Amy's Bread Sourdough Starter

If you are interested in growing your own sourdough starter

I can recommend the one from

Amy's Bread.

It is a pure sourdough started with

just rye flour and spring water.

Nothing else.  

It is easy to start and easy to maintain.

And makes wonderful bread.

Sourdough Starter - Amy's Bread

Source: countrylife.net

RYE STARTER

From AMY'S BREAD

This starter is begun with rye flour because rye just LOVES to

ferment and is an easier starter to get going than a wheat

starter. When I first made it, it had a bubble or two within a

couple hours.

The procedure is to start it with rye flour, then transform it by

changing what you feed it. The original rye will dilute to nothing

over time and you'll end up with a white flour (or whatever other

grain you choose, it could be whole wheat or pumpernickel, or you

could leave it as a rye starter) and water based starter, but it

had the advantage of beginning it's life from highly fermentable

rye flour.

Start it with organic rye flour and spring water. Once you have it

going well you can switch to all-purpose white (or other) flour as

you choose. The use of spring water is recommended for

maintenance, however, as tap water may contain elements (such as

chlorine) which may be detrimental to the health of your starter.

I also recommend that you use a container that you can mark the

volume levels of starter each time, so that you will know when it

has doubled. Use a marking pen or tape or any other means to

indicate on the container the starter levels each time you feed.

Phase 1 - Combine 2 oz organic rye flour (room temp) with 4 oz

spring water in a clear container. The batter should be about the

consistency of very thick pancake batter, add more water or flour

if necessary. Cover & let it sit for 36 - 48 hours at 75 - 77

degrees (a little cooler is okay but over 80 you will incubate the

wrong kind of bacteria and your culture will have an unpleasant

bitter taste). You should start to see tiny bubbles forming after

about 24 hours. By the time it has doubled, there will be a

noticeable network of small bubbles throughout the batter & it

will be foaming & bubbling on top. (If the batter has not doubled

within 48 hours, feed with 2 oz water & 2 oz flour (add more of

either if necessary for the consistency) and let it sit another 24

hours or until you see some definite activity.)

Phase 2 - Stir the culture down, notice how soupy it's become. The

batter should have a noticeable sour smell & a mildly tangy taste

at this point. Add 2 oz water & 2 oz flour and stir vigorously

until well-combined. Let it sit for 12 hours. It should be showing

a fair amount of activity at this point. You should see lots of

foaming & bubbling through the sides as well as on the top. Don't

be concerned if the culture deflates & loses volume. This means

the yeast has exhausted its food supply, but it will continue to

increase in acidity. Don't worry if your culture dramatically active yet.

As long as there is some noticeable activity going on and the mixture

 smells & tastes sour, you're on the right track.

Phase 3 - The culture should now have a pronounced, sour, fruity

taste and smell, it should not taste musty or bitter (if it does,

discard and start again, paying close attention to the temp of the

culture at all times). Now you can start "transforming" it into a

white (or other) flour based starter. Use 6 oz of the starter, add

3 oz water & 3 oz flour, stir vigorously. Let it sit for 12 hrs at

75 - 77 degrees F.

Refresh it again, setting up a maintenance level of 12 oz of

starter. This will be your "mother" starter that you use to build

the sourdough starters/sponges needed in individual recipes.

Each time you take part of the mother out to build a starter, you

must refresh it with equal weights of flour and water to bring it

back up to its maintenance level.

To maintain - Use 6 oz of the mother culture (discard the rest),

add 3 oz water and 3 oz flour, stir vigorously, let it sit at room

temp until doubled in volume.

A strong mother will double in 8-12 hours. If yours doesn't do

that, let it continue to sit out until it has a nice tangy taste

and smell; discard all but 6 oz and repeat this procedure. Repeat

this procedure as many times as necessary until the mother doubles

within 8-12 hrs. It may take several days. Don't get discouraged,

it's worth the effort.

Rye Sourdough