesterday I did attempt to start to mix the deflated starter with water because although deflated it seemed very bubbly and active. But it didn't seem good to me and rather than waste all that flour, I decided to throw it away and feed the leftover starter. It looked awesome this morning but as I said we decided to go to the beach. I told my husband it looks like you are getting store bought for lunch this week. lol I put it in the fridge to slow down the fermentation. Upon my return, I took it out and it looked great but it was cold. So I let it sit for a bit. I did go ahead and mix the starter in the water and had a little trouble diluting it but it finally did. I have the dough sitting on the counter now. We'll see how it goes. Again thank you for responding. I'll get back to you tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.
@adriajanni5822 If you have cold Starter that is active and you really need to get a batch of dough working; use warm (85-90 degree) water in your recipe. It will take the chill off the Starter. You can also do the opposite. Right now my kitchen is super warm, so I feed my Starter and my dough cooler (55-60 degree) water. If I don’t, everything goes too fast. Thanks.
When you feed your starter and then directly put it in the fridge, it's my understanding, you be favoring almost exclusively lactic acid bacteria. If that works for you, it works. Does it taste unusually sour? Interesting videos, by the way. Thank you for sharing them!
It’s good to hear from you again! I don’t have any unusual or extra sour flavors. When I bring it back to life, it gets a discard and feeding. It always comes back to normal behavior and flavor. My bread is subtly sour, but never super sour. Thanks for the comment.
Actually… Yes!! I pipe it onto a half sheet tray lined with parchment paper in thin lines. I put it in my bottom oven (OFF) and let it dry for two weeks. After it is completely dry, I process it in food processor. I Cryovac it in 10g packets. I have sent them to a dozen people to get them a head start on starting a starter. It works great. A friend freeze dried some of my starter for me. A year later I rehydrated it and brought it back to life, no problem. Thoughts? Thanks
These are helpful videos. When I first started out a few months ago I had sooo much discard and am just learning how to better maintain my starter. Thanks
Love your videos. Do you ever change your jar!
@@JulRug That’s a good question. I should make a quick video about that;) As the jar gets a little crusty at the rim, I will use a paring knife to scrape the dried Starter back into the jar. Generally I might change it once every couple of months, but I do a pretty good job scraping it down with the a dedicated silicon spatula, so it is never out of control crusty.
Thanks for the question.
So made dough on Wednesday and put my leftover starter in the fridge because 2 loaves is a lot for us. I turned one loaf into foccacia (sort of worked as I added the oil in the stretch and folds) and the boule I baked yesterday is pretty dense (used 100% WW) so I want to bake again now that I have regular bread flour. Do I just follow the same steps here even though it has only been 2 days?
Also, if I am baking ever 3 days, can I do the fridge method but just use 1-1.5-1.5?
@@chrisdickson1813 There are lots of options to manage your Starter. If you plan to bake every three days try this ruclips.net/video/HZjTo28ej04/видео.htmlsi=2U9hcpCw5PL0Eb5Q
I like a 1:2:2 ratio and you can certainly scale it to whatever makes sense for the size batch you are making. You can also adjust your ratio to accelerate (1:1:1) or slow down (1:3:3) the activity your Starter.
100% Whole wheat/grain breads are never as light and fluffy as the results produce from straight bread flour. A blend can be a nice middle ground. You can experiment with making a percentage of your total flour weight whole wheat, dark rye, spelt etc.
If your Starter has been in the fridge for just a couple of days it will be more active, but you will still need to temper, discard, and feed it.
A 1:1.5:1.5 ratio would be fine you might even be good at 1:1:1. Experiment and see what works, but the “Micro Method” might be a fun change of pace.
Thoughts? Thanks.
Are you mixing your starter with flour and water for your dough, letting it rise and baking? I do a levain and autolyse. Am I able to skip that?
@@roxipadrid1226 Levain is just activated Starter. You can separate some Starter and feed just what you will use in a recipe. A.k.a making a Levain.
To keep my Starter healthy, I choose to feed my Starter and once it is active, I measure out what I need and make dough. I feed my leftover Starter and continue the process of maintaining it for daily baking or put it in cold storage if I want to take a break. It feels more efficient to just feed the Starter and have 40g left over to keep the party going.
Depending on the type of dough I’m making I generally do not do an autolyse. I produce a great result without it.
@@roxipadrid1226 Here is the method for managing your Starter with daily use. Maybe this will give you a better view of my method.
ruclips.net/video/iWbVr_Ulr80/видео.htmlsi=E4T2GqcLvZRtCr9S
@@roxipadrid1226 Here is another option. ruclips.net/video/HZjTo28ej04/видео.htmlsi=a5QZVYdxp2a40KKG
The micro method really minimizes discard, but it can help you see how I just use one Starter and how little you need to have on hand.
@@roxipadrid1226 I’m always looking to streamline my process without compromising my results. Bakers have very strong feelings about Autolyse and Levain. I think there is a lot of wiggle room here.
I mix my water and starter. I add the flour and the salt. I mix my dough. This works great for a standard bread flour only recipe.
Thoughts?
Thanks.
@@thestrengthkitchen Thank you so much for your quick response. I asked the question because doing a Levain and Autolyse is very time consuming and I bake every other week. I was told it strengthens the flavor but I would love to skip these steps.
The technique of tempering I plan to incorporate. I had been feeding at 9 at night (so my starter was cold at feeding time) and leaving it out on the counter overnight. In the morning, it had doubled, but usually not much more than that--nothing like your very active starters produce.
Thanks for that tip; now, I am confused about the regularly scheduled maintenance (RSM) which I must do since there are some weeks when I have no time for bread making. Let's say I can't make bread for 2 weeks. I need to do a RSM. Taking my starter from the frig, are you suggesting that I should temper the starter before feeding it, allow it to exercise overnight, feed again, then store in the frig? Or do I place it in the frig after it has leavened? Apologies for my confusion. I even read the transcript and still came away unsure.
Good question. Thoughts on this...
Regularly Scheduled Maintenance and Bread Making...Your Starter has been under refrigeration for 1-2 weeks.
Day 1
12:00pm Remove the Starter from the refrigerator. DO NOT skip tempering your Starter. If you pull it out at 9:00pm it will be too cold to become active overnight and it WILL NOT be ready to make dough in the morning. There may be a layer of gray liquid on the surface of the Starter. Mix it all together and scrape down the sides of the jar. Leave it at room temp until 9:00pm tonight. You may see it come to life as it warms to room temperature, nothing crazy just a little bit of action.
9:00pm Discard the Starter down to 50g. Yes, you are throwing away 150 of Starter. If it has been 10-14 days since your Starter was fed and put in the fridge; it will likely have a layer of gray liquid on the surface. This is “hooch” or alcohol that has fermented out of the Starter. It is a result of the Starter breaking down. I don’t recommend using this discard for some type of “Sourdough Discard Recipe”. The discard bakers use to make “pancakes” or “tortillas” is from a healthy Starter that is not being managed properly or used regularly. Feed the 50g of Starter 75g of Water. Mix it thoroughly to distribute the Starter into solution. Measure in 75g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid and place on a folded kitchen towel at room temperature.
Day 2
7:00am Use 160g to mix an 800g batch of dough; or mix two individual 400g batches using 80g in each.
7:15am You will have 40g of Starter left in the jar. If you don’t want to make bread again for a few days or a week do the following. Feed the 40g of Starter 80g of Water. Mix it thoroughly to distribute the Starter into solution. Measure in 80g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid. Label it with the date and put it in the refrigerator. It will be safe there for 7-14 days.
This process can repeat every 7-14 days. The amount of discard you produce is minimal and it is a discard that you wouldn’t want to eat anyway. This is an easy way to set yourself up to bake bread on the weekends.
What if you don’t want to make bread? What if you just want to feed it and put it back into the fridge? Maybe you don’t have time for this project. Whatever the case may be here is your option for getting back in the fridge without making bread.
Day 1
12:00pm Remove the Starter from the refrigerator. DO NOT skip tempering your Starter. If you pull it out at 9:00pm it will be too cold to become active overnight. There may be a layer of gray liquid on the surface of the Starter. Mix it all together and scrape down the sides of the jar. Leave it at room temp until 9:00pm tonight. You may see it come to life as it warms to room temperature, nothing crazy just a little bit of action.
9:00pm Discard the Starter down to 50g. Yes, you are throwing away 150 of Starter. If it has been 10 days since your Starter was fed and put in the fridge; it will likely have a layer of gray liquid on the surface. This is “hooch” or alcohol that has fermented out of the Starter. It is a result of the Starter breaking down. I don’t recommend using this discard for some type of “Sourdough Discard Recipe”. The discard bakers use to make “pancakes” or “tortillas” is from a healthy Starter that is not being managed properly or used regularly. Feed the 50g of Starter 75g of Water. Mix it thoroughly to distribute the Starter into solution. Measure in 75g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid and place on a folded kitchen towel at room temperature.
Day 2
7:00am The Starter should have come to life and tripled in the jar overnight. You have approximately 200g of Starter in the jar. Discard down to 40g of Starter. Feed the Starter 80g of Water. Mix the Starter and Water thoroughly.
Measure in 80g of Bread Flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Scrape down the sides. Mark the level with a rubber band. Cover loosely with the lid. Label it with the date and put it in the refrigerator. It will be safe there for 7-14 days.
The natural question is going to be, “Why didn’t we just put the Starter in the fridge last night after feeding it?”. You could do that but the Starter needs exposure to the environment outside of the refrigerator. It will help it become more resilient and have better flavor if it can have a couple feedings before going back in the fridge. Don’t feel bad about the discard this morning. Think big picture. It is not much more than a ⅓ c of volume, which is not really enough to make something out of. Think of how many discards you would have done over the course of 10 days if you were not baking and your Starter was living on the counter? You have saved a good amount of flour by keeping your Starter in the fridge. I buy my bread flour in 25# and 50# bags. A 500g batch of dough costs me $0.55. I’m all for product utilization but, throwing away 80g of flour just doesn’t hurt my feelings. This is a small, but necessary step to keep the goal, the goal, which is maintaining a healthy Starter on my terms, without dealing with an excessive daily discard.
@@thestrengthkitchen Thank you for such a detailed reply. I know you covered this in the video, but I am grateful that your points were clearly laid out here. You have addressed the areas I was confused about perfectly! You are truly one who loves teaching his craft and of all the videos and blogs I have reviewed, yours is the best for my type of learning. Thank you!
@cynthiajansen7177 Awesome! Thank you!
@@cynthiajansen7177 Awesome! Thank you!
Hi>. Love your videos. Learned much from them. I do have a question, I fed my starter Friday night to perk it back up and I saw in the morning it had about tripled in size. However, I got sidetracked and couldn't get to making my bread. When I returned, it had just about deflated to its original size. I figured I should discard and feed it again. This morning it was ready again but we decided to head to the beach instead and I placed it in the fridge till my return. I just checked the starter and it did come down a bit but not too much. So my question is can I use the starter right out of the fridge to make the dough or should I wait till it comes to room temperature and hope it doesn't completely flatten out again. I realize you may not answer me at all but thought I would put the question out there in the event someone can give me this answer. Thank you
I would bet that it could leaven bread, but to be safe I would discard and feed to set yourself up at a time when you know you will be available to Mix, Stretch, Bulk Ferment, and Shape.
I feel like things go sideways when you try to force things to happen. However, you are your own science experiment. Try it and see what happens. Maybe this is compatible with your environment, Starter, and timeline. I’m all for experimenting.
Thanks for the question, and I appreciate the support. Let me know how it works out.
@@thestrengthkitchen Wow! Honestly didn't think I would get a response. Yesterday I did attempt to start to mix the deflated starter with water because although deflated it seemed very bubbly and active. But it didn't seem good to me and rather than waste all that flour, I decided to throw it away and feed the leftover starter. It looked awesome this morning but as I said we decided to go to the beach. I told my husband it looks like you are getting store bought for lunch this week. lol I put it in the fridge to slow down the fermentation. Upon my return, I took it out and it looked great but it was cold. So I let it sit for a bit. I did go ahead and mix the starter in the water and had a little trouble diluting it but it finally did. I have the dough sitting on the counter now. We'll see how it goes. Again thank you for responding. I'll get back to you tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.
@adriajanni5822 If you have cold Starter that is active and you really need to get a batch of dough working; use warm (85-90 degree) water in your recipe. It will take the chill off the Starter.
You can also do the opposite. Right now my kitchen is super warm, so I feed my Starter and my dough cooler (55-60 degree) water. If I don’t, everything goes too fast.
Thanks.
When you feed your starter and then directly put it in the fridge, it's my understanding, you be favoring almost exclusively lactic acid bacteria. If that works for you, it works. Does it taste unusually sour?
Interesting videos, by the way. Thank you for sharing them!
It’s good to hear from you again! I don’t have any unusual or extra sour flavors. When I bring it back to life, it gets a discard and feeding. It always comes back to normal behavior and flavor. My bread is subtly sour, but never super sour. Thanks for the comment.
Instead of discarding that starter could you dehydrate it and save?
Actually…
Yes!!
I pipe it onto a half sheet tray lined with parchment paper in thin lines. I put it in my bottom oven (OFF) and let it dry for two weeks. After it is completely dry, I process it in food processor. I Cryovac it in 10g packets. I have sent them to a dozen people to get them a head start on starting a starter. It works great.
A friend freeze dried some of my starter for me. A year later I rehydrated it and brought it back to life, no problem.
Thoughts?
Thanks
@@thestrengthkitchen thank you so much☺