Pequod ... Do this.
In a cereal bowl put in 50 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of Whole Wheat flour. Add 100 grams of water. Stir it with a spoon. When you're done stirring wet your thumb and index finger of the hand the spoon is not in with water. Put the dough stuck to the spoon back in the bowl. Seal the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it out on your kitchen counter.
In 3 or 4 days your starter will start producing bubbles to the point it will look like your old starter did when it was active. It's faking you out though.
It's not ready to use yet. Dump out 100 grams and feed it 25 grams of bread flour, 25 grams of WW flour and 50 grams of water. Stir it up, cover it up with plastic wrap and leave it on your counter top.
At this point it will go dormant and the inexperienced person will think their attempt at making a sourdough starter has failed.Γ’ΛΒΉΓ―ΒΈΒ What is happening is the 2 different types of bacteria in your culture have quit doing what they are supposed to do because they are battling each other for position inside the culture. They quit eating and digesting flour and water so... There will be no more bubbles during this part of the process and you will think this starter has failed.
It's important from the first time you dumped and fed your starter you do the exact same dump and feed every 24 hours from that day on, even though there is no, zero, zilch activity in your starter.
After about 6 or 7 days of being dormant you will wake up one morning, look at your new starter and it will be fully bloomed.π You will smile and think, woohoo, I did it! But, it's probably still not ready to make dough with just yet, close though. Dump and feed it 2 more days just like before.
This is how you test your starter to determine if it is ready to levin dough with. Fill up a water glass with water. Get a teaspoon and wet it with water. Scoop a teaspoon of your starter out of the cereal bowl and dump it in the water glass... If it floats it ready to use to make pizza dough or a loaf of sourdough bread with. If it sinks, it's not active enough to use yet.
I'm keeping the size of this culture very small during this process because you're going to dump out and waste to much flour if we did this on a bigger scale. After the culture becomes strong, healthy and happy, if you want to make it larger just feed it a bigger quantity of flour and water, 100, 200 or 300 grams of flour and water and in less than 24 hours that quantity of starter will pass the float test.
Always feed your starter equal amounts of flour and water... That means your starter will be a 100% hydration starter. Bakers like 100% starters because it makes it easy for them to mix with their other ingredients knowing that the starter is exactly 50% flour and 50% water. That way they can scale a dough recipe up or down without using a calculator.
The starter you will have at this point will not be very tangy, it will be very mild. There is a way to manipulate your starter so it will become very tangy. Let me know if you want to do that and I'll walk you through it.
It's that easy and it's almost fail proof... Give it a try.π
In a cereal bowl put in 50 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of Whole Wheat flour. Add 100 grams of water. Stir it with a spoon. When you're done stirring wet your thumb and index finger of the hand the spoon is not in with water. Put the dough stuck to the spoon back in the bowl. Seal the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it out on your kitchen counter.
In 3 or 4 days your starter will start producing bubbles to the point it will look like your old starter did when it was active. It's faking you out though.
It's not ready to use yet. Dump out 100 grams and feed it 25 grams of bread flour, 25 grams of WW flour and 50 grams of water. Stir it up, cover it up with plastic wrap and leave it on your counter top. At this point it will go dormant and the inexperienced person will think their attempt at making a sourdough starter has failed.Γ’ΛΒΉΓ―ΒΈΒ What is happening is the 2 different types of bacteria in your culture have quit doing what they are supposed to do because they are battling each other for position inside the culture. They quit eating and digesting flour and water so... There will be no more bubbles during this part of the process and you will think this starter has failed.
It's important from the first time you dumped and fed your starter you do the exact same dump and feed every 24 hours from that day on, even though there is no, zero, zilch activity in your starter.
After about 6 or 7 days of being dormant you will wake up one morning, look at your new starter and it will be fully bloomed.π You will smile and think, woohoo, I did it! But, it's probably still not ready to make dough with just yet, close though. Dump and feed it 2 more days just like before.
This is how you test your starter to determine if it is ready to levin dough with. Fill up a water glass with water. Get a teaspoon and wet it with water. Scoop a teaspoon of your starter out of the cereal bowl and dump it in the water glass... If it floats it ready to use to make pizza dough or a loaf of sourdough bread with. If it sinks, it's not active enough to use yet.
I'm keeping the size of this culture very small during this process because you're going to dump out and waste to much flour if we did this on a bigger scale. After the culture becomes strong, healthy and happy, if you want to make it larger just feed it a bigger quantity of flour and water, 100, 200 or 300 grams of flour and water and in less than 24 hours that quantity of starter will pass the float test.
Always feed your starter equal amounts of flour and water... That means your starter will be a 100% hydration starter. Bakers like 100% starters because it makes it easy for them to mix with their other ingredients knowing that the starter is exactly 50% flour and 50% water. That way they can scale a dough recipe up or down without using a calculator.
The starter you will have at this point will not be very tangy, it will be very mild. There is a way to manipulate your starter so it will become very tangy. Let me know if you want to do that and I'll walk you through it.
It's that easy and it's almost fail proof... Give it a try.π
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