Starter

 

What you need:

• Bread flour (my starter seems to do better with bread flour, but many flours can be used including rye)
• Good water (bottled is great, but tap works too)
• Container (I use quart mason jars and avoid plastic because I don’t want any plastic bits scraped and added to my starter during the mixing process)

 

One sign that your starter is alive and kicking is 2-4 hours after feeding it, so full of gas that it doubles in size (so make sure you have a large enough container to accommodate this.)

 

Day 1

Add 2 oz. of both flour and water to a container and mix well until the flour has absorbed all of the water. Keep in a warm environment up to 80 degrees F.

 

Day 2

Add another 2 oz. of both to what you have and mix thoroughly. If you have time,  give it a extra mix or two through the day(adding oxygen will help things along).

 

Day 3

Save 2 oz. of starter and throw the rest out and add 2 oz of both flour and water. Stir.

 

Day 4-12

Continue following Day 3’s instructions.

 

At this point, hopefully your starter is very active.  One way to tell is marking the level on the jar at feeding time and checking 4-6 hours later to see if it has doubled in size.

 

If your starter looks something like this with a lot of bubbles, you can do a float test by dropping a spoonful in a cup of water.  If it floats it’s ready.

 

Plan for baking tomorrow by feeding it enough flour and water depending on how much bread you intend on making.  If going by my halved recipe then you will only need 5 oz of starter so throw out all but 2 oz and add 4 oz of flour and water.