Any Home Bakers Here?

[BullChick]

Okay, another thing to mention. Like any living thing, we feed our starters differently. I actually have a bread book with a few different methods listed, acknowledging it’s our choice.
I use water and flour. Wheat flour on occasion, but mostly AP flour. I use whatever temperature water comes out of the tap (warm, cool or cold, never scalding). I don’t measure, I don’t discard. I put her wherever she’s out of the way. I think she’s in the refrigerator now. As long as she can breathe, and isn’t pink, she’s fine.

 

[Aria]

I like Multigrain Breads. I generally feed my SDS a
combo of Bread flour, Whole Wheat Flour and Rye
flour. And if you are baking white Breads...I would
use Bread Flour. Many variables.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Ok, all that helps, thank you everyone.

For clarification thought, we have to be both gluten free and the starter must remain dairy free. (Kiddo is severely allergic to all dairy and a celiac)

I was reading that if one has city water to use distilled water because any hint of chlorine left in the water can affect the cultures.

I have a nice dehydrator so I could indeed dry some starter. Now I just need a good starter culture packet that is both gf and df. My books say trying to start one from wild yeast from the air for gf is iffy.

 

[R2elk]

I was reading that if one has city water to use distilled water because any hint if chlorine left in the water can affect the cultures.

To rid city water of chlorine, bring to a boil, and let boil uncovered for one minute. Cool before using in yeast cultures.

 

[Blooie]

I never have discards. And I keep mine in the refrigerator. Take it out the night before I bake. I
take 3 T and put it in a clean jar....add 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water stir...leave and it is ready to use in
Morning to bake. I feed the starter and let it rise and back in the refrigerator. It is MUCH easier to keep small amounts of SDS to bake. IT CAN BE FED and it does grow. Once you get a system it
and it does grow. Once you get a system. IT DOES work.
The system is YOURS...depending on how often you Bake. Experimenting helps. AND Ron is
always to Help. You just need to ask him. Ron is the EXPERT on Sourdough.

I don’t have discards either, except for maybe about 4 days into starting a brand new starter. Rye flour makes a very strong starter, so I use that. And no, just because you’re using rye flour for your starter, you don’t have to make rye bread. It makes a very good white sourdough too.

Day 1, 25 grams of water and 25 grams rye flour

Day 2-6, add 25 grams of each without discarding anything. (Sometimes by Day 4 or 5 there’s a bit too much starter so it can get sluggish. At that point, discard all but about a tablespoon of the starter, then add the 25 grams of each to that tablespoon).

Keep doing the 25/25 daily even if it’s taking your starter longer to get going well. When the starter is ready (and how many days that takes depends on many factors), you can use it to bake your bread. Follow your recipe for how much starter to use. If there’s not enough, boost it to equal the amount of starter you need. If there’s extra, that will be your last discard….you want just the remnants left in your jar.

Leave just the scrapings in the bottom of the jar (discard if you need to get down to just the remnants in the jar) and refrigerate. I’ve left mine as long as 3 weeks between uses. It looks like a dirty, mostly empty jar in the fridge - I use a sharpie to mark the jar with “KEEP” so nobody thinks it should be taken out of the fridge to wash the jar.

When I’m ready to bake, I get it out in the morning, let it warm a bit, add enough flour and water to equal my recipe, and it comes back to life, usually ready to prep my dough that night. Example: If your recipe calls for 100 grams of starter, add 50 grams of water and 50 grams of rye flour. Then after you’ve taken out your 100 grams of starter, return the jar with the scrapings to the fridge. All you’ll ever keep is just what little bits are left in the bottom of the jar, without constant feedings and discarding starter.

 

[Sally PB]

With GF flours still being so much more expensive I've been putting off making the starter because I'm not sure what to do with the discards while starting it

I make a pancake. I pour whatever my discard amount is into a bowl, add 1 teaspoon sugar and some cinnamon. Pour it into a pan greased with butter on medium heat and play whack-a-bubble until the top is nearly all dry. Flip it, cook about 1 minute more, and call it done. Butter and syrup or honey or jam.

@Sally PB didn't I read somewhere a little while back that you feed yours brown rice flour and oat flour?

Yes, I use 1/4 cup brown rice flour and 1/4 oat flour, (and a scant 1/3 cup of water) make these myself, and they are very cheap that way.

 

[BullChick]

I am now hungry for pancakes.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I make a pancake. I pour whatever my discard amount is into a bowl, add 1 teaspoon sugar and some cinnamon. Pour it into a pan greased with butter on medium heat and play whack-a-bubble until the top is nearly all dry. Flip it, cook about 1 minute more, and call it done. Butter and syrup or honey or jam.

Yes, I use 1/4 cup brown rice flour and 1/4 oat flour, (and a scant 1/3 cup of water) make these myself, and they are very cheap that way.

How did you get your first starter going? Did you use a packaged starter culture?

If I can get one going I think I could also use brown rice and the addition of homemade oat flour to keep it going.

I'm still mulling over a small mill, but in the mean time I actually have enough brown rice flour for a change. Plenty of oats too.

I am now hungry for pancakes. View attachment 3025604View attachment 3025603

You and me both!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I am not able to find a GF starter culture that is safe for kiddo, but after some digging I found several recipes for starting one and capturing wild yeasts that from reviewers seem to work. It can take more time though, and even longer if the house is cool like mine is now. We are between needing real winter heat or summer AC, but now is as good for me.

Amounts across the recipes vary but seem to follow a kind of simple formula of equal amounts on certain days, then maybe doubling or tripling how much is left and how much to add.

I can generally size up or down recipes on my own, so with this logic... is it safe to assume I could size down a starter recipe from a whole cup amount (and a heck of a lot of discard) to maybe 1/4 cup amounts? I have the flour mix called for in this recipe-

King Arthur GF Sourdough Starter

If that (changing the amounts) is the wrong logic, how about this one? I could convert the grams to something I'm more familiar with, but this one has you feeding it daily from day 3 to day 14.

https://attachments.convertkitcdnn....c28a7/What the fork Blog- Lead Magnet (2).pdf

 

[Sally PB]

How did you get your first starter going? Did you use a packaged starter culture?

I purchased a starter from here:

https://shop.culturesforhealth.com/collections/cultures/products/gluten-free-sourdough-starter

I'm drying some right now, as a back up, and I can send you some if you want me to. PM me your address.

My house is NOT GF, so if it's too risky, I understand. I'm not celiac, just get an itchy rash from gluten.