A poolish? Yep, same idea. A barm is dryer.
Yes, keeping the starter alive. Thereās no instant yeast to be found anywhere around here. The results from a natural starter tends to make a much more interesting loaf, anyways. Bakery better.
Cool!
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Ha, yep, thatās it. At least I knew it started with a P. I think thatās what I did for the Ciabatta bread.
Hey, If youād like Iād share one of the yeasts I have with you. Itād give you a break from the same type youāre having to use. Just hit me with an addy.
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Sounds familiar. From what Iāve read, the hydration levels of the intermediate starters (particularly those being retarded) cause it to take on different characteristics. Either more lactic acid or more acetic acid depending with retarding allowing enzymes to do some work on the proteins. Though, itās practically anecdotal to me and on the same plane as growing myths until one gets into the actual science, consistency, and backing away from eyeballing the weights. I, for one, have no idea of what the flour hydration levels are, just feeling for, uh yeah, that seems correct 
But itās good enough to keep the animals fed and happy (they were giddy eating on the above loaf relative to bread machine loaves). The different techniques from a poolish to a barm in the recipes seems to target the different types of bread and perhaps the resulting aroma/taste. The Italian styles seems to use the poolish. Maybe with some added fat/oil at some stage?
Interesting and mysterious. What kind of yeast is it?
We do still have a small quantity of instant yeast but we were blasting though that too quickly. With the lack of availability around here, Iāve stored the remainder away for the rainy day as a back-up. The difference from the natural starter is evident although I have had perfectly tasty loaves going through the multi-step process with the instant yeasts.
On that note, youāve given me an idea. Iām overflowing with starter and I could easily dehydrate the starter that I have and do a trade if youāre interested? Or, if anyone else wants some dehydrated sour dough starter to help kick start their journey, hit me up.
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Nah, no need to trade. Iād like to try to make a sourdough starter from scratch.
This is just the 3 pack of Fleshmanās Instant yeast packs. I thought Iād bought another one earlier but my roommate may have used that.
I used to brew beer regularly and made yeast starters from liquid yeast for each batch of beer. I suppose you could make one from this instant stuff and just keep feeding it and keep it cold when not in use. Iāll have to Google that.
So, let me know if youād like that one pack. I may google that now. I should be doing the same thing. Iām not sure if it will work as well on the instant yeast but iāll find out. peace
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My wife went on a Sourdough making spree in the last month for the same reason.
Couldnāt find any yeast so she made her own starter. It was quite the process. Turned out pretty good but still have to make some tweaks. The crust of her loaves weāre cooking faster than the inside.
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I canāt find anything on making starters from instant yeast. All queries take me to pages of making natural sourdough starters. I guess itās just one and one type yeast.
That book I got says the pros use instant yeast for some reason that I forget. I need to use this down time to start reading
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Thanks man, very generous. Hang onto those, gold right now. We should be set with about a gallon of starter, currently. 
What Iāve seen is some will use an instant yeast to give a starter a quick boost. Either early in the process or later in an already prepared starter thatās not active enough ā when they are just about to use it. A hybrid. It acts to speed up the fermentation process.
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Awesome that youāve done the sourdough! What is your baking process?
A point of comparison on what we are doing currently, we have a baking stone in the oven set to 500F. On the rack beneath that we have a baking sheet. Allow the temperatures to come up.
Then, we place the dough ball directly on the stone and immediately pour about a cup of water into the baking sheet and close the door. This creates a copious amount of steam.
Careful not to get any water on the glass in the door.
Then, every 30 seconds, weāll open the oven and spritz the sides with some water creating more steam. Do this three times for a total of 1.5 minutes. Then, close the oven turn it down to 450F.
Bake for 10 minutes then rotate the loaf (1.5 lbs loaf). Bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the loaf has a nicely browned color. Spot check for around ~205F on the interior using a probe thermometer.
The steam allows for the loaf to spring (expand) during the early part of the baking.
There are some folk that use a dutch oven which has the advantage of keeping the moisture high. And, you donāt need a stone. I havenāt tried that technique yet.
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Couple thoughts after reading through the last 10 or so posts.
Donāt try making a starter using commercial yeast. That stuff is strong and fast. Wild yeast is weak and slow. To produce an nice active starter takes a little time and patience.
Following that thought. Commercial bakers use instant yeast purely for speed. There are plenty of articles written on how bread in France declined when instant yeast became available.
The current trend(15yrs) in artisanal bread has created a resurgence in wild yeast/starters.
Yes for sure making hybrids using a pinch of instant yeast is neat. Long ferment for flavor. Then a little instant yeast for lift.
My standard bake starts the evening before. Feeding the starter and building its volume. Next morning I mix dough. About 4 hrs of bulk fermenting. Then split in 2 and shape. About 4 more hours of proofing and into the oven.
I bake in Dutch ovens. This is how I get steam. Oven is preheated with Dutch ovens to 500. Loaves go into Dutchās, lids on. Into oven. Temp is lowered to 450. 25 mins. Lids off. 25mins (ish). Bake is done. Iāll probably bake on Tuesday. Iāll take some photos.
Hydration percentages of dough and starter are based off the volume of flour being used.
My dough is at 78% hydration. Which is 1000g of flour to 780g of water.
My starter is maintained at 100% hydration. The left over dollop that I inoculate with is already at 100%. To that I add equal parts flour to water. Keeping it at 100%. When I build it up to bake. I always add equal parts.
Does that make sense?
There are plenty of theories on hydration % and effect on flavor.
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Here is a photo of the Dutch in the oven. When the lid comes off at 25 mins. The rise is done. But it is blond. This looks to still have about 5 mins to go.
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She was using a Dutch oven to bake the loaves.
Iām not really sure what her method was but she tried a few different times to correct it with ho success.
I will have her give this method a shot in the future in order to try to combat her problem. She was told to use the Dutch oven but I think it makes it too hot with the high walls maybe.
I think she also needs to do larger dough balls.
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tadaaa! My breadā¦ With chia and hemp seeds. Whole-wheat flour. Though it wasnāt made with sourdough. Still have to make some.
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Iāve heard that some that have used the dutch oven method will leave the bread in the dutch oven for the initial spring, then will remove it to finish up. That might help, too.
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I was looking through the bread book I have and it has lots of detailed info to do a starter/barm for the sourdough. So, Iām gonna give it a go. I need to go grab a new crock to use tomorrow and see if there is any honey.
So, we already canāt get much of a variety of flour here but now there isnāt anything. I guess Iāll try online. I think King Arthur used to be available online. Iāll check the link from above, too. I have only one 5 lb bag of bread flour.
Iām beginning to understand that all of the hoarding in the beginning may have been smart. This whole pandemic situation is a massive cluster fuck for our entire supply system with nobody at the wheel.
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Oh yeah, I think your link is where I got things before. They seem to have flour. I havenāt seen anything saying sold out at least on the King Arthur I looked at. I wonder what the shipping is on 50 lb bagsā¦ Good to know though.
Edit: a 50lb. bag of flour for $25 but a shipping charge of $41 with long delaysā¦ might ought to plant some wheat this year in the yard.
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Flour is pretty scarce here in SoCal. I bake every weekend (when working) so I have big tubs that hold 25lbs. I have enough to get me through, guessing 100lbs. But I should probably do inventory and confirm.
My industry (film) is 100% shut down. So I am able to bake on weekdays now !!! Yay!
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I saw one online tip that was to call a local bakery or restaurant to ask to buy some. My town is pretty small. Iām sure it went out to family first. Lots of Italians here. Itās out there online but not fast or cheap.
How many loaves will 5 lbs. do? 8-10 maybe? Been a few years since I got this close to starting again, and I had only just started when I moved.
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Hereās another place place that might be closer to your home if you canāt find it locally. Also only have bulk quantities currently:
The Organic Artisan Bakers Craft and Organic Artisan Bakers Craft Plus (has malt) looks an option for bread.
50lbs, yeah. Youād need to bake a lot of bread or figure out a way to store this for long time. Iām trying to figure out the same thing. I was thinking of calling up a friend or a neighbor to see if theyād like to split an order.
One recipe I was looking at calls out the following:
22.8 OZ flour
1.7 OZ wheat flour
This produces 2 1.5 lbs loaves or thereabouts.
Estimation is around 6 loaves of bread per 5 lbs bag. Youād also need to reserve some flour to build and feed a culture, too.
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OK , The wife was going through the bins and found 3 packs of redstar bread active yeast
expired in 2014, so 6 yrs old . I did a warm water with sugar starter mix 110 degs and sprinkled yeast on top, 10 mins later Boom fermentation has begun (still good amazing)
In the machine right now, if this works then I will use it in the machine for ease.
If not I will hand mix a batch and add started yeast once again but use the oven next time.
Looks good so far, I can smell the yeast this time .
Looking forward to the butter melt in a few hrs. Boy Howdyā¦
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