Hi Melissa,I purchased your book a few weeks ago and got my yeast start from Caleb two weeks ago. I have been trying to get it to grow and have basically been obsessed with my new "pet", however it never seems to grow, it does produce liquid on top but never actually rises. Can you help me? I am so anxious to start actually baking bread!!! I began with reconstituting it with 1/4 cup water and a heaping 1/4 cup of flour on Wednesday then on Sunday I fed it 1/2 cup water and a heaping 1/2 cup of flour, then on Wednesday again a 1 cup of water and 1 heaping cup of flour, and so on, I started reducing it when it hit two cups and feeding it Wednesdays and Sundays and have attached a pic of my yeast 48 hours after the last feeding so you can see there are very few bubbles but there is a layer of liquid on top. I have tried the before feeding warm ups to no avail.
I will be anxiously awaiting your response, thank you so much!
My reply:
It sounds (and looks) like your starting is just building its colonies. The liquid on top is actually a good sign that there are organisms alive in your starter. Hooray! Now all you need to do is help those colonies grow and get strong. Here is what you do:
Reduce your starter to 1/4 cup. Feed 1/4 cup water and 1/4 heaping cup flour (as you did before).
Put your starter in the fridge. Check on it every day until you see a thin layer of liquid covering the entire top of your starter.
Pour off liquid
Pour off liquid
Feed 1/2 cup water, 1/2 heaping cup flour.
Put your starter in the fridge. Check on it every day until you see a thin layer of liquid covering the entire top of your starter.
Pour off liquid.
Pour off liquid.
Feed 1 cup water, 1 cup heaping flour.
During this cycle, do not dump out or use any of your starter, only the liquid. If by the time you are at 2 cups of starter you STILL do not have any bubbles, try one more cycle. I have seen very few starters that are not back on track by the second cycle. I know you are excited (believe me I know!) but a little more patience and you should be ready to bake! Please keep me updated on your progress!
Melissa
I too just purchased your book and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my starter. I've been reading and watching videos online about natural yeast starters and I'm wondering if you have ever weighed your ingredients to make the growth of your starter more productive? Would they be equals weights of water and flour when feeding my starter? I'm one of those people that would love to eliminate any guess work on my behalf and just use a scale. Thanks for amy information on this (or weights for flour in your other recipes).
ReplyDeleteTristan, this is a very good question. I am going to create a new post for this question so others can see the answer.
DeleteThank goodness for this post! I have been trying since last September and have not been able to get it to raise in the fridge...only on the countertop, and I would like a milder flavored yeast. I like the waffles, but haven't cared much for the bread--when I could get a good loaf. Most of my tries failed. But I really want to stick with this. I'm glad to know there are some videos to watch, too!
ReplyDelete