• Reply by swirth on January 22, 2012 at 3:46 pm
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Here is a great link to the sourdough instructions and there are pictures along with the words so I think this will help you thru your questions:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/tips/sourdough-starter.html

Hope this helps you!

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• Reply by Harrison Brook on January 27, 2012 at 4:52 pm
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Simplest: Remove one cup of starter at least once per month. Add back a mixture of 1 cup flour and 1 cup water.

You can make bread or throw away the starter you removed. When I add mixture, I like to let it sit for most of the day. At room temp it should bubble and expand after a few hours. After 5 or 6 hours I put it back in the fridge.

Recently, I left my two starter cultures untouched in the fridge for close to three months. I seeded a couple new cultures and everything came bubbling back to life. Bottom line...very tasty sourdough bread with taste you can't buy in a store. Butter on toasted sourdough is heaven but cream cheese and blueberry jam doesn't hurt none. Need those antioxidants!

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• Reply by theoriginalmelvin on February 24, 2012 at 3:58 pm
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I find that feeding my sourdough starter 8 - 12 hours prior to using it yields a vigorous starter. When I feed it, I do so in a clean container. I use purified water( not tap water) at room temp. For 1 cup of flour I use ~ 2/3c of water, the goal is that the starter will be about doubled after feeding.

If you have not used your starter for an extended period, it may be necessary to feed it twice, at 6 - 8 hr intervals, to re-invigorate it sufficiently for baking.

Sourdough bread is ideal for diabetics: the sourdough is digested much more slowly than plain white flour products, and like pasta, will not cause a rapid rise in blood glucose levels.

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• Reply by Sallysmith123 on February 25, 2012 at 11:00 am
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I feel the instruction on using the KAF Sourdough Starter are not very clear. You get the KAF Starter, add water to dislodge it and then you feed it and wait 12 hours. Then you stir it down, discard half and feed it. Let that sit for 2-4 hours. You can also stir, discard and feed again, letting it sit for another 2-4 hours and then store it. But it never really tells you when you can use it. Can it be used after the first 12 hours? It would be helpful if it stated this important fact.

Also, when making your own starter, using KAF, water and yeast, it states to let sit 2-5 days on your counter. But I just found out I was suppose to feed it during those days. That is not clear either.

I called the hotline and received the help I need and the correct instructions.

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• Reply by placebo on February 25, 2012 at 3:07 pm
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There are two things you need to deal with are maintaining the starter and using the starter.

Normally, when you feed the starter, you discard half and feed the remainder equal weights of flour and water, enough to double the amount of starter. For example, if you had 200 grams of starter, you'd discard 100 grams and feed the remaining starter with 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. The only reason you discard part of the starter is to keep the amount of starter reasonable. If you're trying to build up the amount of starter you have, there's no reason to discard.

The ideal way to keep the starter is to keep it at room temperature and feed it twice a day, but this can be very wasteful if you don't bake sourdough very often. So what most of us do is store the starter in the refrigerator. This slows the starter down, so you only need to feed it once a week or so. When I feed my starter, I take it out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for a few hours. After I feed it, it immediately goes back into the refrigerator.

One side effect of storing a starter in the refrigerator, however, is that it can make the starter a bit sluggish. So when I want to bake, I take a little bit of starter from the refrigerator, like about a tablespoon, and give it some water and flour and leave it on the counter. Twelve hours later, I'll add enough water and flour to double it, and perhaps twelve hours later, I'll do that again. The starter quickly regains its vitality when it's kept at room temperature for a few feedings.

When you want to use the starter, you usually want to mix it into the dough when it's nice and active and near its peak. This usually happens around 6 to 10 hours after it's last been fed. You just have to observe your starter after a feeding to get an idea of when it peaks. The timing isn't terribly critical. You have a window of a couple of hours. The important thing is that you want to give the starter enough time to allow the yeast and bacteria to repopulate the culture after you feed it. You don't want to wait too long otherwise the yeast may start to shut down and the flavor might be a little off.

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• Reply by stevenc12 on February 25, 2012 at 4:11 pm
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You say, "That seems like too much trouble."

Sorry, but I need to be blunt. Making Sourdough is labor intensive and usually takes multiple days to complete. If you want fast and easy, I'd suggest that you stick to other breads using yeast or baking powder.

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• Reply by Sallysmith123 on April 06, 2012 at 5:05 pm
• 

Thanks Placebo for your reply. Just what I need to know. You mention that you take a tablespoon of starter, add water and flour, leave it on the counter, 12 hours later add water and flour to double and repeat and after a few feedings its ready to use. So what do you do with the rest of the starter you have in the fridge?

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• Reply by placebo on April 07, 2012 at 12:49 am
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Pretty much all of the starter I make for bread goes into the dough. The refrigerated starter is the one I keep propagating, so eventually I get around to feeding it again.

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