np307
Happy to be here.
So I go through cycles of my cooking projects. My favorite is homemade bread, but it gets hard to conceal IWB if I make it all the time. So I haven't made much bread recently but I'm getting back to it, which starts with making a sourdough or levain culture. I've mentioned it before and always intend to post a guide, but this time I actually am going to.
There's tons of information online and I am not an expert, but sometimes it's easier to jump into something if you can ask questions, so feel free. Just remember that until pretty recently, this is how all bread was made. It's not really that tough.
I'll start with what you'll need. The basics are: a container large enough to hold the starter mixture, water, and flour. If you wanted to, you could get by with just that stuff, but to make things easier, I also like to use a scale and to be specific about the kind of flour I use. All I use is King Arthur just to be consistent.
I keep all purpose, bread flour, and whole wheat flour on hand. I like these sterlite containers because they'll hold a whole bag at once.
This starter is a 100% hydration starter, which means that the flour and water are mixed at a 1:1 ratio by weight. I start with a clean, empty container. This is a 7 cup container I believe and you'll see that I have the dry weight marked, which becomes important later on.
Next I add 300 grams of whole wheat flour. Whole wheat is the best to begin a culture with because it has more parts of the wheat kernel which allows fermentation to start more quickly. You could do this with AP flour but it would take a couple days more than this will.
Next I add an equal amount of warm water. Some get really specific about water temp, I dont worry about it. You'll also see it goes a couple grams over, no big deal.
Now just mix it up and let it rest. You could leave it on the counter, but I start mine in the oven with the light on just so it's a bit warmer to encourage the fermentation to start. I'll leave it alone and check it this evening, then tomorrow morning.
And that's pretty much all for day 1. The process from here on is basically just removing and replacing flour and water until you have a usable culture.
There's tons of information online and I am not an expert, but sometimes it's easier to jump into something if you can ask questions, so feel free. Just remember that until pretty recently, this is how all bread was made. It's not really that tough.
I'll start with what you'll need. The basics are: a container large enough to hold the starter mixture, water, and flour. If you wanted to, you could get by with just that stuff, but to make things easier, I also like to use a scale and to be specific about the kind of flour I use. All I use is King Arthur just to be consistent.
I keep all purpose, bread flour, and whole wheat flour on hand. I like these sterlite containers because they'll hold a whole bag at once.
This starter is a 100% hydration starter, which means that the flour and water are mixed at a 1:1 ratio by weight. I start with a clean, empty container. This is a 7 cup container I believe and you'll see that I have the dry weight marked, which becomes important later on.
Next I add 300 grams of whole wheat flour. Whole wheat is the best to begin a culture with because it has more parts of the wheat kernel which allows fermentation to start more quickly. You could do this with AP flour but it would take a couple days more than this will.
Next I add an equal amount of warm water. Some get really specific about water temp, I dont worry about it. You'll also see it goes a couple grams over, no big deal.
Now just mix it up and let it rest. You could leave it on the counter, but I start mine in the oven with the light on just so it's a bit warmer to encourage the fermentation to start. I'll leave it alone and check it this evening, then tomorrow morning.
And that's pretty much all for day 1. The process from here on is basically just removing and replacing flour and water until you have a usable culture.