Yet Another Sourdough Baker

Sourdough starter jar showing bubbles

Day 7-8: I had to run a few errands and turn my back to the starter a bit. To my surprise, this is what I got...

It's time to go back to my regular 80% feed routine since I like it a bit more stiff

Day 5: Still feeding and trying to manage the high temp ☀️

Almost as good as der Zimtschnecke from Zeit für Brot! <-- if you have not tried those yet, please look for them! 😄

That works great with an active sourdough starter 👍

This one was dehydrated and dormant for ~8 months, so I’m taking it slower to rebuild strength before treating it like a regular fridge starter. 🫙

I never froze it 🙂

It was just dehydrated and kept dry for ~8 months.

It did produce good bubbles back then too.

Here’s a pic from when I dehydrated it:
bsky.app/profile/yeta...

Sourdough starter is fully rehydrated and alive with full of bubbles

Day 4: I fed it this morning and this is what I got after 7h!

It’s definitely alive!!

Next step: regular feedings to build strength.

The temp is 28C, I'll probably feed twice a day or even three times, let's see

Day 3: Skip the feed yesterday was not a good idea, after 36h it was runny and with some hooch. I fed it immediately and will wait a day to feed it again.

No pictures today, but it still shows activity.

Showing some signs! 🫙

Sourdough starter showing small bubbles meaning activity happening

Day 2: there’s activity! 🙂

I won’t feed it today. It’s still slow, so we’ll rely on the last feed.

Let’s wait and see how it behaves on the next 24h

Looks great!!! I really need to try to bake buns one day!

Show the Starter after 24h, with very tiny bubbles showing some activity

The starter after it's first feeding 1:1

Day 1: After 24h it started slowly showing activity with very tiny bubbles on top, hard to spot tho. I fed 1:1:1 after 28h and let's see how it reacts.

Temp: ~26C/79F

The dehydrated starter on a scale shows 16g (I actually added 4g more later)

The dehydrated sourdough starter on a scale after put water. The scale shows 25g of water

There are plenty of articles on how to rehydrate a sourdough starter, but I won’t revisit them. I vaguely remember one suggesting water only for the first feed, so that’s what I’m doing.

Final ratio: 20g starter + 25g water. I started with 16g starter, but it was too liquid, so I bumped it to 20g.

In case you missed it, this is how the sourdough starter was dehydrated 👇

bsky.app/profile/yeta...

Let’s see if it still remembers how to be bread.

A Ziploc bag containing dehydrated sourdough starter.

A Ziploc bag with dehydrated sourdough starter, a scale, a thermometer showing 26.5C and two glass jars. All of it on a kitchen counter.

Visiting my brother for a couple weeks.

Mission: bring this dehydrated starter back to life and bake bread for the family.

I’ll document everything in this 🧵

#sourdough #bread

Stay tuned for the next couple posts. I'm about to travel with it and bring it back to life 😆

Indeed feed with bread flour is not worth it. I feed only with AP and when I want to boost it I add a pinch of WW or Rye on the mix, the starter loves it!

Thank you!!
Hydration is a bit tricky, indeed! What matters at the end is the protein level in the flour 😂

Thank you!
I use a regular home oven, maximum temperature and pizza stone on the very top of it getting all the heat possible.

At this temp I'd feed it with very cold water to slow fermentation down, and probably 3 feeds a day

Thank you! I'm not using parchment paper in the puma tin pan, that one was direct contact.

Great photo!! 👏

Just enough to close it, always! :)

Sourdough starter peak in a glass jar with red lid

My starter, almost on peak level after being fed 1:1.

#sourdough

Top view of a sourdough Babka

Crumb shot of a sourdough Babka

Crumb shot of a sourdough Babka showing cinnamon glaze dripping

Top view of the sourdough Babka

Cinnamon sourdough Babka. That was a second try, way better than the first one and still a lot to improve, specially during the braid part.

Delicious tho, pure cinnamon and sugar!

#sourdough #babka

I use a bread mat all the time and that never happened to me! 🤔

Nice one!

Thank you! I'm not professional at all but I'm still improving and learning from my mistakes :)

Sourdough milk bread.

Sourdough milk bread.

Sourdough milk bread.

The bake of the day was this puma milk bread, using the Tangzhong method.
It could bake for a few more minutes, although the flavor was great.

Well deserved, done!
That's a nice project!! I'm about to start something similar, I was thinking about using a seedling mat with some temp sensor in a wood box. 😆

Sure thing, done!