sourdough starter

My niece asked me about sourdough. Her form of communication is by phone messaging. My nephew told me "Sometimes I wish Amanda had never gotten a smart phone because now she messages 100 times a day." And he's such a sweet nephew, that type of remark is unusual. But that is how my niece communicates, zippy-zappy spurts. Nothing long. Nothing engaging. Nothing with any depth to it. I'm afraid I dissuaded her. It's not her type of thing.

Then I felt bad.

This Denver Power sourdough starter is a good one to start with because it behaves close to how commercial yeast does. Of all the sourdough starters I've tried, the ones purchased online from International Sourdoughs, and from vendors on eBay, and Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail still offered for free, and all the sourdoughs I've cultured by traveling, Hawaii, California, etc., this Denver one is most powerful, fastest, and most close to commercial yeast in speed and reliability. Except a LOT more interesting.

I had been keeping it going as sponge, then burned out on bread altogether, so the last sponge languished in refrigerator untended, unfed, for months. And you just don't do that. Still, when I finally went back to it, the culture sprang back to life as if it had been merely sleeping and not woefully neglected.

But I don't want to have a huge bowl of sponge in the refrigerator all the time. I don't want to be attentive to another live pet. Since this starter springs to life so quickly (comparatively), that makes it reasonable to rejuvenate it from freezing each time. It's that easy to start up. A day and overnight at room temperature. That's it. Boom. It's 'ready to go.
I just now did that again, to prove the point.

I did not reserve active sourdough from the last most recent batch. There are still a few slices left of that bread. Instead, I reactivated the starter from frozen state and began it again, baked a new loaf. And still didn't reserve any starter for next time. There is still quite a lot in frozen powder form.

So to compensate to my niece for giving her the short shrift, I sent her a few teaspoons of Denver Power sourdough stater and a note explaining how to use it, assuming she already knows how to make bread.

It's a simple note in Text Edit. Had I known it would print out to six pages I'd have reduced the font size. Now I'm worried all over again that it's too much for the poor girl to read. She's not the reading type like her brother. Perhaps he'll read it for her and tell her what it says. Maybe she's more capable than I'm giving her credit. I don't know. We'll see.

The note follows.





Denver Power Sourdough Starter

This is a fast and exceedingly strong sourdough starter, so far as sourdoughs go.

Its cycle is under 8 hours.

That means when you feed it with fresh water and fresh flour, the culture will peak bubbling within 8 hours then fall back to sleep.

To get it going full blast, then feed it every eight hours. Like a pet.

If you slip, and go 12 hours  then it won’t work quite as well.

The idea is to get the starter bubbling hard as it does, then use it to inoculate regular dough as its only leaven.

Don’t forget salt, as I’ve done a million times.

It’s trained on 100% whole wheat but it can be used for regular white all purpose flour.

This yeast and bacteria culture actually eats the dough that it’s in so the gluten molecules are not so strong as they are in regular commercial yeast bread. The longer the culture is in contact with the dough, the more it consumes. So long fermentation in the refrigerator, say three days, weakens the dough considerably. While it increases the acidic flavor.

This culture is so strong that you’ll notice a distinct difference without fermentation, as genuine sourdough bakers do. Three days fermentation is the general rule.

Suggestion: try making dough using this starter once you’ve got it bubbling full blast and bake it, say, 5 or 6 hours after shaping the dough. I think you’ll be impressed with results.

Bake until internal temperature is 200℉

Activating this starter is easier than usual.

Mix this powder with 1/2 cup water and a little over 1/2 cup flour for a loose slurry. Put it in a jar and use a rubber band around the jar to indicate the level.

The perfect temperature for yeast is 90℉ - 100℉.

At room temperature it works a little bit slower.

This starter is nearly impervious to cold. It does not respond the usual way. The refrigerator hardly slows it down at all. So if you want to control the dough by controlling temperature, this culture does not behave like the others. Usually you can speed up by adding a little heat to 100℉ and slow down by refrigeration so that you can ferment the dough. Just skip all that and go the easy route and do everything at room temperature. You’ll learn the nature of your version of this starter.

While activating the starter, after 8 hours then discard half of the mixtures whether it’s bubbling or not. And feed it again 1/2 cup fresh water and flour to form a thin slurry. Yeast likes wet mixtures. It can move around in it more easily.

Eight hours later do it again.

This culture is  fast, you’re probably ready to go after the 2nd feeding cycle is finished, but don’t be discouraged if the project goes to the next day. Keep discarding and re-feeding and within just a few cycles this starter will be going full blast. It’s fun to see the mixture double in volume inside the jar. And you can see how far it goes beyond the rubber band.

If you add heat, say, on top of the refrigerator near the back where the heat comes up, or some other warm place in your house, then this project will go significantly faster.  Even so fast as 5 hour cycles.

Sourdough is slow compared to commercial yeast. But this starter is fast compared with other sourdough starters.
.
Incidentally, you can do this same thing with plain flour

If you’d like to try that, then make a slurry with flour and water, put it in a jar the same way, and within 3 days it will begin to bubble by the yeast that covers pretty much everything. Including you. Once you see signs of bubbles then do this feeding in cycles routine, choosing a cycle that works for you, every 8 hours or every 12 hours, whichever works.

Sourdough baking is a commitment. Once you start up you must keep it alive.

For that reason, and because  I don’t bake that much bread,  I shut it down each time, and fire it back up the next time so that I don’t have to keep the starter going either full blast on the counter or slowed down in the refrigerator. I just dry it and freeze it. Then start all over the next time. This starter is fast enough that it makes that technique practical.

When you make your dough, be sure to keep some dough or some starter so that you have starter for next time. Or don’t use all your starter, and feed a little bit kept behind for next time.

Incidentally, the word “sourdough” refers to people not to bread. At least it started that way. By the San Francisco 49ers gold rush guys. Since the perfect temperature to keep their yeast alive is the same as body heat, and San Francisco is actually rather cold, the miners kept their starter alive in little leather pouches they wore as a necklace. And you could smell those dudes a mile away. Their entire bodies were coated with yeast cells and bacteria. They weren’t particularly fond of bathing either. All that combined to make the men smell like sourdough starters. So the San Franciscans called these miners sourdoughs, and that epithet became an adjective extended to the bread.

Review:

1) mix with 1/2 cup water and flour for a thin slurry. Rubber band around jar so that you can measure visually.

8 hours elapses.

2) remove half the mixture and do that same thing again.

8 hours elapses.

3) You’ll see that you’re probably ready to go. But just to be safe, do it again.

8 hours elapses.

4) Make bread using this starter, reserving about 1/4 to 1/2 cup starter to feed and continue with future bread.

5) Consider fermenting your second loaf. This is forming your dough with nearly all of its flour then sticking it in the refrigerator covered for 3 days. This intensifies the flavor considerably. Men like this more than women do. It’s possible to go too far and make it too strong. After three days the dough is weakened so fresh flour helps strengthen it. It takes awhile for the dough to warm up. That can be speeded by spreading it out like a pizza. Adding enough flour to bring it workable dough. Maybe even a little more water. However much you add will dilute its intensity while strengthening the dough so that it behaves like regular bread dough. You’ll feel the difference in your hands between the different types of dough. Sourdough behave more like Play Doh. Regular bread dough behaves more alive, more elastic.

You’ll want your dough to be able to form a skin so that it inflates like a balloon. You do that by turning its edges in on itself so the outside stretches around it. This is how you guarantee its elasticity. Close up its little belly button Like flattening a soccer ball and pulling the outside edges into the middle so the edges are compressed and the outside layer is stretched. The gluten network inside the dough will form a million tiny balloons inside the skin, the larger balloon. Then before baking, slice across the top so its expansion during baking is directed outward and upward the way that you want it. If it bursts open, then you’ve controlled its direction.

For more bread baking hints that apply to sourdough as well, check out YouTube “NYT no-knead bread.” This video changed the attitude and the comprehension of home bakers nationally. It’s an excellent video.

Love and happiness, kisses and hugs, etc.

Bo