The Best Sourdough Chocolate Cake Recipe - Home Grown Happiness (2024)

FAQs

Can I use regular flour for sourdough starter? ›

If you do not have whole wheat flour, just use all purpose flour instead. The starter will be fine. I switch to all purpose flour for the feedings because it's reliable, inexpensive and practical for everyday baking (remember, a portion of your starter is removed, discarded, or used for something else).

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

It is not unusual for the mixture to get very bubbly around Day 3 or 4 and then go completely flat and appear dead. If the mixture does not start to grow again by Day 6, add 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar with the daily feeding. This will lower the pH level a bit more and it should wake up the yeast.

Some people like to add a little bit of lemon juice to help the process along. My recommended proportions are below. Third, stir the mixture in the jar until it become a thick paste. Finally, repeat every 12 hours for about a week.

Whole wheat flour is an excellent choice for creating a sourdough starter due to its nutrient-rich composition and potential for fostering a robust microbial community. However, it's important to note that the quality of whole wheat flour can vary between brands.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

Discarding half is wayyyy LESS wasteful than keeping it around or “sharing” the other half with a friend because… The sourdough starter is not a viable starter until 3 to 5 days old and sometimes longer. It takes that long for the organism balance to get established.

I recommend keeping sourdough discard for about one week, but I do know others who keep it for much longer. After one week, there is a higher risk of mold or bad bacteria growing on the discard.

If you didn't discard a portion of your starter each time you feed it, two things would happen: Your starter would grow to an enormous, unmanageable size. Your starter would likely become more and more inhospitable to the bacteria and yeast we want as the mixture would become ever more acidic.

Start with pineapple juice because wild yeast cells prefer a somewhat acidic pH. Use freshly milled, stone-milled flour because the added minerals and nutrients provide even better food for the microbes (the yeast and bacteria) to thrive. If you have a source local to you, use it!

What does baking soda do to sourdough? ›

Baking soda or bicarbonate of soda can be used in sourdough bread to create a less sour loaf. Added after bulk fermentation, but before shaping, it can help to create a lighter, more fluffy loaf of sourdough.

Using all natural plain yogurt when establishing a sourdough starter can lower the pH, creating an environment that discourages harmful bacteria and mold. The use of yogurt also encourages wild yeast to colonise much faster.

*If making sourdough is new for you, do not be discouraged if you starter takes longer to get active than mine – stick with it, it will happen! *Tap water is usually fine, if you are not sure, use boiled and cooled water, you can use it at room temperature or cool; do not use distilled water.

Wetting the dough causes the surface to steam. Covering it traps the moisture. This partnership stops the bread from drying out on the surface in the hot air of the oven and forming a premature crust. Your bread rises more and produces a richer colour, becoming glossy on the surface.

What kinds of water should I use? While you can use distilled water, bottled water, or mineral water for your starter, regular tap water works just as well. However, if you have high chlorine levels in your water, fill a bottle with water and let it sit overnight to allow the chlorine to dissipate before baking.

Substituting all purpose flour in a sourdough recipe that specifically calls for bread flour is not always an even swap. You'll need to REDUCE the total amount of water first. All purpose flour absorbs less water than bread flour, which can make the dough too sticky to work with otherwise.

We recommend using High Grade Plain Flour, or Strong Bread Flour as the sourdough culture is a mix of culture and yeast.

Bread Flour Substitute

You can always substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour one for one in any recipe that calls for it. Your bread might not raise quite as high or have quite as much chew, if you are using all-purpose flour, but it will still be delicious and homemade and all the good things.

This will stiffen the dough for scoring and transfer, and possibly help it retain some height once it's out of the basket. It is fine to feed your sourdough starter any wheat flour (all purpose, bread, einkorn, rye, emmer…etc.) and probably many non-wheat flours. It's also fine to switch flours regularly.