Activating Sourdough Starter & Building A Levain

a great sourdough fermentation begins with a highly active powerful starter today I'll take you through my process for how to activate your sourdough starter to reach what I like to call your starters maximal peak potential I will post links below showing how to make a starter from scratch as well as how to use this starter to make it open Crum sourdough bread this video may be most helpful for the beginner baker or for someone who's looking to give a little activity boost to their starter if you are baking daily it's great to just keep your starter out at warm room temperature all the time but while you're not frequently baking starters can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two to four weeks without feeding before building 11 giving your starter a couple days of feeds after pulling from the fridge is usually a good idea I follow this feeding scheme day 1 is all about reviving the starter from its dormant refrigerated state the first feed I do in the early morning the second a little after noon and the third just before bed if you find your starter still needs a bit more time after day 1 the extra feeds on day 2 can be a good way to push your starter to its max peak potential just a note that the feeding regimen you'll see me perform on day 2 is also how I regularly care for my starter during the times that I am home baking regularly and day 3 is bake day here I'll show you my method of building 11 this is the difference between a starter fed straight from the fridge and a starter that's been fed three times per day regularly the recent dormant starter doesn't rise as high it Peaks earlier doesn't hold its peak very long and it falls faster than the regularly fed starter let's get our ferments as active as possible before using for an upcoming bake now let's jump in and see what this process looks like two days prior to when I want to mix up some dough for a bake I like to start by doing a simple 1 2 1 2 1 feed meaning I'll use equal parts starter to water to flour the dormant starter is generally sluggish and slower to rise after it's long cold rest give it a stir from the fridge and measure out a small amount say 15 grams of the cold starter and place this into a small jar I like to use a glass jar with a loose-fitting lid you can place the container with your starter back in the fridge I usually end up replacing the refrigerated stock every three to four weeks with fresh starter then add in an equal amount of purified water by weight I ended up with 16 grams of water and then an equal amount of my flour mix 16 grams let's pause here for a second and briefly talk about flour mixes I like to feed my starter with a mix of 90% bread flour and 10% rye i measured out and whisked these flours at an earlier time in a bowl to use for future feedings it's easier than measuring out each of the two flours each feed especially since I like to do these smaller micro feeds I prefer using strong bread flour since it gives my starter some extra strength that I can end up adding to my final dough and the rye flour provides a little extra in the way of nutrients and enzymatic amylase activity that can really benefit the health of the little beasties present in your starter all right let's get back to our first feed get in there and mix well using a spatula like you see here or a spoon no dry bits of flour should remain after this mix I'd say this takes about 1 minute total a rubber band positioned around the jar can help to show you the initial height of your starter you can use this as a gauge to determine how high your starter Rises during its activation cover very loosely with a lid remember this is a live culture of bacteria and yeast and they require air and place somewhere warm a few notes about keeping your starter warm if you have one abroad and Taylor proofer box can be great for keeping your starter warmed to a desired temperature with precision another great spot to store your starter is in an oven with a light turned on and the door cracked open mine holds a fairly stable 78 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit depending on where I position the dryer in there finally another location I've stored my starter in is the microwave seems to maintain a pretty stable temperature in the highest 70s even when the house temp drops overnight let's move on to feed number two seven hours later my starter is looking alive you can see it has risen a bit I'd say this risen or peaked at just over double or 2x this is not my starters max peak potential however you'll see as we continue feeding how much higher it is capable of rising also be sure to use your nose after a single feed it smells sour acidic and alcoholic you can see the starter is still very loose and wet at this point just pours out of the jar not a whole lot of strength here also notice how the starter looks while I stir with a spatula this is just not the consistency I'm looking for for this second feed I'll go ahead and use about 15 grams of starter you can store the remaining discard in the freezer for pancakes on the weekends we're going to go ahead and feed once more 1 2 1 2 1 equal parts starter water flour stir this up well again no dry bits you cover loosely with the lid and rest again in a warm spot for about seven hours the third and final feed of day one I like to do right before bed you can now see that we're getting a better rise out of the starter maybe even closer to a three X increase in volume the smell is definitely improved still some sour acidity but more sweet notes coming through now you can also tell the starter is stronger than it was earlier in the day notice how the starter really sticks to the spatula here definitely not as runny as before this is a good thing my overnight rest is 10 hours we've got to feed with a little more flour this feed so the starter doesn't eat up all the food source run out of fuel peak and collapse before we are ready to feed again in the morning for this first overnight feed I'm going to feed one to four to four discard all but around five grams starter add 20 grams water 20 grams flour and stir well during the overnight rest consider keeping it a little cooler the cooler temps can help slow down the Beasties which will help prevent early peeking cover loosely with a lid and let rest about ten hours around 74 degrees Fahrenheit now we're on the next morning day two depending on how your starter looks at this point you can opt to go ahead and use this starter now to build your 11 skip ahead in the video to see how I do this or you can spend day 2 doing another round of feeds to ensure your starter is it max peak potential I'll take you through another day of feeds mostly just to show you my normal everyday feeding schedule this morning we've got a really healthy looking starter i'll do a 1/2 to 2 to feed i discard and save in the freezer all but a very small amount of the overnight starter you can see there is just a little bit of starter sticking to the sides of the jar here that's about 5 grams more than enough add in about 10 grams water 10 grams flour mix and stir well I had to reposition my rubber band here as you can see cover and let rest in a warm place until the early afternoon about 7 hours later it's now early afternoon and we'll do the next one two two two to feed with such small quantities of starter it might be more difficult to discern how higher starter is rising in the jar as I've mentioned I like to keep the feeds really small so I'm not running through large amounts of flour if you feel uncomfortable with such a small quantity by all means use a higher number of grams of your starter water and flour here I'm going to discard all but that little glob about 5 grams of starter and feed with 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flour after stirring well I'll go ahead and change the jar at this point I like to refresh my jar every three to four feeds get that in there and then mark with the rubber band cover loosely and that rest someplace warm all right onto that last feed of the day since this will be that longer overnight rest I'll be doing a 1 to 5 to 5 feed very very nice activity at this point as you can see I'm thinking at least 3x if not 4x rise in the jar this starter is happy and thriving discard and save all but 5 grams just the tiniest amount that sticks to the side of the jar and go ahead and feed 25 grams water 25 grams flour after stirring well cover loosely and that rests on the counter or somewhere not too warm and not too cold until the morning all right baking day has arrived starter is looking great I'll go ahead and discard all but about 15 to 20 grams of the starter as you can see the morning discard is much greater than the daytime feeds be sure to save that starter for later use there are many sourdough discard recipes you can find online for my 11 I will feed at about one to two to two so here I've added 30 grams water and 30 grams flour stir well mark the height with the rubber band and set some place warm for 11 building I like to raise the temperature just a bit more up to about 80 degrees my main reason for doing this is to slightly speed up the ferment for my upcoming bake and I like to prepare an extended auto lease during this time five hours later my eleven usually just about Peaks I like to use the Levin just before the peak or just at peak for best results you can use it younger meaning closer to eighty-five to ninety percent peak just experiment with it and see what works best for you you can see how strong the Levin is because I didn't let the Levin peak and fall the fermented mix is quite strong and stretchy which is great you will be adding more strength to your dough rather than adding a fermented mix that is weak broken-down and watery I've wet my hands here and picked up the leaven just to show you how strong this stuff is it will work well in my upcoming bake if you're at all interested to see this eleven in action check out my youtube video titled methods to make an open crumb sourdough I'll put the link below in the description so in summary I like to feed at least three times before building my leaven I try to feed at peak if possible keep in mind that if you can only feed two times per day that is also completely fine just be sure to feed at a higher ratio to this point this is my starter fed over the course of three days either three times a day or two times a day note that after a 1/2 to 2 to feed on the fourth day they both behave very similarly peaking at about the same height holding the peak in a similar manner and collapsing around the same time try to keep your starter warm if possible ideally in the upper 70s or lower 80s during the day and maybe in the lower 70s overnight in very warm climates you can consider switching to a stiff starter this is one that has less water than flour by weight this tends to yield a less sour more stable starter than a hundred percent hydration liquid starter but overall I would say really just be sure to watch your starter take a few days and feed regularly try to become an expert on your own starter and how it behaves make notes about how much you are feeding your starter and at what times monitor the ferment closely so you can see how it rises over time and at different temperatures test it so that you can determine your starters max peak potential I hope you found this video to be helpful thanks for watching and if you liked the series don't forget to subscribe and check out my other videos here on YouTube all about sourdough and more methods tips and full recipes are posted on my instagram at foolproof baking you

Channel: Full Proof Baking

Views: 377,031

Keywords: sourdough starter, sourdough, fullproofbaking, starter, levain, build a levain, sourdough activity

Id: beKzcOe6w_o

Length: 15min 26sec (926 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019