Hi, again! Good news (I think)! I made 3 starters, and I think all of them have worked! One with boiled-then-cooled water, one with whey, and one with pineapple juice. For each feeding, I poured off any hooch, added 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, about a tablespoon of ground brown rice, and 1/4 cup liquid (I needed to use more liquid, since the brown rice adjusted the absorption, and I've had good success with a wetter starter before). So, I didn't really make a control! Oops. I did not discard half the starter for each feeding, just poured off hooch, and honestly, I haven't seen a whole lot of hooch. After a few days, all of them are rising almost double (I think they're a little denser from the rice), and have lots of small bubbles (not the initial big soapy-looking bubbles from when you first get the starter going). The boiled water starter smells nice and yeasty, the pineapple juice has a tangy but still yeasty "wang", and the whey is somewhere in the middle, but also yeasty smelling. I think all 3 will be ready to bake with soon. I may give them another day or two to mature. I think the simple addition of the rice gave the flour enough yeast to work with. The brown rice "flour" on its own didn't have the right texture to rise, but adding it to flour did the trick. Or maybe I actually have a good bag of flour this time. Who knows? I'll have to bake and see which one works best; different starters may function better for different recipes. I suspect that the pineapple starter will make some mean pancakes... Any thoughts before I start baking?

• Reply