Hi, Brad! Very small starters are quite on-trend at the moment, and for the most part, they seem to work fairly well! The main concern is the biodiversity of the bacteria in your starter. With such a small starter, it's quite possible that, when you discard, you might actually be causing some of your strains of bacteria to go extinct. (In your starter, at least. We're sure they still exist elsewhere!) This can cause your starter to lose some of its depth of flavor, and potentially make it more susceptible to infections. But if you're just looking at whether it can leaven bread, it seems to work just fine. Happy baking!
May 13, 2020 at 4:22pm
In reply to I've been developing a… by Brad (not verified)
Hi, Brad! Very small starters are quite on-trend at the moment, and for the most part, they seem to work fairly well! The main concern is the biodiversity of the bacteria in your starter. With such a small starter, it's quite possible that, when you discard, you might actually be causing some of your strains of bacteria to go extinct. (In your starter, at least. We're sure they still exist elsewhere!) This can cause your starter to lose some of its depth of flavor, and potentially make it more susceptible to infections. But if you're just looking at whether it can leaven bread, it seems to work just fine. Happy baking!