Preparing your starter for baking
How to strengthen your starter for baking success!
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Your starter is the most important ingredient in sourdough bread. That’s why we feed it every week to maintain its strength. It’s what gives your bread its sour flavour, its oven spring and open crumb (the holes you see in a slice of bread). So it’s important to get to know your starter before you bake.
Two important points to consider before you bake:
Protein content of the rye flour used in your starter.
Aim for 11-13% protein. Anything less, may take longer to become active enough to bake with. If using a flour with less protein, I recommend feeding your starter twice. See the information panel on packaging or on the website if buying online for the protein content.
Temperature of your home.
The optimal temperature a starter will become active enough to bake with is 25 degrees Celsius. In the colder months, that’s difficult to achieve without heating. If it’s colder than 20 degrees in your kitchen, it can take anywhere from 5 hours on warmer days to 12 hours on cold winter days before the starter has reached its peak and is active enough for baking. In the summer months, it may only take 3-4 hours on the bench.
Each home is different, so if this is your first bake, plan ahead:
don’t rush the first bake. Hold off until you test how the starter reacts in your home - especially as the seasons change.
check the recipe you’re following. It may suggest making your levain the night before - so work backwards. For example, if your starter takes 12 hours to reach its peak in your home in winter, feed your starter at 8.00am. At 8.00pm, make your levain.
Preparing your starter for baking
Take your starter from the fridge:
1. Scoop 20 grams of starter from the jar and place into a clean jar.
2. Add 50 grams of rye flour and 75 grams of room temperature filtered, distilled or spring water to the new jar, mix until smooth. Add an elastic band to the jar where the starter currently sits.
3. Cover with a cloth and leave on your bench. Over the next 5-12 hours (temperature depending), you will notice your starter changing in size and texture.
When it’s active enough, follow the instructions in your recipe. If it suggests making a levain, follow my guide below. If you’re following my Lazy Bakers recipe, skip the levain and move straight to the recipe.
At this point, we also need to start a new jar to keep in the fridge for our next bake. Follow the instructions in the diagram below.
How do I know if my starter is active enough to bake with?
The elastic band we added to the jar after feeding helps gauge the starters growth.
Stages of growth and what to look for
It will double (and even triple when its warm) in size and bubbles start to appear in the jar.
A dome shape will appear on top - it’s active but not quite ready. Check again in an hour.
When the dome flattens out, uneven bubbles and craters start to appear on the top. It has reached its peak and ready to bake with (or make your levain).
Tips for speeding up the activation process
If your home is cold, you can speed up the fermentation process. This does take practice and you must constantly monitor your starters growth.
My preferred method
I use an insulated lunch bag to keep my starter warm. On really cold days, I wrap it in a tea towel before placing into my lunch bag and moving it to a warmer part of my home.
Experienced bakers place their starters into the oven with the light on or use a heat pad. If you do this, err on the side of caution - especially if you are new to baking and still getting to know your starter. If you follow this method, ensure you continually monitor your starter or you might end up with an overactive starter that's flowing out of the jar and have to start the feeding process again. In my oven, it takes roughly 3-4 hours before my starter is active. Your oven may be different.
It takes time and practice to get to know your starter so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get this right the first time.
Read next: Lazy Baker recipe
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