San Francisco Sourdough Starter - Dried (Net Wt. 5.4g) - Includes Instructions
Details
If you
crave sourdough bread from San Francisco, this is the starter for you.
Our San
Francisco Sourdough Starter Culture contains Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis bacteria
and wild yeast Candida humilis giving this sourdough starter that famous
San Francisco taste. Easy to care for and use. For best results, we recommend
feeding your sourdough starter weekly.
San
Francisco sourdough starter is available as a dried culture. Dried sourdough
starters are shelf-stable and do not have to be fed or cared for immediately.
Dried sourdough starters can be ready to create baked goods within 3 to 5 days.
Detailed
instructions will be included with your order.
How to Switch Your Sourdough to a New Type of Flour
Sourdough
comes in many forms. You can make a white-flour sandwich bread, a
whole-wheat peasant loaf, a rustic spelt boule, or a dense rye. All of
these are delicious and serve their own purposes.
If you
want to branch out and try these different grains then you will most
likely want to convert some of your sourdough starter to the type of
flour you'll be baking with. It is fairly easy convert your starter to
whichever gluten-containing flour type you would like: white flour,
whole wheat, spelt, or rye.
Switching
to a gluten-free flour is a bit more tricky as it tends to require more
feedings to become vigorous and maintain its efficacy in baking.
How to Switch to a New Flour
If you are interested in branching out into the world of various flours then try these tips:
- If you
are starting with a dried sourdough starter always revive it with the
flour type indicated. So if it is a whole wheat sourdough, use whole
wheat. If it is rye, use rye flour and so on.
- Do not
attempt to switch flours until your sourdough starter has been fed for
at least a week and is healthy and happy; i.e., bubbling and growing.
- When
you are ready, take thehealthy starter and divide it in two. Place the
first half safely in the refrigerator as a backup in case your starter
does not acclimate well to the new flour. This backup should be fed with
its regular flour to maintain its robustness until you are ready to
split it and experiment with another flour.
- The
second half can now be fed with the new flour. Within a few feedings
your starter should be converted to the new flour and if it is healthy
you can go ahead and bake with it.
Troubleshooting a New Flour
Not all
flours work alike in sourdough. Because of this your starter may go
through an adjustment period in which it is not as vigorous and may not
perform as well as your original starter.
Whole
grains, especially when freshly milled, tend to contain more organisms
for the yeasts and bacteria to feed off of. So if you are switching from
a whole grain flour to white flour you might see a decline in the
health of your starter.
However,
flour that has just been ground can be a little "raw" for the starter
to utilize. Letting freshly ground flour age for a week or so can let it
develop more of the healthy organisms the sourdough starter can
utilize.
Rye, in
particular, is very well suited to be food for sourdough. So if you are
switching a rye starter to a new flour you might notice a change in the
health of the starter.
If,
after you have given your starter time to adjust, the sourdough starter
appears to not be as vigorous as it was with the old flour, try feeding
it a blend of the new flour and the old flour for a while to give it a
boost.
Also,
remember that you have the backup starter in the refrigerator. If all
else fails you can discard a less-than-stellar new sourdough starter and
either repeat the flour switch as recommended above or try a different
flour. Just make sure you always split your starter to maintain a
backup.