How to make my sourdough leaven starter dough?

Morn
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Hi there,

 So I have now had my sourdough starter running for 2 weeks and I am planning to bake with it this weekend.

 It is clearly active but chooses sometimes to rise more than other days even when kept in the same conditions (indecisive like the other half I dare say).

 What I want to know is about keeping the starter as a dough in the fridge. The book that I have been reading suggests that it is as simple as adding enough flour to make a firm dough and then popping it in the fridge feeding once or twice a week.

 When you need to use it, the book says that I should re-liquefy the whole thing, that there is not a great need to re activate the starter as it is highly active when kept in this way so add the quantity required to the flour that is going to make the sponge.

 Do I need to liquefy the whole thing or can I just take half the starter dough and then make a replacement fresh dough to mix into the remaining starter to feed it?

 Otherwise is the plan of just mixing the starter with more flour all that is required to make my starter leaven?

 Cheers for now.

Graham

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Replies

jacklang 2009 July 2

I put my starter culture in the fridge as is.

It stays there for weeks, untouched in a preserving jar.

When I want to bake I take a tablespoon or so of culture and build it up (200g each of flour and water to say 20g of starter and ferment at 28C for 12 hours), and then use that as the ferment. If you prefer a firm starter use 100g to water to 200g flour to 20g starter.

When the jar is looking  empty I do the same and refill the jar with the fresh culture.

You want to renew the culture from a small innoculum every now and then to prevent the build up of too much acidity and other byproducts

Morn 2009 July 2
Ok, so when you use the 200g that is for making the sponge up or is that a seperate process i.e you make the 200g up get that active and working then you add this to the flour that you are using to make your sponge?

Cheers
jacklang 2009 July 3

Depends how much I'm making.

For about 1Kg of dough I use a sponge as I said of 200g flour and 100 g water, 20g culture

For the dough I use typically 400g flour, 230g water and all the sponge.

For 2 or 3 loaves I just use multiples of that.

For more I culture up the sponge in 2 or 3 stages, typically multiplying by 3 to 6 each time.So for 20Kg of dough I'd need 6kg starter, so I might make 1Kg then 6kg in 2 x 12 hour steps

 


 

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