I'm a relatively laid back SD baker. I use cup and spoon measures and I don't use specific timing or temperatures. This time, I tried using my deflated starter which hadn't been fed for about 24hrs. I then followed my usual "read the dough and hope for the best" process:
- Mix all ingredients thoroughly, about 5mins of hand mixing.
- Perform 3 rounds of stretch and folds across about 1.5hrs. The first round is long, continuing to s&f until the dough is firm.
- Bulk ferment until dough is ~1.5x it's original size, visible air bubbles beneath the surface, and the sides appear domed.
- Shape and cold retard until the following morning.
- Preheat DO to 260c. Score. Add a large icecube to DO. Bake at 260c for 30mins, then 200c uncovered for 20mins.
Thoughts? Do many of you bake with unfed starter often? I imagine it would need to have been fed somewhat recently for this to work well.
by Lonely-Chef1185
8 Comments
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I bet it was hungry! Nice loaf
I regularly bake with unfed straight from the fridge starter. Love the way it bakes up. It’s a lot faster process and really no taste/crumb difference.
Mix all ingredients. Instructions unclear. What ingredients?
I haven’t tried baking with 24 hour old (typically I use 8 hours after feeding, which tends to be a bit after peaking) but my understanding is that starters fed with higher feed to unfed discard ratios have longer useful/active periods after peaking. It also depends on your room temperature and the health of your starter biome.
I think your last sentence is correct. If it’s unfed for a day or so it can work well, just the BF time will probably take a bit longer. When I was baking daily I used to skip making levain completely and just used the starter whatever shape it was in and it worked well.
But if it’s been unfed for a few days or longer then a “revival” feeding is necessary before baking. I’m my experience at least.
24 hours is your standard feeding cycle. This may not work with a starter that’s been hibernating in the fridge for 2 weeks.
King Arthur’s Pain de Campagne is made with refrigerated unrefreshed starter (that has been fed in the past week), so that is similar and it comes out fine. Usually I will make that bread if I made a levain and my schedule gets interrupted so I can’t make the planned bread. I don’t think I have intentionally used unrefreshed starter elsewhere.
Looks like bunny! A cute, little, delicious, ready for butter and to be eaten bunny