Hi Vanessa, congratulations on baking your first sourdough loaf! If you're only planning to bake every two weeks, I would consider a combination of refrigerating your starter, and then taking it out a few days before you plan to bake and feeding it twice a day at room temperature to revive it in preparation for baking. When you plan to refrigerate your starter, give it a feeding and then let it sit out for 2-4 hours, or until it starts bubbling. It should be fine in there for a week and a half, but will need the revival feedings at room temperature to bring it back to full vitality before baking. Look for your starter to double in size and have a pleasant aroma before you use it to bake bread, particularly if you're planning on making a recipe that is entirely naturally leavened. As to feeding your rye starter with bread flour, you can certainly switch flours, but keep in mind that your starter will need time to adjust when you change its feeding routine, and it will perform differently, depending on what type of flour you feed it. A rye flour starter won't contribute as much rising power to your recipes, but may deliver more sour flavor. A white flour starter is a bit easier to maintain and may contribute a little less sour flavor, but more rise. If you're able to feed your starter unbleached all-purpose flour rather than bread flour, this would offer a slightly better meal, since there is more starch present in all-purpose flour as compared to bread flour, but it shouldn't kill off your starter if all you have to feed it is bread flour. If you're running low on flour you could also consider maintaining a smaller starter and building the quantity of starter during your revival feedings. I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes.
April 7, 2020 at 8:38am
In reply to Hi, I recently started my… by Vanessa (not verified)
Hi Vanessa, congratulations on baking your first sourdough loaf! If you're only planning to bake every two weeks, I would consider a combination of refrigerating your starter, and then taking it out a few days before you plan to bake and feeding it twice a day at room temperature to revive it in preparation for baking. When you plan to refrigerate your starter, give it a feeding and then let it sit out for 2-4 hours, or until it starts bubbling. It should be fine in there for a week and a half, but will need the revival feedings at room temperature to bring it back to full vitality before baking. Look for your starter to double in size and have a pleasant aroma before you use it to bake bread, particularly if you're planning on making a recipe that is entirely naturally leavened. As to feeding your rye starter with bread flour, you can certainly switch flours, but keep in mind that your starter will need time to adjust when you change its feeding routine, and it will perform differently, depending on what type of flour you feed it. A rye flour starter won't contribute as much rising power to your recipes, but may deliver more sour flavor. A white flour starter is a bit easier to maintain and may contribute a little less sour flavor, but more rise. If you're able to feed your starter unbleached all-purpose flour rather than bread flour, this would offer a slightly better meal, since there is more starch present in all-purpose flour as compared to bread flour, but it shouldn't kill off your starter if all you have to feed it is bread flour. If you're running low on flour you could also consider maintaining a smaller starter and building the quantity of starter during your revival feedings. I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes.
Barb