Starter
Wake dried Grandpa
Dried from the house culture, started 16 Feb 2019. Asleep, not dead. A bake waits until it doubles on time, twice.
You need
- 5 g dried starter, weighed
- Bread flour
- Water you would bake with
- A clean jar, loose lid
- A rubber band
- A thermometer
- A scale that reads 1 g
No spoon. Flakes pack differently every time.
Day 0: wake
- 5 gDried starter
- 25 gWater
- 25 gBread flour
- Put 5 g dried starter in the jar. Weigh it.
- Add 25 g water at about 80°F / 27°C. Stir.
- Loose lid. Wait until the flakes soften. Up to 1 hour.
- Add 25 g bread flour. Stir until no dry flour.
- Rubber band at the fill line. Write the time on the jar.
- Leave it at 75–78°F / 24–26°C. Not in the oven. Not sealed.
Each feed after that
- 20 gKept starter
- 20 gBread flour
- 20 gWater
- Keep about 20 g of the mix. Discard the rest.
- Add 20 g bread flour and 20 g water. Stir.
- Reset the band. Note the time and the temperature.
- Look at 8 hours and again at 12.
Feed once a day until it is rising. Then feed when it has peaked and started to fall, not on a clock.
Ready
Two feeds in a row that double in 4–8 hours at 75–78°F.
The top is domed. It smells like flour and yogurt, not nail polish.
Bubbles alone are not ready. A rise that collapses in an hour is not ready.
Not ready
- Day 1 looks dead. That is normal. The flakes are waking.
- A sharp alcohol smell. It got hungry. Discard down to 20 g and feed again.
- No rise by the morning of day 5. Move the jar somewhere warmer, still under 80°F, and give it two more feeds before you call it.
- Pink, orange, or fuzzy. Throw it out. Do not bake with it.
Then bake
Once it passes, use 100 g of it in the house loaf: 500 g bread flour, 320 g water, 100 g starter, 10 g salt.
Mix, rest, salt, folds, shape, fridge 18–24 hours, bake from cold.