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Help with Sourdough Starter
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I’ve never done a sourdough starter before but I’m thinking about giving it a try. Does anyone know how to make a sourdough starter with freshly ground oat flour? I’d like to try it with something that is not wheat and oat flour is the most economical for us other than grinding up some brown rice flour. But I would think that brown rice flour would make for a grittier texture.
I haven’t attempted sourdough yet.
Have you looked at GNOWFGLINS? Here is a sourdough link to get you started: http://gnowfglins.com/ecourse/classes/sourdough
You’ll probably be able to find a lot more, or you can pay $8 and take her e-course on sourdough. Hope that helps!
Lindsey
Thanks Lindsey! I watched the sourdough starter video and it was very helpful.
Has anyone used oat flour though to do a sourdough starter with and then used all oat flour to make breads, pancakes, etc. with the starter? If so, how do they turn out? What’s the bread like?
I’m trying to come up with a non-wheat method without having to use xanthum gum, guar gum, tapioca starch and potato starch (the ones that tend to be more expensive). Oats are pretty economical and I can grind it into flour myself.
You can use the oat flour, and sour dough or soaking it gets the most nutrients out of it. We have made yummy pancakes with only the oat flour and they turn out very nicely. However, I have never tried to do bread.
Blue j, thanks for letting me know that oat flour works well. Would you be willing to share your pancake recipe that you use the oat flour sourdough starter with? I wonder if there are any other inexpensive non-wheat flours besides grinding oats that you could use to make the bread without all the extra stuff I mentioned in my previous comment.
Okay, I’m going to start a sourdough starter with freshly ground oat flour. Does anyone have a sourdough bread recipe they could share?
Also, am I understanding correctly that you don’t want to use a new starter until after about 3 weeks from when it was started?
I am not blue j but I have made good pancakes using a mix of oats and brown rice. Here is the recipe I used: http://www.suegregg.com/recipes/breakfasts/blenderbatterwaffles/blenderbatterwafflesA.htm
Thanks Schele.
Does anyone have a sourdough bread recipe that doesn’t use any wheat flours?
Also, the tutorial says use a glass jar for the starter. Do you have to use a glass jar? Or can you use a tupperware container or something like that? I have seen a portion of a video from Serene (I think that’s her name – from Above Rubies ministry) and it looked like her starter was in a plastic container of some sort.
My friend makes her sourdough out of rye. It’s not a gluten-free flour, if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s not wheat either. She says rye is cheaper than wheat and makes a better sourdough. I am getting ready to get some of her starter and begin my own sourdough, and I’ll continue using rye since that’s what hers is. My gluten intolerant son tolerates glutenous grains, as long as they’re soaked, sprouted, or sourdough, for what that’s worth.
About using plastic…I’m not sure it will have any effect on the sourdough. I just know us traditional cooks avoid plastic at all costs.
I don’t know the science behind how the chemicals, like BPA, get into our food. I just avoid plastic as much as possible. I store my leftovers in glass bowls and jars, and I’ll keep my sourdough starter in a glass bowl as well.Lindsey,
Do you cover the glass bowl or just leave it uncovered whether on the counter (when you first make a starter) or in the fridge?
I haven’t done anything with sourdough yet; I can only tell you what my friend does. Her sourdough is very good.
She keeps the glass bowl covered with a white tea towel and stores it in her microwave. We will do this as well, and we already use our microwave only for storing whatever I’ve got soaking (beans, grains, etc.) She feeds her starter every morning. She only puts it in the fridge if she’s going to be out of town and won’t be able to feed the starter. She has left it for over a week before and come back with her starter being just fine.
I don’t know what she did when she first started. I have only seen her maintaining it. Sorry I can’t be more help!
Forgive my lack of knowledge on this subject of soaking grains, but do you soak the whole grains before they are milled or can you soak flour? It doesn’t seem like it would work well to soak flour but maybe you can. 🙂 I don’t buy whole grains and mill my own flour except for oats and rice. All I have is a coffee grinder that I use to grind whole rolled oats into oat flour and brown rice into rice flour. It doesn’t grind the rice probably as well as a grain mill does though. But a grain mill is out of the question right now for our budget. I wonder if some of the other grains though could be ground in a coffee grinder to make flour. Hmmm…..
I needed to resurrect this topic as I have finally begun my sourdough journey! It is so, so, so important to me to break down as much gluten and phytic acid as possible, so I am attemtping a sprouted sourdough. So far my results aren’t great. I tried a pizza dough yesterday, and after souring it crumbled and fell apart and I ended up throwing it out.
Has anyone had success using sprouted flour to feed your starter?
Should I use regular flour to feed the starter and sprouted flour when I add flour to bake something?
I am determined to make this work and I have gone over the GNOWFGLINS forums with a fine-toothed comb, and can’t find much to help me with sprouted sourdough.
Help!
Lindsey
Lindsey,
I do not have my sproated sourdough started yet (it is on my list of things to try after I get done playing with my current water kefir project) but… Are you familiar with http://www.cheeseslave.com/. I am taking her grains class right now and in it she says that sproated grains can be successfully used for sourdough. She does seem to stress using flour and water by weight to feed the starter rather than by cup (1 oz flour for each oz water). Wish I could give you something more specific but maybe if you ask Ann Marie at Cheeseslave she could tell you what is going on or how to alter for the sprouted flour since she has experience using it.
Schele
I don’t know the science behind how the chemicals, like BPA, get into our food. I just avoid plastic as much as possible. I store my leftovers in glass bowls and jars, and I’ll keep my sourdough starter in a glass bowl as well.
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