How to Store and Care for your Starter?
Till now we have
- Made out Starter
- Nulled out the problems
- Learned how to build up the starter for a recipe
So we are ready to bake a bread.
But what after you actually made a Bread?
You need to store the starter well so that it lasts a life time right..
The general rule of thumb to remember is whenever you take out the starter to use in a recipe, always and always feed it again.
Suppose you made your levain at 8 am today.
By around 12 pm your levain would be ready to be used in a recipe.
So at 12 pm you take out the desired amount of starter and add it to the bread recipe.
It might take a couple of minutes for you to incorporate the starter into the bread dough, wash your hands and come back to the mother starter.
Say it took around 15- 30 mins for that depending upon the recipe.
So let us assume you got free by 12.30 pm.
At 12.30 pm add fresh 25 gms Flour and 25 gms Water to your mother culture.
By around 2.30 pm you will observe slight rise in your starter.
At this stage cover it loosely and put it into the fridge.
Now you have to feed it just once a week.
The timings that I shared here is just approximate. Do not go by the time rather observe your starter and learn.
It might be a little confusing on day 1 but as and how you proceed you will understand how much your starter rises, how much time it takes so and so forth.
Now you have stored the starter in the fridge.
All you have to do is feed it atleast once a week.
Choose a day for the same.
For me it is Monday..
Every Monday morning I take my starter out and let it come to room temperature.
Then discard 50 gms and add 25+25, allow it to rise and store in the fridge.
If you are a seasoned baker?
So let us assume that you are a seasoned baker and you bake bread every alternate day or every second day.
In that case it would be best to keep the starter at room temperature and feed it every single day.
I am a weekend baker.. How do I store it?
If you like baking on a weekend then in that case I would say,
Take your starter out on a Thursday evening..
Follow the routine: Warm it a bit, Discard, Feed and allow it to rise at room temperature.
After 12 hours that is on a Friday morning follow the steps again - Discard, Feed and let it rise at room temperature.
After 12 hours on Friday evening either you start building up your levain if you are a night baker
Or simply follow the usual feeding steps and build your levain on saturday morning depending upon your schedule.
I bake fortnightly or once a month.. How to Care for my Starter then?
For that I would say choose a day of the week say Monday like I do.
So every Monday discard and feed your starter and put it back in the fridge.
When you are ready to bake follow the steps I shared for weekend baker routine.
I forgot to feed my Starter.. Will it die??
It is ok if you forgot and skipped one week of feed. Do not worry but at the same time do not keep it as a regular practise.
Continue feeding regularly.
There are other ways of storing the starter too - the most common is to dry them and store.
I am yet to try that method once I try I will update it on this space and let you guys know on Instagram.
Susie says
Hi Sushma
I have tried a number of recipes and I am loving yours. Thank you so much. My question is when you feed your refrigerated starter once a week do you always use the whole wheat flour?
Thanks Susie
sushma iyer says
Hi Susie.. No you can use any type of flour - whole wheat or APF. I feed mine with APF
Shriram Parameswaran says
Very nicely structured and narrated post for a beginner like me in the sourdough journey.
Has anyone tried making the Sourdough starter with Aashirvaad Select (100% MP Sharbati wheat) flour?
sushma iyer says
Hi Shriram..
Thank you so much.. that was the whole point for this post.. For anyone to start their sourdough journey.. And yes I myself have made with Aashirvaad Atta.. The starter will be thick and paste like but as day passes it would become normal..
Regards
Sushma
Shriram Parameswaran says
Namaskarams
We are just going to commence our sourdough baking journey verybsoon, I hope.
Sourdough starter is getting ready and is eight days in the making. Eagerly waiting.
Chlorine in water and Iodine in Salt could kill the living organisms in the levain / starter, is what I hear and that makes sense.
So while we can use filtered and stored water (after chlorine has escaped) to get chlorine free water, which salt is recommended for sourdough baking.
Is the himalayan pink salt powder ok ?
And any idea which cast iron Dutch Oven is popular in India? Or is there any alternative to a D.O.?
We intend to start off with baking tins first for loaves and then graduate to a D.O. for Boules and Batards etc.,.
sushma iyer says
Hello Shriram..
Namaskaram..
So happy to learn your progress.. And your research on Sourdough is amazing. You are on the right track. Himalayan Pink Salt is absolutely fine. Works great.
Coming to D.O. You can check the LeCreuset India they have amazing collection. If you use Instagram you can check their page on Insta or do a quick Google Search too.
But if the shops are open I would say nothing like namma ooru iron pans so you can use iron skillet for both base and top. So not only for Boules you can use it in everyday cooking for making stir fry or dosas. I am talking about something like this in this picture that I found on google for you https://bit.ly/3aW0hy6 so you can buy these separately and use it for boules as well as everyday cooking
Hope this helps
Regards
Sushma
Shriram says
Namaskarams
And thank you for such a detailed response.
I just discovered a few days ago that Rock Tawa based in Coimbatore itself makes Dutch ovens . They have a 3 liter and 5 liter...https://rocktawa.com/rock-tawa-dutch-oven-pre-seasoned-best-cast-iron
Will pick one up soon after they are open up. Presently unresponsive due to Covid19 lockdowns I guess. Many thanks again.
By the way today is Day 11 and my Bubbles is still not active. Twice a day discard + feeding is going on at 0600 & 1800. Fingers and toes crossed.
sushma iyer says
Hehe.. I like toes crossed.. What flour are you using Wheat based aa??
Prescy Dias says
I am very happy you have taken so much trouble to explain this in detail and easy steps we can follow. I had some bad experiences years back and there was no one to explain or help out. One question..does the water have to be warm every time it is added. God bless you my dear and all your future endeavours.
sushma iyer says
Hi Prescy..
Thank you for your kind words.. so pleased to know that the information that I have shared is worth a read.. appreciate your feedback. and to answer your query Yes always use warm water.. Yeast loves warm conditions 🙂
Regards
Sushma
Archana Wani says
Hi Sushma,I am not able to understand the concept of changing starter percentage. Can you please help.
sushma iyer says
Hi Archana..
Baker's percentage is the term used to define the percentage of water in the dough aka bread. Flour is always 100 percent and all the other ingredients are calculated based on that. So if for eg: flour is 1000 gms then 70 percent dough means it has 700 gms of water in it.
For a beginner it becomes difficult to handle higher hydration dough like say 75% (750 gms of water as per the above example) or 80% (800 gms of water as per the example) as the dough tends to be sticky and runny.
This recipe is 70% which means the dough has 70 percentage of water in it. If you are not comfortable with the given amount you can use 68% and if you are a seasoned sourdough baker then you can also go for 75% that is what I have mentioned in the notes section.
I have tried this recipe with all the three hydration level and got good results. The more the hydration the better your bread will be.
Hope this helps
Regards
Sushma
Archana Wani says
Hi nice write up. Very comprehensive. I have a query is bulk ferment and bench rest same?
sushma iyer says
Hi Archana.. Thank you.. And to answer your query no they are not the same. You can read sourdough terminologies from here: https://spicesnflavors.com/beginners-sourdough-starter-recipe/3/
Regards
Sushma
Divya Nair says
Thank you Sushma for the detailed explanation. Even the minute details have been covered.
Reshma says
Thanks for amazing write up, very well written. I have a query can we use normal tap water to start with.
sushma iyer says
Hi Reshma..
Glad to know that you found the information useful. Thank you.
Coming to your query no normal tap water is not recommended. What you can do is boil the water well, allow it to cool till warm to touch and then use it..
Regards
Sushma
anisha mehul says
Good job!!
sushma iyer says
Hi Anisha.. Thank you 🙂
anisha mehul says
I am impressed with the level of research you have done and what is even more impressive is you took so much time to blog and share it with everyone.
sushma iyer says
Hi Anisha.. Thank you so much.. You are truly kind-hearted as not everyone can appreciate other's work. Thank you for those kind words.. I am glad that I could be of some help..
Regards
Sushma
Vijay says
Hey Sushma.....I am so happy to learn about your blog on sourdough. I have tried to get a starter going and buried some and eat resurrected some.
Am I glad to have made your acquaintance though.
I think the most important ingredient is flour.
For me APF has not been a 💯 . Where do you get your bread flour? I assume you live here in India.
My sour dough is like a pregnancy. Sometimes it's good sometimes I have miscarriages. HELP NEEDED
sushma iyer says
Hi Vijay..
I do not live in India, I live in New Zealand..
To answer your question I would say the flour really doesn't matter as I have had success with all the three types - Bread, Maida and Whole Wheat. I would say go for whole wheat in that case.. About sourdough failures I can understand I got my first success only in the third attempt.. It is all in the technique I would say.
Regards
Sushma
Rajalakshmy Varadarajan says
Hi I dodnt get my Sour dough tracker.
sushma iyer says
Hi Rajalakshmy..
You have to enter your email address in there and it would be sent to your inbox. Please shoot me a reply from your email address to [email protected] so that I can have look from my end.
Regards
Sushma