Starter

The coronavirus stay-at-home strategy is in full force here in the Seattle area. A lot of people in my area did some panic buying a few weeks ago. I didn't do any panic buying. I also assumed that the panic buying was mostly for TP, pasta, beans, and rice. That was a bad assumption. All the flour and yeast are gone from the stores. You can't even find yeast online.

Time to make my own starter!

I've always known that making a starter was pretty easy. I read some stuff online and watched some videos. Then I got a one quart mason jar, added 3 tablespoons of brown rice flour, and 2 tablespoons of distilled water. I had soaked some raisins in the water for five minutes to recruit some additional yeast for my starter. I think some additional sugar from the raisins also made it into the water. I stirred it up, put a lid on the jar very loosely, and put the jar on top of the fridge.

I added 3 tablespoons of rice flour and 2 tablespoons of distilled water each day. I also stirred the starter a couple of times a day.

The starter looked and smelled like it should... very yeasty. One of the keys to making sure the starter ferments well is to use distilled water or highly filtered water. The chlorine and other additives to city water apparently inhibit yeast growth.

The bread that I made with the starter turned out very well. It took a lot longer to rise than bread I've made with store bought yeast. I let the dough rise for about eight hours. I usually only need 20-30 minutes of rise time when I use store bought yeast. I used a ratio for the starter in the bread recipe called the 1-2-3 weight ratio: one part starter, two parts liquid, and three parts flour by weight.

The bubbles in the bread are evenly distributed, and the bread isn't weak or crumbly. This is often the case when I use store bought yeast. The bread also has a much more noticeable sour flavor. It is not as strong as a sourdough bread, but it is definitely tangy.