[Sca-cooks] researching recipes

[Terry Decker]

In my experience, when you first mix the starter it will produce a soft
dough which will revert to a very heavy, viscous batter as it ferments.
Feed it and it becomes a soft dough again.  You can actually make the
starter into a hard ball of dough by adding more flour, but this slows
fermentation.  For my purposes, 1:1 flour to water by weight works best.  As
I remember it, the Amish Friendship Bread batter is quite a bit thinner and
is closer to pancake batter in consistency.  The harder you make the starter
dough, the longer the fermentation takes.

It takes about 2 to 3 days for fermentation to be noticeable if you leave
the starter on the counter.  My original starter was a cup of flour to 1/2
cup of water mixed in a two quart mixing bowl which was then covered with
plastic wrap and left on the counter for two days.  The plastic wrap was to
reduce the possibility of mold infecting the starter.  Once the fermentation
is visible, the starter can be used for baking.

After the fermentation starts, the starter needs to be fed every 12 hours if
you leave it on the counter.  This keeps the ferment active.  An active
starter is less prone to infection by mold and other nasty critters.

I build the starter up to a quart or so, then start baking.  If I'm baking
sourdough regularly (every two or three day), I'll leave the starter on the
counter.  If not, I store it in the refrigerator, which slows the
fermentation.  You might also freeze or dry some of your stater so that you
can create a fresh batch if you lose your active starter.

Up to a couple quarts, a cup of flour and a 1/2 cup of water every 12 hours
works for feeding.  When you get over two quarts of starter, distributing
the flour and water through the mix gets difficult (at one point, I had 5
gallons of starter, never again).

When making bread, the first rise may take up to 12 hours.  The second rise
usually takes 2 to 4 hours.  So give yourself plenty of time when you
experiment.

Bear



>What should the consistency of the starter be?  Doughlike?  Paste like?
>Soupy?  I've only ever worked with the "Amish Friendship Bread" type of
>starter before, so I'm not sure I'm doing it right.
>
>Also - How long until it is ready to use? I've got about 2 weeks to play
>with this before I *really* need it. (Although I would like to make a
sample
>at least once.. :)
>
>Thanks for your help.  I'm learning lots!
>
>
>--
>Lady Hrosvitha von Celle
>Per pale sable and gules, a fret and on a point pointed argent a pair of
>shears inverted sable.
>