Barb at King Arthur

June 15, 2020 at 4:16pm

In reply to by Susan Neves (not verified)

Hi Susan, if your recipe calls for starter discard you can certainly store that in the refrigerator for a week or two and use it in recipes calling for discard. However, if your recipe calls for "ripe" starter, you may get better results if you build the quantity of ripe starter you have available for that particular recipe. This is easy to do. If you're measuring by cups you can save the usual 1/2 cup of starter and then give it a double feeding of 1 cup water and 2 scant cups flour, which will (when it ripens) give you enough starter for the 2 cups you need for the recipe, plus enough remaining to feed and perpetuate. This is best done during the last feeding before you plan to bake. Since you're feeding your starter a relatively larger meal of water and flour, it will cause it to ferment a little more slowly. This method can come in handy if you want the starter to last overnight on a warm summer night, and still be at its peak of rising when you go to bake with it the next morning. On the other hand, if you want to build your starter and have it rise at its normal rate, then you can double everything by saving a cup of starter and feeding it a cup of water and two scant cups of flour, which will keep the proportion of ingredients the same. With either method be sure to put your starter in a larger bowl or container that can handle the increased quantity. 

I hope this helps! 

Barb

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