The most recent updates are at the top. So if you are new here, you will have to scroll to the bottom to start from the beginning. Thank you and happy baking!
**The starter was created using Martha White self-rising flour because that was all I had. After the first few days, I was able to find White Lily unbleached bread flour and have been using it since.
**The water is filtered through a Brita pitcher to remove chlorine and other impurities in the water.
Day 51 (Sun 4/28)
So it's not perfect yet, but it's definitely the best tasting so far. I think I have settled on my salt and sugar ratios as well as the amount of flour and water. This time I completely omitted the olive oil and I think it's better. Now I just need to work on getting my bulk fermenting times down pat and maybe a little better at the stretch and fold because I'm not good at that yet. Out of the loaves I have baked, I got the best rise using the starter unfed and bulk fermenting for 17 hours at room temperature inside my microwave which is almost 80°. Now that I have been trying to use the starter at or near peak, I think I have been bulk fermenting a little too long. I plan to cut back to 12-13 hours.
Here's what I did this time.
● Bread Flour (500g)
● 62% water(310g)
● 20% starter (100g) slightly past peak
● 8% sugar (40g)
● 2.8% uniodized sea salt (14g)
8:00 pm — mixed dough. Rested 3 hours by accident.
11:00 pm — S&F #1
Went to bed. Did not get to do any more stretch and folds.
10:30 am — Dough has more than doubled. Maybe tripled. I need a different container to more accurately measure this.
1:30 pm — Baked at 375 for 40 minutes uncovered. Preheated with pan of water on bottom rack. Left water the whole 40 minutes. Made bottom of bread soft and light. Top still over-browned. Taste was very good though!
I made a dipping sauce with extra virgin olive oil, fresh ground black pepper, minced garlic, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. I literally ate a third of the loaf within minutes it was so tasty so we are definitely making good progress!
Day 50 (Sat 4/27) – Ok, I'm trying another loaf. I'm switching my feeding ratio for Breaddie to 25% rye because the 33% is still coming out a bit too strong in the finished bread. I took 70g starter and fed 35g rye, 105g bread flour, and 140g water.
My container weighs 108g here. I forgot to get a picture at peak but it was a little over 600. Unfortunately I was in the middle of supper and was not able to make my dough for another two and a half hours. I think it would have risen better if I had used it during that perfect peak or even just before.
Day 44 (Sun 4/21) – Sorry for the lack of updates recently. My life has been a little crazy the past couple of weeks. Thankfully Breaddie appears to be healthy now and I no longer have to feed her every day. I have been able to store her in the refrigerator the past 2 weeks which is part of the reason for the lack of updates. I have baked twice. The first time was pretty much a flop. Last weekend I did successfully bake a loaf of sandwich bread though. It wasn't perfect, but a good start.
Now when I feed her, I save 50g starter and feed 65g bread flour, 35g rye, and 100g water — a 1:2:2 ratio. She peaks (triples) around 5 to 6 hours and will hold her peak for at least 3 hours before beginning to fall.
The flavor is improving in this loaf, but I think I got a tiny bit too much salt and still not enough sugar. I actually messed up the recipe and in the process of adding everything to the bowl, I screwed up and added 100 grams too much water. Then I had to go in and calculate how much flour and salt and sugar I needed to add to balance it out. 🤦♀️ It baked okay so it was not a total failure but a learning experience.
Flour (500g)
62% water(310g)
20% starter (100g) past peak
7.4% sugar (37g)
4% olive oil (20g)
Day 43 (Sat 4/20) – Got her out of the refrigerator this morning and allowed her to warm up in preparation to make bread. Fed her and waiting for her to peak to prepare the dough.
Day 37 (Sun 4/14)
Day 22 (Sat 3/30) – I got another great 250% rise last night! My goal is to eventually get 300% to 400% when my starter is stronger. I think this is a pretty good start though. The smell of my starter is changing as well and it's finally starting to develop a more yeast like smell.
So I learned something today. I think the reason my starter has not been rising as expected is that it had become too acidic. This morning it had risen again great like yesterday.
After conducting some more research, I found out that if you are trying to strengthen a starter, once it peaks, you should go ahead and feed it again which I was not doing. It peaked late morning since I was late feeding it last night. It held its peak until after lunch so I fed it again with a 1:2:2 ratio and still a 50/50 mix bread and rye flour.
2 hours later, it almost doubled! I'm curious to see when it will peak now.
Day 21 (Fri 3/29) – Y'all I have to share my excitement this morning! I have been seriously wondering if I should give up the past few days. The other day, after extensive research, I broke down and ordered some organic rye flour because my local stores don't have it. It arrived yesterday. 🙌 Last night I discarded down to 50g and fed 50g rye flour, 50g bread flour, and 100g filtered water. This morning it had risen 250%!!! From the 200 ml mark to 500 ml. I'm so excited!!!! 😁 Rye for the win! 🏆
Day 20 (Thurs 3/28) – Did not rise. Just bubbles. I finally got the King Arthur Organic Rye Flour that I ordered. I'm going to try mixing that in with the bread flour to see if I get better results. Fed 1:2:2. — 50 starter/(50 rye flour & 50 bread flour)/100 water
Day 19 (Wed 3/27) – Did not rise. Just bubbles. Fed 1:2:2 in the evening. Put in microwave with light on to see if it helps being in a warmer environment. 78-82⁰ average in there.
Day 18 (Tues 3/26) – Did not rise. Just bubbles. Skipped feed today.
Day 17 (Mon 3/25) – Still not much activity, just bubbling. Not smelling like yeast yet. Forgot to take a picture this evening but I fed her 1:2:2 around 9:00 p.m. 50g starter, 100g flour, 100g water
Day 16 (Sun) – Nothing. Skipped feed.
Day 15 (Sat) – Did not rise. Just bubbles. Fed 1:2:2.
Day 14 (Fri 3/22) – Did not rise. Just bubbles. Fed 1:1:1.
Day 13 (Thurs 3/21) – I checked on Breaddie this morning briefly while in a rush to get ready for work. Guess what?!! She finally had a rise and doubled overnight! This is the first rise since the false rise. I was legitimately worried that I needed to start over at this point because she seemed to be dormant for too long. Probably the only thing keeping me from totally tossing her out yesterday was the acetone smell giving me hope. And probably a little bit of my own stubbornness not wanting to quit after investing nearly 2 weeks in her. I guess she's a little like me in that respect. 😅 I did not do anything to her this morning. I will check on her when I get home tonight and probably feed her.
Before evening feed.
Day 12 (Wed 3/20) – Breaddie still has bubbles and finally has an acetone-like smell which is a good sign. She is just taking a little longer to develop than I expected. I decided to switch back to a 1:1:1 feed. I did 82g starter, 82g water, 82g flour. She seemed a little too watery so I added an extra 10g flour this feed.
*pic is before feeding to show activity
Day 11 (Tues 3/19) – Today, I literally did not do anything to it. I just let it rest. After doing some more research, it has come to my attention that I probably started feeding it too soon as well as may have fed too high of ratio the past few days.
Day 10 (Mon 3/18) – There were some bubbles this morning as usual, but it still does not appear to have risen any since feeding it. I think it might be a little too watery, but I'm not sure how that happened. I added 25g of flour around 11:30 a.m. to thicken the starter. We will see if that helps.
Day 9 (Sun 3/17) – So no rise today. Just bubbles. Smell is not awful, but also not yeasty. I let her rest most of the day. Just fed her around 6:30 pm with a 1:2:2.
50g starter, 100g flour, 100g water
Day 8 (Sat 3/16) – Discard down to 30g. Feed 60g flour and 60g water. 1:2:2 ratio to aid yeast growth. I have realized now that it is time to transfer Breaddie to a larger container because once the yeast growth picks up, she could overflow from this jar. She is about 200 ml herself. The new container measures up to 1,100 ml with extra space up to about 1,300 ml.
Day 7 (Fri 3/15) – Discard down to 50g. Feed 50g water, 25g pineapple juice, 75g bread flour. Good bubble activity tonight, but still has a funky smell. I don't think the bacteria are gone yet. I'm going to try to give it a little pick me up by adding a little bit of pineapple juice in place of some of the water. I actually read that you can use pineapple juice during the first creation of the starter but I did not know that at the time. Based on the amount of bubbles I thought she might need a slightly bigger ratio of feeding to starter. Depending on how she looks tomorrow I may change this 1:2:2 ratio.
Day 6 (Thurs 3/14) – Discard down to 50g. Feed 50g water, 50g unbleached bread flour (White Lilly). Smells bad before feeding.
Day 5 (Wed 3/13) – There is approximately 110g starter. My goal is to get her healthy and maintain 150g. This way when it is time to bake I will always have at least 100g available to work with.
I discarded down to 50g and fed her 50g SR flour and 50g water. I always make sure the water is around 75-90⁰ F when I add it.
Before feeding.
Day 4 (Tues 3/12) – With everything going on last night I accidentally went to bed without feeding Breaddie! So this morning before work I checked on her, and she actually looked even better than last night! Sadly, I did not get a picture. I discarded enough to leave her at about 55g and fed her 35g flour and 35g water. Will update tonight.
3/12 (pm) – Looks like the false rise has hit! She tripled in size since feeding this morning. Wow!
Day 3 (Mon 3/11) – There is definitely some activity going on today. The smell is different. Not exactly yeasty but no longer smells like wet flour. It doesn't smell bad either though.
Day 2 (Sun 3/10) – discard 25g. Feed 1:1:1 with 25g starter/25g SR flour/25g water.
Amazingly there already appeared to be a few bubbles forming after 24 hours. I'm shocked.
Day 1 (Sat 3/9) – 25g SR flour, 25g water
