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

FAQs

Can you 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.

Over the past decade-plus of baking, I've tested all manner of flour from whole grain wheat to spelt to einkorn, and while they all do work, my preferred flour to use when creating a sourdough starter is whole grain rye flour and white flour (this can be all-purpose or high-protein bread flour).

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.

Discarding some first allows you to add this fresh food, whilst maintaining your starter at a manageable size. Not discarding your starter will also affect the flavor of your starter. Not discarding before you feed will cause too much acidity which may eventually be detrimental to your microbes.

One only needs to discard when making a starter from scratch because it needs daily feeds for a week or two before it's strong enough to make bread. If one doesn't discard then before long you'll have a swimming pool of starter.

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.

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!

Why do you put baking soda in sourdough bread? ›

What does baking soda do to sourdough? because it reacts with the acid from the sourdough starter to create carbon dioxide gas, which provides leavening.

There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

*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.

That's a bit low for most sourdough breads, but it will work as long as you don't mind your bread being a bit dense. If you want that light crumb with irregular holes and great oven spring, AP flour won't give you that. All purpose flour is fine for quickbreads, if you want to go that route.

While you can technically make a sourdough starter with self-rising flour, it's not the best choice and is generally not recommended. Self-rising flour contains baking powder and salt, ingredients that can inhibit the growth of the wild yeasts and bacteria needed to produce a healthy sourdough starter.

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.