The Whole Shebang

I've been tinkering around with my starter refresh and my recipes, lately. This post brings the whole work flow into one spot. All ounce measurements refer to weights.

Refreshing the Starter

I've developed a process for refreshing the starter that provides a nicely active culture with zero waste. Start with 2 oz. of old starter from the fridge. Add 2 oz. of water and 2 oz. of white bread flour. Mix it vigorously and put it in a warm (70+ degrees F.) place for 8-10 hours. It should double in size and look bubbly.

Prepare the Sponge

All my recipes use the same sponge. Take 4 oz. of newly refreshed starter. Add 4 oz. of water and 4 oz. of white bread flour. Mix it vigorously. It starts off looking like this.

Place it in a warm spot for 8-10 hours. It should double in size and look bubbly, like this.

Rye Bread Recipe

Add the ingredients to the bread pan in the order shown in the recipe. It's not that critical, but the liquids and spoonfuls go on the bottom. The rye flour goes on top of those. The white flour goes on top of the rye, and the sponge goes on top of the white.

Rye Bread by weight
Water	3 oz.
Milk	3 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Oil	2 Tbl
Vital gluten	2 tsp
Rye flour	9 oz.
White bread flour	6.5 oz.
Sponge

Set the bread machine for the whole wheat cycle and press start.

The top can look a little ragged. I call this the Pompadour hair style. I thought I had that fixed, once. Maybe not.

Whole Wheat Recipe

As with the rye recipe, add the liquids and spoonfuls on the bottom followed by the whole wheat flour, then the white flour, then the sponge.

Whole Wheat by weight
Water	3 oz.
Milk	3 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Whole wheat flour	10.5 oz.
White bread flour	5 oz.
Sponge

Set the bread machine for the whole wheat cycle and press start.

I don't have a recent picture of a completed whole wheat loaf. It sometimes sports the Pompadour hair style. These loaves tend to rise rather high, yielding a tall loaf of bread. I might try swapping some of the white flour for whole wheat in the future.

Optimizing the Starter Refresh

I posted a few weeks ago about trouble with trying to reduce the amount of waste when refreshing my starter. I found that the ratio of new ingredients to old starter was important.

I would still like to reduce the amount of waste, so I have continued to experiment with ratios of old starter to new ingredients. I determined in the old post that 4 oz. of old starter added to 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water (all measurements by weight) produced an energetically refreshed starter, but I only need 4 oz. for a new loaf of bread, leaving 4 oz. of waste in the next refresh.

I decided to try keeping the ratio of old starter:flour:water at 1:1:1, but using smaller amounts. My first reduced-waste experiment used 3 oz. quantities of each component. The start of the refresh looks like this:

Ten hours later it has grown to this:

It is a nice, healthy starter that went on to make a nice, healthy loaf of bread.

The following week, I took this experiment one step further by using 2 oz. of each ingredient. I don't have side views, but this experiment was also successful. At the start of the refresh, I had this:

That turned into this in 7-1/2 hours

That starter also produced a nice loaf of bread.

Now, I have a waste-free process. The 2+2+2 refresh leaves 6 oz. of starter, and I use 4 oz. for my bread. That leaves 2 oz. for my next refresh.

Whole Wheat Revisited

My whole wheat recipe had been giving me some disappointing results. Part of that was due to my sluggish starter. I also think that the amount of water that I was using was a little skimpy. My old recipe was

Whole Wheat, Take 6
Prepare sponge.  When it is ready, put these ingredients in the bread machine with the white flour going in last.  Add the sponge on top.
Water	4 oz.
Whole wheat flour	2 ¼ cups
White flour	1  cup
Vital Gluten	none
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Honey	¼ cup

My next attempt added 2 oz. more of water. I used the 4+4+4 starter refresh. That is take 4 oz. (all measurements by weight) of the old starter, add 4 oz. of white flour, and 4 oz. of water. I let that mature for 10-12 hours. I use the same formula to create the sponge, except that it uses 4 oz. of the newly refreshed starter. My sponge starts looking like this:

That was a 9PM. The next morning at 6AM the sponge has expanded nicely.

For my recipe, I've decided to measure my flour by weight for more consistent results. The recipe is now

Whole Wheat, Take 7
Prepare sponge.  When it is ready, put these ingredients in the bread machine with the white flour going in last.  Add the sponge on top.
Water	4 oz.
Whole wheat flour	10.5 oz.
White flour	5 oz.
Vital Gluten	none
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Honey	¼ cup

This mixture made a nice looking dough ball in the bread machine.

The completed loaf rose better than any whole wheat sourdough loaf to date. What can't be seen here is that the pompadour hair style that my rye loaves used to  exhibit has shown up in the whole wheat bread. I'll add some milk in place of some of the water next time.

As a bonus, it was delicious. 

Slow Starter

I thought I had this all figured out, but lately my starter has been a little sluggish to start. Originally, I had been using the practice of discarding half of my starter and refreshing it with 4 oz. (by weight) of white bread flour and 4 oz. of water (by weight or volume, they are the same for water). My recipes call for 4 oz. of starter, so I figured, "Why throw out half? Just add 2 oz. of flour and 2 oz. of water to get the extra 4 oz. that my recipe needs."

Well, it seems that my starter is not so refreshed with that method. I decided to try an experiment. The week-old starter (since the last refresh and bread baking) that I had in my fridge was about 8 oz. I divided that into two containers of 4 oz. each. To one, I added 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water. (The left container in the picture.) To the other, I added 2 oz. of flour and 2 oz. of water. The arrows are the levels at the beginning of the maturing process. The level in the left container is a bit obscured by starter that was stuck to the sides.

I set them out to grow for about 8 hours. Not much had happened by then.

I left them for another 12 hours.

It's not so clear from these views, but the container on the left has grown some. So has the second container, but not nearly as much. Opening the containers shows that the 4+4 refresh (left) is much more active than the 2+2 (right).

It appears the refresh needs a higher ratio of new ingredients to the old stuff. I might still be able to get away with a 2+2 refresh, but I might need to start with a smaller quantity of starter.

I've been having some disappointing results with my bread loaves, so I'm not going to try that experiment right away. I want to have a good loaf of bread.