Hi Fran, it's perfectly fine to maintain and bake with a whole wheat starter, although it will perform a bit differently in your baking than a white flour starter. A whole wheat starter may end up promoting more sour flavor in your baked goods, and may not contribute to quite as vigorous of a rise. I qualify these statements because flavor and rise are affected by multiple factors throughout the sourdough baking process, so it's always difficult to predict exactly how things will play out. That being said, you can certainly use your whole wheat starter to bake regular sourdough bread, and you may even prefer the results you get with it. I would stick with feeding your starter with whole wheat flour rather than bleached all-purpose flour. According to Jeffrey Hamelman, author of Bread, "Bleached flour is never appropriate when developing or perpetuating sourdough.Vital nutrients necessary to sustain the microorganisms (not to mention the humans who later consume the bread) are lost in the bleaching process." While I've heard reports of starters being created entirely with bleached flour (desperate times), I have to think it's going to make the entire process more difficult. I'd start baking with your whole wheat starter, and if you like the results you're getting you can stick with it. When you're able to locate unbleached AP flour you can decide if you want to transition to a white flour starter. I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

• Reply