Betty 101

 

Twenty days ago I started my sourdough journey and I've been getting a lot of questions and messages about it so I'm taking the time today to post about what I've learned so far. 

The first thing I've learned is not to listen to all the influencers online. Most of the advice they give is about mature starters. That's not what Betty is. She's an infant. A newborn, in fact.  I gave her a 1:1:1 feeding once a day in the beginning.  At Day 3 she had her bacteria bloom. She puffed up and smelled terrible. She did this for two days and it's a very good sign.  Then she got twice a day feedings for 10 more days before starting her 1:2:2 peak feedings for 4 more days. Peak feedings were when I fed her every time she rose as high as she could and then started to flatten out on top. A rising starter will dome on top. You want to catch it before she falls back down again. That ensures your starter contains maximum yeast before you discard and start over in order to strengthen it. It seemed to work well for Betty.

The feeding ratios sound confusing but they are not. 1:1:1 just means the same amount of water and flour is added to the same amount of your starter. 1:2:2 just means you add twice the amount of flour and water to your starter after you do your discard. Discarding is important because it keeps your starter under control and gives it a fresh base to grow from. The flour you see here is a mix of 1/2 bread flour, 1/4 whole wheat and 1/4 rye. If you want a strong starter you've got to feed it well in the beginning. I saw a big difference when I added the organic rye. You can switch over to all bread flour after the 30 day mark, or so I'm told. I will have to test this out too. 

Having multiple jars is very important. Don't listen to the scrapings folks who keep their starter in the same crusty jar for years. That's for mature starters. You need to keep your baby clean because it doesn't have the strength yet to fight off the nasties. Every time I do a feeding Betty gets a clean jar. I've also ditched those cute little fabric caps that come with the jars and use the lids without screwing them on. It seems that the cloth can attract and harbor mold which is enemy #1 to your baby. Like the leftover soap batter I'm always left with after a pour, you want to make sure what you clean out of your jars doesn't go down your drain. Trust me on this.

I've been storing all that discard in the fridge to experiment with. Some people use this in recipes but you shouldn't eat it until your starter matures though. I keep it as a back up in case I kill Betty and for experiments.

Some of those experiments have been to test out some theories I've seen.  I've tried different temperatures and feeding ratios. These two discard Bettys were left on the cold 65 degree counter overnight. The one on the right was fed a 1:5:5 ratio and the other a fed a 1:3:3. See the difference? Barely any but they both showed a lot of growth. It goes to show you that it's still possible to grow a starter in a cool kitchen. Warm temps only speed up the process so it's only necessary if you are planning on a fixed baking time and need your starter at its peak rise. That discard in the refrigerator continues to grow for days after I put it in there. It's kind of spooky.

Betty, now at 20 days old, is in her warmer getting her 1:2:2  feeding now twice a a day because she is finally showing signs of maturity. She's growing regularly and most importantly, when I stick a spatula in to discard, she's full of spidery looking webs and making a whoosh sounding deflation noise. Those are good signs that the yeast are happy and active but we're not there yet. That poor little thing on the right is a discard experiment that's not going well. It seems Baby Betty's early remnants are not strong enough to support any feedings so that first jar I put in the fridge can go in the trash now. 

On Saturday I tried my second bake with her and it was an improvement over the Elmer's glue consistency I had with my first attempt but not as good as it should be. She doubled just fine after her bulk fermentation but was still too sticky and hard to work with. It had very little rise during its overnight chill in the refrigerator which was disappointing.

I had a little rise in the oven but not much. I have to say this could have been user error. I don't think I had the lid of the new baker on right so the steam it needed probably escaped. 

After all the torture I put that poor dough through to shape it, I was surprised to see any air in it at all. We ate it with great trepidation. It's kind of creepy after you've seen all the things going on with the fermentation process but we're still alive to tell the tale. It wasn't the greatest bread tbh but it did make some very good toast. I'll try another loaf at her 30 day mark. 

Disclaimer: I'm certainly not an expert on any of this. It may all still be for naught but lessons have been learned with the first and most important one being patience. Every time I was ready to give up, Betty surprised me and turned a corner. I'm also 99.9% convinced at this point that all those giddy sourdough influencers with their big marshmallowy piles of dough are using store bought starters. 

Like this one. I'm not above giving it a try too but that will be an experiment for another day.