Yes, that’s what I do. And also, as @anon44372566 said, after the discard and mixing in fresh flour and water, I leave the jar at room temperature for a few hours ( ~ 1 - 4 approximately, depending on what the house temperature is - I actually judge the timing by smell) to jumpstart the process of microbial spreading through the new “media” before I put it back in the fridge.
Thanks – really helpful info. The last two feedings, I just put it back in the refrigerator right away. I’ll let it do it’s thing until doubling, then put it in the fridge. And I’ll lower the hydration. I don’t have rye on hand, but might stone-ground whole wheat be a better flour to use for storage?
Thanks very much for the good advice. I’ll attend to my too-long-neglected starter and nurture it back to health today!
Great answers!! I agree!
I have tried countless times to create my own starter. I finally ordered the Breadtopia Starter and I thought I was doing okay.
I made one artisan loaf; it was okay but I slightly under baked it & it seemed incredibly heavy. Every sourdough artisan loaf I’ve baked for two years now has been extremely heavy. They tasted fine but they were almost impossible to slice.
I decided my starter needed more time, that I had used it too soon. Then the fiascos increased. The weather had cooled and I put the starter in my oven with an oven light on. Overnight temperatures in my kitchen averaged 65-68 degrees.
It seemed okay but I was not seeing the happiness I enjoyed before I baked my first artisan loaf.
It finally died an awfully death when I skipped feeding it for about three days.
I want to try again but I suspect I’m not only failing at deciding when the starter is ready (see my comments on my heavy loaves) but clearly I am not managing my starter.
I understand it’s supposed to be easy but I think I may be too cavalier. I am certain I am not understanding WHEN it’s ready to use and HOW to maintain.
Is there a super elementary, step by step, guide for Dummies?
I’m thinking I might try Breadtopia’s dry starter since I ruined the prepared starter?
Help! I really want to bake a weekly loaf of sourdough artisan bread!
Fingers crossed that you soon have a repeat of your first successful artisan loaf. When I started baking sourdough bread, my first pair of loaves turned out great – luck – and then I had a series of flops. I needed to understand when (by dough appearance mainly) to move on to the next step of a recipe, and completely ignore the timing given by the recipe.
These Starter FAQs might be helpful to you. The first one covers crucial basics (types of flour and water, when to feed, when not to feed), and the How to feed and How to store starter ones are key too.
Additionally, this blog post is very helpful for breaking down the concepts underlying sourdough baking.
I fed my starter yesterday afternoon planning to place it in the refrigerator overnight and use it this morning, but I left it out all night and it had shrunk down. I used it anyway to make a sweet-stiff starter for hamburger rolls. The sweet-stiff starter has not risen much after almost 10 hours. Should I abandon that starter and start over again? Or, should I put the sweet-stiff starter in the fridge overnight?
Stiff sourdough starters grow pretty slowly (unless we’re talking about the repeated and responsive stiff feedings at 80-85°F for panettone).
I’d probably have left it out somewhere cool to see where it was in the morning.
If you refrigerated it, then take it out and put it somewhere warm all day and see what happens, but maybe build a new one too and put that somewhere warm as well.
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Can you give us an idea of how you built this sweet-stiff starter?
Thank you Melissa. I will experiment with trying to build both of them at once and see what happens!
The sweet stiff starter follows the recipe for hamburger buns (which I have never made before) from Eric and Melissa’s book, “Sourdough Cookbook for Beginners”, on page 99. Do you have access to this recipe?
It is always a challenge for me to fit a long baking process into my work day. I have the most control over my calendar in the early morning hours, so I always take advantage of a slow fermentation in the refrigerator overnight. Is there a way that this recipe could be organized into three days? Could I create the sweet stiff started through a long fermentation in the refrigerator?
Let me just go check. But reiterating what @Fermentada said… To take advantage of a slow ferment one may refrigerate or make a stiff starter. To make a stiff starter and refrigerate will slow it down too much. If the starter is low hydration and has had a good feed it will most probably be fine to leave at room temperature till you’re ready to feed it again.
Ok… had a look. This is a very low hydration starter with a lot of sugar. Definitely doesn’t need fridge time as the hydration will slow it down a lot and the sugar will probably slow it down too!
If I were you i’d do a test build first. In the morning build the sweet stiff starter, do not refrigerate and see how long it takes to mature. Then we can get an idea of how to work this recipe around your schedule.
Thank you. I will experiment. My own barm, used to build this sweet stiff starter, is nice and bubbly after a couple of hours out of the fridge. I use it once or twice per week, and feed it after each use, placing it back into the fridge after about two hours on the counter. What would “mature” look like in this recipe?
When you say barm what do you mean? Barm in the traditional sense is the froth from on top of a fermenting beer which was used to leaven bread.
It won’t bubble the same way as a 100% hydration starter but it should swell and increase in size. Have a nice aroma too.
Sorry… I am not an experienced baker. I am using Peter Reinhart’s definition of barm or a levain as the permanent, mother source from which a starter for each loaf is made… make sense? Distinguishing the barm from the starter helps me keep straight where I am I am in the process.
My barm, which was originally made from King Arthur organic bread flour, and the starters that I make from it, almost never double in size and have a sublime aroma.
Makes sense. Terminology can overlap. I’m assuming Peter Reinhart’s barm (aka levain) is high hydration and will bubble and froth. Very different from this low hydration stiff starter.
These liquid levains will move a lot faster than stiff sweet starters. They will fare better in the fridge depending on how much starter is used to build them. There will be no harm done in leaving your stiff starter at room temperature for 12-24 hours. Or if it matures within 12 hours and you’re not ready to bake then you can refrigerate till ready to use. But putting a stiff starter straight into the fridge will just not react the same way as a barm.
In fact high hydration starters only came into use once people had refrigerators. Until then it was more common to keep a low hydration stiff starter so it didn’t need to be fed as much and it could be kept at room temperature. Refrigeration changed the way people kept starters.
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Thank you so much! This is so helpful. I have built a new starter and have it on the counter along with the original one so that I can observe. They will probably be on the counter for about 15 hours.
My barm is always equal parts barm, flour, and water. However, I use different combinations of white bread flour and whole wheat flour (sometimes rye) to refresh the barm. I’ve noticed that the more whole wheat I use the stiffer the barm becomes. I understand the baker’s percentage system, but I do not have the confidence to move away from recipes developed by experts. The only place I experiment is with my barm. I would really like to learn to experiment with different kinds of flours.
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Aha… your barm is equal parts starter, water, flour making it 1:1:1 which is 100% starter and 100% hydration. No wonder why it does so well in the fridge. This stiff starter build at 33.3% starter and less than 50% hydration is totally different.
Also, even at the same hydration different flours will absorb water differently. Wholegrain will absorb water more than bread flour making it stiffer. But won’t be anything like a starter which is less than 50% hydration.
The only way to learn is to try different recipes with different approaches and eventually you’ll get a feel for it. For now just observe them and see what happens.
I left both my first and second attempts at the sweet stiff starter on the counter overnight. The first one (which had been refrigerated) was more than doubled! So, I used it to mix the dough for my first batch of hamburger buns. I am still watching the second sweet stiff starter attempt to see how long it takes to double. So interesting.
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