Gail: My Sour Dough Starter

I have been fortunate enough to have only had one starter in my very fresh & new journey of sourdough.

I bought my Starter from Amazon, of course! I took a chance with buying off Amazon, but it paid off. Directions were plain and simple, had immediate signs of being active, and was named by the family— Gail.

I was so nervous of doing something wrong with Gail, had no idea on over feeding, starving, discard vs active.. just took a chance.. watched a ton of videos.. some talked about the above terms very nonchalant .. so I just rolled with it!

My first bread did not turn out bread.. it was quickly turned into focaccia bread! A bit dense, but edible and tasty! I did not have a strong enough starter come to find out to have a solid dough of bread. I had the growth (starter doubled.. thought boom! Let’s make bread!), had the bubbles.. wasn’t ready. I didn’t do a float test ..until I was curious —and remembered lol— until after the failed bread. Float test failed, obviously! So I went back to dumping and feeding, dumping and feeding.. she was doing much better.

And because I was watching so many videos, so many people were HELL BENT on ratios.. and I knew enough that something may work for some but not others because of environment. So I split up my starter into 4 jars, I played with a 1:1:1, a 1:2:2, a “I’ll eyeball it”, and then one that went into the fridge for my safety net lol

At first it was going pretty good, ironically the “eyeball” measured one was growing the fastest.. then..

I got pretty close to her being deceased lol.. after I put her in the oven (since our house is rather cold, especially in Michigan), I heard if you have a cold house to put your starter in the over with a light on. So I did that. At first it worked so much better than just the light on the counter, and then it didn’t work. I am guessing that the light that stayed on the whole time kept the oven more than comfortable for her, it almost baked her! She almost got the whole process sped up so fast of eating/ growing, and quickly to starving.. she then got like an Overfed look, because I thought I just fed her anytime she deflated… but.. she was gone.. she looked and smelled awful. Close to a smell of a dirty diaper.. freaked out obviously!

However, because I do have slight hoarder tendencies, and I had saved a small amount of starter, from when she was healthy, in the fridge. I revived her and we’ve been smooth sailing ever since! She stayed out of the oven.. I bought a new bread box to hold these beautiful bits of Gail, and I put Gail on top close to the light. She thrives now.

We will go a solid 3-4 days of baking things, and then when I know I don’t have time for her with kids, work, etc.. she moves to the fridge for a nice siesta. She gets to rest, then is ready for feeding after about a week in the fridge.

We have made bread.. obviously, muffins, chocolate chip cookies, pizza dough, bagels, sandwich bread, rolls, and starting today I can add croissants to the list!

Now for what you will need; this basic recipe is for 2 loaves, so if you just want to do 1.. cut the measurements in half :)

you will need:

1000g flour

750g water

220g active starter

20g salt

Step 1

Autolyse!

Mix your 1000g flour + 750g filtered water (Use a digital scale!! It comes in handy!) together by hand or a KitchenAid!

it will be a shaggy dough consistency

let the dough sit for 1 hour

(I prefer mine to sit in this Glass Bowl so I can watch the bubbles!)

Step 2

You will know when your shaggy dough is ready for the next step when it stretches when you grab some and pull :)

If it pulls and doesn’t break apart:

add your 220g active starter + 20g salt (I use this Salt, its’s so good! Has all your daily minerals that you need!)

Mix all together

I have my dough sit about a half hour (but sometimes up to an hour) since my house is colder, if yours is a warmer temp, you can start after 10 min!

Start stretch & folds (1 hand pulling dough from side, fold on top, repeat all around.. about 10 min), let sit 1 hour

Do coil folds (two hands scooping underneath in the middle, letting it stretch, set down, rotate bowl, repeat a few times), do these every hour until you see bubbles, it jiggles, and growth (I tend to do 3-4 times)

Step 3

I tend to leave Gail alone after the 3rd or 4th coil folds, as it also depends when I have to work that day.. she will sit out for a couple of hours

Grab your Bannetons (if you’re doing 2 loaves), flour with Rice Flour -as it doesn’t get absorbed like regular flour, and coat well.

Flour your surface, dump your dough, cut in half, shape into square/ rectangle.. doesn’t matter lol

Fold a third over, then the other side to meet in middle

Now shape her— I use to hands (you can use a Scraper but it’s not as much fun lol), just do small pulls tightening her into a ball

Scoop her up, plop her into a banneton upside down so the top of the bread is face down!

I will let my dough sit out on the counter for a little more growth action (if I have the time!), maybe an hour.. then place in the fridge over night

Step 4

Take your Dutch Oven & place in the oven, preheat to 450

After about 20-30 minutes AFTER the preheating is done, I will grab my dough out of the fridge

Use Rubber mats to flip the dough onto, score your bread with These fancy things (not necessary but it’s nice)

Take the Dutch Oven out of the oven, I put a little bit of rice and a piece of Parchment Paper for the rubber mat to sit on with the bread. The rice helps our bottom bread not get so rock hard, and the parchment paper helps so the rice doesn’t accidentally get to the bread :)

I bake for 35 minutes

Then, take the lid off, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, depending on how toasted you would like your bread to be!

Once done, remove your loaf from the Dutch oven, let cool, then enjoy!