Tuesday, December 27, 2011

It's a Miracle - Finally (Day 2)!


I have been faithfully feeding this starter twice a day. Our instructions said the starter should be bubbly by day six or seven but nothing has been going on. I split my original starter ten days ago into a second jar and started feeding it pineapple juice instead of water in the hopes of jump starting this now semi-white mass. The second one had more bubbles but still no doubling.

Apparently Santa Claus stopped by and added some "stuff" to my starters since all of a sudden the pineapple fed jar doubled in size on the 26th and the original starter also started to grow significantly in size (the top of the blue tape was the starting point for both starters after feeding). Now both are very active and tomorrow I may have my first attempt at a creating some bread using my own levain.


Friday, December 9, 2011

It's Alive - part deux


The Winter Quarter has started at MCC and I'm enrolled in Artisan Breads. We made baguettes in our first class yesterday and also created a sourdough starter. (This starter will be needed in a couple of weeks as our course work moves to using levains.) The starter has been sitting in the kitchen since I brought it home. Today the culture has some small bubbles on top, showing signs of life.

Last year I created a sourdough starter from grapes but it had a much higher volume and feeding it daily required a large amount of flour. This current starter is much more "reasonable" in terms of its volume and feeding requirements. Hopefully this effort will work out. I start twice daily feedings tomorrow.