Day Two: Our Yeast Culture Is Now Active!

The activation of the Camadoli yeast culture appears to be complete. Foam and bubbles now increase the volume of yeast in the jar by about two inches in the proofing jar within 2 to 3 hours of the last feeding. The culture is ready to be used or refrigerated until needed. During refrigeration, as the culture becomes semi-dormant, a layer of clear tan or brown fluid forms on the surface. This is "hooch" and should be stirred back in when the culture is used.

The most critical factor for success with sourdoughs is the "fully active" culture. For well over a hundred years commercial bakers rebuilt their cultures several times each day. Many still do! Most home bakers bake less than once a week so their refrigerated cultures are always partially dormant. The level of dormancy depends on how long they have been refrigerated. You may be able to ignore the starter for a month or even much longer, but if you know you’re going to be away for a time, you should consider storing it in the freezer.

The texture or "crumb" of the bread is regulated by changing the amount of water in the dough until an open crumb is achieved. The crumb depends largely on the consistency (wetness) of the dough. By increasing the water in your bread recipe by 4% increments, the crumb will be more open with each addition increment of water. At the higher moisture levels, machine kneading is desirable since the dough can be sticky and hard to handle. Be aware that very wet dough will not rise well.

While "bread flour" with its higher gluten may be good for breads made with fast-acting yeast, it is not necessarily better for sourdough bread. Strong gluten resists stretching and forms small, uniform holes producing an uninteresting texture. The preferred sourdough crumb has large, irregular holes. Try using unbleached all-purpose flour with its somewhat weaker gluten.

Even after years of baking bread, I still have to experiment when working with new yeast cultures, varied flours, different ovens, and changes in altitude. The best part is that you get to eat the test results!