Mixed flour starter query - Advice needed
Hello all!
I know there are a million questions and answers out there, but I haven't yet found one to match mine exactly.
I'm new to the game, and have applied an unsubstantiated approach to my starter maintenance. I'm just not sure if it's a good idea. I keep a 1:4:4 starter at room temperature, which needs a feed every 12 hours or sometimes longer. I am carrying over 20g starter each feed and then using equal amounts of rye, spelt, whole wheat, and white bread flour.
At the moment I don't know which days I will bake, hence keeping it on the counter; and I'm happy to do the daily feeds and mixing up the 80g mix as it's a new-ish starter (3-4 weeks now I think) and I want it to be natural, healthy and strong.
At the moment I am also baking directly with the starter at its peak and not building a levain. I prefer doing this as it seems less wasteful and convenient. So far breads are good! Some variations as I'm trying different tweaks each time and still definitely room for improvement.
I plan to nearly always bake a loaf that is a mix of these as I prefer the higher density and the flavour.
OK. So my two main questions:
1. Is my idea to have a solid equal mix of flours for my starter going to lead to a stronger, healthier starter; and is it also a good idea as it'll be ready to go (more or less) for any mix of flour, because it is always being fed with a variety?
I appreciate the levain approach to match the flour profile, but at the moment I'm wondering about establishing a constant starter that I can use as well as I can in all my loaves - and I'm not trying anything extreme.
2. Does anyone have a recommended all-four flours mix recipe they can share? All constituent parts and weights or percentages would be super helpful!
I also tend to prefer holding back some of the whole wheat bran to make it lighter.
Thank you!
Henry
Many folks just use one starter for all their breads. A whole grain starter (rye is popular) is great for breads that are at least part whole grain (of any kind.) And a white flour starter can leaven either whole grain or white bread. If you do some bakes that you don't want whole grain to be part of (like Hokkaido milk bread for example) you might want to build or maintain a white-flour starter.
I have heard people talk about the yeasts preferring the type of grain they are used to, but I'm not sure how much of a factor that really is. After all, you can raise bread beautifully with yeast cultivated in water and fed on nothing but fruit. Personally I don't worry about blending flour for my starter. I just keep one, feed it whole wheat (I ran out of rye) and use it in all my sourdough bakes.
Thank you!