Training Manual
Feeding The Starters
Recently shipped me a new starter, which got me thinking about my growing collection. I now have 4 different starters, and they vary in feeding schedules and uses.
Blarf is my first starter, and a San Francisco native. I am currently keeping him at 125% hydration, using a 4:4:5 feeding once a day. He is quite liquidy, and I often mix him using a chop stick, which is very easy. Because of the high hydration, the yeast can thrive fairly well. He also should be well suited to make baguettes, as the enzymes on the flour go to work once they get hydrated; this makes a more extensible dough, which is what you need to make baguettes.
I created Dulce from the Costa Rican jungles, and feed her once a day 2:2:1 for a 50% hydration dough. Because she is firmer, she got quite a bit more flavor and sourness than Blarf. She is also more hearty, since she goes through her food slower, I’m considering feeding her less often. Because the gluten gets developed so well in a firm starter, she is well suited for ciabatta, which need as much gluten development as possible considering it is such a wet dough. She is kind of a pain to feed, as I often still have dry flour after mixing for a few minutes. Rather than mixing all at once, it is helpful to take a break (15 minutes to an hour) after a partial mix, and then finishing the incorporation of the flour.
I’m not sure when Sour Blarf was born, but he is a massive beast which lives in my fridge. He passed the capacity of my scale (12lbs) long ago, and rarely gets fed for fear that he will grow even larger. I just recently started using him, but he requires a bit of special care to use. I take out only a portion of him, feed with plenty of flour and water, and then wait before its final use. He has developed a ton of flavor, but it is quite a bit different than what I am used to. Also, because the flour has been hydrated for so long, I can only use a small amount, or I risk dough degradation during proofing. I am developing a plan to use him more, as many home bakers use their fridge to keep their starter, and I would like to get a better feel for how to best use him.
I am baking my first baguettes using the Trail Baby today, so will have to see how they come out. I am thinking of keeping him at 200% hydration, to push the boundaries on the high hydration starters. Because the yeast will be so effective, this means that I might have to feed him twice a day, or might be able to get away with feeding a lot more than I’m used to, once a day. For example, 1:2:4 might work out, although it will be increasing in size 7X with each feeding.
So remember that how you feed your starter is an extremely important factor in how your bread comes out. There is no single right way to do it, but based on what you would like to achieve, there are different variables you can affect.
All About Hydration
One of the most important things to think about when making bread is what hydration level you are using in any given formula. Hydration is defined as the total amount of water divided by the total amount of flour.
So to start off, you should figure out how hydrated your starter is. One of the more common feeding schedules for starters is 2:1:1 (starter:flour:water). This means that if your starter weighs 100g, you would feed it 50g flour, and 50g water. Since it is equal parts flour and water, your 200g starter would now consist of 100g total flour, and 100g total water. 100/100 would put you at 100% hydration.
Starters can be kept at many different hydration levels and still be active. Some people keep their starters as low as 50% hydrated, which would mean that for every 100g of flour they feed their starter, only 50g of water go in. On the other end of the spectrum, you could be at 125% hydration, which would mean that for every 100g of flour, 125g of water go in.
It is ok to keep your starter however hydrated you would like, but keep in mind that there could be some differences in terms of how you use them. Lower hydrated starters (50-70%) are rather firm, and might need to be cut into many pieces to incorporate them into bread dough. Higher hydrated starters (100-125%) are very watery, and allow the starter to eat through its food supply (the flour) much quicker. For this reason you might need to feed it a larger quantity of food, or more often. I am beginning to like the higher hydrated starters, as they are much easier to mix, which allows for quicker feeding.
Once you know the hydration level of your starter, you can calculate the hydration level for the dough you are making. If you are using 300g 100% hydrated starter, 300g flour, and 200g water, your total flour weight would be 450g and your total water weight would be 350g. Therefore your dough would have a hydration level of 350/450 or 78%. If you had instead used 300g 60% hydrated starter (187.5g flour, 112.5g water), you would end up with 64% hydrated dough (312.5g water/487.5g flour). If you are adding other types of ingredients, remember to calculate how much water is coming from them; eggs are about 75% water, while milk is around 82%.
The hydration level of the dough will give you a lot of information about how it is going to act. Bagels are one of the least hydrated doughs (50-60%), and are extremely stiff. This means that they need a ton of kneading to get all the flour incorporated and gluten developed; it also means that they are not sticky at all in dough form.
As you move up in hydration, the dough starts to be a bit more sticky, but also more extensible. Many formulas (french bread, white sandwich bread, challah) use around 60-70% hydration. These doughs can hold their shape well, but also allow for a greater volume in proofing.
On the higher end of the spectrum you have breads like focaccia and ciabatta, which could be 75-85% hydrated. These doughs are extremely sticky, and need different types of handling. Because they stick everywhere, kneading does not usually work on these doughs, and instead you can use techniques such as stretch and folding, french folding, or just letting the dough develop the gluten over a long period of time on its own. These doughs can be roughly shaped, but because they are so wet, need careful handling. Because they are so hydrated, they might need a bit more bake time than usual prevent the inside from being gummy.
Recently I have been experimenting with having even higher hydrated doughs. One of my formulas, Baked Blarf, uses pretty much just 100% hydrated starter that has been duasted heavily in flour, and stretched and folded once. This dough does not hold together much of a shape, and needs to be baked much longer than usual, but can still taste delicious.
One final consideration is that different types of flours absorb water differently. Don’t be surprised if the consistency you are used to with one flour at 75% needs to be adjusted to 73% or 77% when using a different brand or type.
Creating a Formula
When deciding to make a new batch of bread, you first must determine the formula that you will be using. Here are the steps to create a basic bread of just flour, water, and salt:
You will first need to determine how much Total Dough you want to make. To do this, choose a weight per loaf, how many loaves, and a guess of your Dough Loss. Dough Loss is how much you expect to lose from sticking to the bowl, your hands, and the work surface. Prior experience can help you determine how much Dough Loss you might have, but 50g is a good starting point. I often make 2 loaves of 750g each, so my total Dough would be 1550g.
Next you must choose what hydration bread you would like to have based on the loaf you are trying to bake. You can try Bagels around 54% hydration, Baguettes from 65-72%, Ciabatta around 80%, Whole Wheat at 75% hydration. Different hydrations will change how you handle the dough.
Finally you choose your Starter Factor. This number shows how much starter you are using in relation to your Total Dough. A 3X Starter Factor would mean 1/3 of the Total Dough came from the starter, while with a 50X Starter factor only 2% of the Total Dough is from the starter. Depending on the activity level of your starter, and what you are trying to achieve with your bread, you might pick a Starter Factor in this range.
We also need to know what the Starter Hydration is. We know this based on how we last fed our starter.
Once you’ve chosen your Total Dough, Hydration, and Starter Factor, you can determine the Starter Weight, Flour Weight, Water Weight, and Salt Weight to use for your bread. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Total Dough / Starter Factor = Starter Weight
2. 1 + Starter Hydration = Starter Total Dough Percentage
3. Starter Weight / Starter Total Dough Percentage = Starter Flour Weight
4. Starter Flour Weight * Starter Hydration = Starter Water Weight
5. 1.02 + Hydration = Total Dough Percentage
6. Total Dough / Total Dough Percentage = Total Flour
7. Total Flour * Hydration = Total Water
8. Total Flour * .02 = Salt Weight
9. Total Flour – Starter Flour Weight = Flour Weight
10. Total Water – Starter Water Weight = Water Weight
We round each number to the nearest gram, as that is the precision of our scale. On step 5, we assume 2% salt, and no other ingredients, but the more generalized version of is:
1 + Hydration + Salt Percentage + Other Ingredient Percentage = Total Dough Percentage
If I choose Total Dough = 1550g, Hydration = 72%, and Starter Factor = 5X, and have Starter Hydration = 50%, the steps involved are:
1. Starter Weight = 1550g / 5 = 310g
2. Starter Total Dough Percentage= 1 + .50 = 1.5
3. Starter Flour Weight = 310g / 1.5 = 207g
4. Starter Water Weight = 207g * .5 = 104g
5. Total Dough Percentage = 1.02 + .72 = 1.74
6. Total Flour = 1550g / 1.74 = 891g
7. Total Water = 891g * .72 = 642g
8. Salt Weight = 891g * .02 = 18g
9. Flour Weight = 891g – 207g = 684g
10. Water Weight = 642g – 104g = 538g
We can then scale out 310g Starter, 18g salt, 684g flour, and 538g water, and begin mixing.
Sample Formula
Loaf Dough Weight: 675g
Quantity of Loaves: 2
Dough Loss: 50g
Total Dough: 1400g
Flour: 100% Type 85 (High Extraction Flour)
Hydration: 81%
Salt: 2.1%
Total Percentage: 1.831
Starter Expansion: 4X
Starter Feeding Ratio: 1:8:5
Starter Hydration: 62.5%
Total Flour: 847g
Total Water: 686g
Starter Added: 350g
Starter Flour: 215g
Starter Water: 135g
Flour Added: 632g
Water Added: 551g
Salt Added: 18g