Sour Culture Day 3

Welcome Back Fellow Bakers,

Day 3 is upon us.  First, we will start off with the MEP necessary to begin.

Quick Quiz:  What does MEP mean?

Everything in Place

MEP List:
1. New Bowl
2. Scale
3. Flour (113 gr or 1/2 cup)
4. Water (113 gr or heaping 1/2 cup)
5. Culture (113 gr or 1/2 cup)

Now, place your 113 gr of culture in the bowl and wash the resealable container.  We will mix the culture in the bowl and then later put it back into the container for storing.  Scale out your 113 gr of water in a separate container.  You want this water to be 90 degrees or warm to the touch, if no thermometer is available.  Now, add it on top of the culture.  Remember, if your culture had an excessive alcoholic smell to it, try using colder water.  We are using all our senses in this exercise! Give this a quick hand mix!  After this, scale out your flour and add that to the watered down culture. Mix until the flour is fully incorporated.

At this point we can place the culture back in our clean container for storage.

The culture should have the same consistency as Day 1.  The ratio is similar, just with the culture added in.  This is a ratio of: 1 to 1 to 1.

What we're doing is creating an ideal environment for yeast to thrive.  By adding warm water we create a warm culture, and by adding the flour we are giving it the food it needs, allowing it to consume and produce our CO2 and alcohol.  Were not focused on acidity levels at this point as much as we are focused on keeping the yeast alive and strong as possible.

Also, if you wanted to add a different flour blend into the mix, now is the time.  Now, this next explanation can get a little tricky.  So you may not want to try this until you've gotten a hand on developing your sour culture.

I would suggest only adjusting up to about 25% of your flour weight.  For example, if your adding Whole Wheat flour the formula would be: 29 gr Whole Wheat flour and 84 gr of All-purpose flour, 113 gr water and 113 gr of your culture.  I used 25% Whole Wheat in that formula.  To get the 29 grams you simply multiply .25 X 113 = 28.25 gr.  If you want to add more or less just multiply the 113 gr by whatever percentage you want to use.  Make sure you subtract that number out of the 113 gr and not using that flour in addition to your 113 gr.

Who would have ever thought baking would involve soo much math?!?

Just a reminder,  make sure to do this at the same time everyday!

Bake that bread,

Josh