The Starter

My favorite breads seem to be made from a starter, specifically rye and sour dough. So, I knew that to make the breads I had truly set out to make (yes I wanted a good whole wheat, but I love nothing more than a good rye). To begin building my starter I had to first begin to cultivate a seed culture, basically allow the yeast that naturally occurs in wheat to develop. And, though there are multiple ways to go about this, I once again turned to my trusted book, yes Reinhart again. From the two examples he gave, I chose to use the mash method; partly because if it has worked for both brewers and bakers for centuries, I had a very good feeling it would work for me. So now I had to make a mash again. Then I mixed a small portion of my mash with flour and water. Then over the next week, I continually added flour, water and stirred as the yeast developed and multiplied. Finally (after a week of stirring adding mixing…) I took a portion of my cultivated culture and converted it into the starter.

If this process sounds tedious, it wasn’t. It only really took a few minutes each day to build. But, I have to admit it was somewhat unsettling seeing food that I planned on eating bubbling at room temperature for a week. Still, I continued on and just kept reminding myself that a starter is fermented dough so… I have to let it ferment…

In the end, when the starter was finished it went into the fridge, ready for me to use for next few days.

Difficulty: medium