October 24, 2024 - 9:37am
Different flour for starter, leaven, dough?
Dear all,
I admire your results and I am so sure, that I can learn from you!
I have a quite strong starter, that consists only of organic fullgrain wheat flour. And I feed it at the moment only with that flour. If I use it for my bread dough (standard white wheat flour), it does sort of work and rise, but there could be more rising.
My question: Should I always feed the starter with the same flour, I want to bake with later-on? Does it get sort of used to a special flour? And: my leaven is at the moment just a large amount of starter–– meaning: a starter, that I fed very generously. Am I missing sth? Is that, how "leaven" is meant? :-)
Any help is appreciated, thanks so much in advance,
Vicco
Share
Vicco, I am no expert, but levian and starter can sometimes mean the same thing, sometimes different. The culture and the proportions of culture to food are the same, but some call the part that stays in the container the mother, and the part that is taken out of the container and refreshed and used to leaven the dough the levian. Other terms are chef, mother starter, etc.
As for flours, some say to use the same flour for the starter / levian so that the culture is used to that flour and that it will perform better, others say it does not make that much of a difference. Also, the taste of the bread can be impacted by the starter - so if you use a whole wheat starter, it may lead to a more sour bread, if you use AP flour, the taste may be less sour. In addition, the timing may be vastly different. Using AP flour, when i refresh 1:1:1 ( equal parts starter, water , flour ) it is fully ready for me to use in certain amount of time, but if I use whole wheat flour, I refresh 1 part starter, 1 part water, 3 parts whole wheat flour and it is ready in the same time.
thanks a bunch for your help!
Where to start! There are a lot of different terms for what is called a starter - it is just that. What you should do is feed with the same flour you use. That's the best way to go. Generally speaking - any starter can be used if ready. Mix what you want - use for anything - expect differences - especially if using a different flour. The real key is - make it - use it - adjust it. And expect it to change here and there. Enjoy!