The goal of this weekend bread baking schedule is to help you get into a routine for baking fresh, healthy bread more often without having to worry about refreshing your sourdough starter during the week. Ok, I know it’s hard to bake a sourdough recipe every weekend, but I believe this post outlines a manageable schedule for fresh bread most weekends. It can be challenging to carve out time from our busy work schedule day after day to devote to sourdough starter maintenance—with two kids at home, believe me; I get it.
Help! I don’t have time for anything bread during the week, how can I ignore my starter most of the time and just bake on the weekends?
I get the above question a handful of times during the week, thus motivating me to put together this entire post. The key to reducing the maintenance required for a sourdough starter, of course, relies on using the home refrigerator. I’ve mentioned many times in the past that a starter can be placed into the fridge and taken out when needed, but given the number of questions, I think this sample schedule might give some concrete ideas and instructions for how it can be done and still make great bread—and even sourdough pancakes.
A high-level timeline goes something like this (click the link on each day to jump down to that day’s schedule):
| Day of Week | Action |
|---|---|
| Monday | The starter is in the fridge, resting. |
| Tuesday | The starter is in the fridge, resting. |
| Wednesday | The starter is in the fridge resting. |
| Thursday | Take the starter out of the fridge after work, let ferment for a few hours, and refresh at night. |
| Friday | Refresh starter in the morning before work. Feed again at night before bed. |
| Saturday | Build the levain early in the morning. Refresh the starter and let ferment all day until night. Mix the dough in the afternoon and bulk ferment in the afternoon/ evening. Shape the dough and place proofing baskets in the fridge overnight. At night make my sourdough starter discard pancake or waffle batter. Then, refresh the starter before placing it into the fridge. |
| Sunday | The starter is in the fridge resting. |
Most people are turned off by sourdough baking at home, primarily because of the overhead in dealing with a sourdough starter. It does indeed take a few minutes each day to care for but believe me, this is a weekend baking schedule that’s manageable and one that you can work right into life’s hustle.
First, let’s talk about what I refresh my starter with when I keep it in the fridge.
Starter Maintenance Refreshment Before Refrigeration
I like to slightly reduce the hydration at the refreshment right before placing my starter in the fridge. The lower hydration helps to reduce the fermentation activity slightly, and I prefer it a little on the stiff side, so it’s not quite so gooey when I take it out the following week.
Refreshment Process
Before placing my starter in the fridge (you might also want to label your Weck jar “Sourdough Starter” to avoid someone inadvertently throwing it out!):
- Using a ripe sourdough starter, discard down to 20g
- Refresh the starter with the ingredients listed in the table below
- Let sit on the counter for 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Place in fridge for up to 3 weeks (I’ve done up to 3 weeks using this method, but it might be possible to keep it in there even longer. In this case, I’d reduce the hydration even further.)
Refreshment Ingredients
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 20g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 20% |
| 100g | 30g whole rye or whole wheat flour, 70g white flour | 100% |
| 100g | Water, warm room temperature | 100% |
For more, see my in-depth look at how I feed my sourdough starter daily.
Dough Proofer
One tool I mention occasionally (and have been frequently asked about) is my proof box. In the past, I’ve considered building one of these on my own with a digital controller and ice chest, but in the end, I bought this Brød and Taylor dough proofer. It’s been plugged in and turned on ever since. I keep my starter in the box all day, every day, at just the right temperature—for me, that’s around 74-76°F (23-24°C).
Additionally, when making a levain for a single bake, I’ll place that in the center alongside my starter (also seen above). After I mix my dough, I can also easily fit my standard 2kg dough in the box, which is then also maintained at the right temperature during the entirety of bulk fermentation (the dough’s first rise).
The nice thing about this temperature-controlled box is that I can quickly get my starter back up to a warm temperature after taking it out of the fridge. Once I take it out, I place it into the proofer set to 76°F (24°C), and it will return to full activity in short order.
This proofer is one of those tools that help me achieve more consistency with each bake. If someone asks, I also keep a small thermometer next to my starter that tells me the current temperature at that spot and the highest and lowest temps recorded (handy to know if there were any spikes up or down).
See my post on using the Brød and Taylor proofer for more information. If it’s cold in your kitchen, refer to my guide on baking bread in the winter. Conversely, if it’s warm, my guide on how to bake bread in the summer will have tips for keeping your dough cool and under control.
Weekend Bread Baking Schedule: How do you schedule sourdough?
Before we begin, I want to show a picture of what my starter typically looks like when it’s at full strength, regularly receives refreshments, and I keep it at a warm temperature in my proofer:
Above, you can see the signs for vigorous fermentation: bubbles at the top and the sides, some rise height (it’s “peak,” as some bakers call it), and a loose and frothy consistency. My starter usually takes about 11-12 hours to get there using my typical refreshment (20g ripe starter, 100g flour, 100g water at room temperature) when it’s kept in my proofer at around 76ºF (24°C).
I followed the exact process I’m about to outline with my starter for a week, and I took photos of each step to illustrate the method better. In addition, I baked two loaves of Beginner’s Sourdough Bread and made sourdough pancakes to illustrate the effectiveness of my resuscitated starter. As a result, you’ll see my starter transition from states of high activity, reduced activity, “rest,” and the reverse when taken back out of the fridge. This progression will help me explain the cues and what to expect as your starter changes.
My stater performs best when given at least 2-3 refreshments after it’s taken out of the fridge but before being used to create a levain for baking.
Thursday
Our starter has been in the fridge for several days at this point (since last Saturday). Fermentation has continued, but it’s slowed due to the cold temperatures. Nonetheless, there will still be signs of fermentation (as seen above): some scattered bubbles and potentially a layer of thin liquid on the top that’s gathered. This liquid, sometimes called “hooch,” is a byproduct of fermentation and consists of alcohol. It’s not harmful, and I usually stir this down into the mixture during the first refreshment (you could also pour it off if you’d like).
Evening: Remove Starter from Fridge
When you get home from work, take your chilled starter out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature (or place it in a proofer set to warm temperature) for a couple of hours. I give mine enough time to warm up, become easier to stir, and potentially finish fermenting a bit longer.
You can see the transparent layer of liquid on top, some bubbles in the interior and on top, but overall nowhere near the vigor you’ll see in my starter when kept in my proofer.
Before going to bed, discard the contents of your jar down to 20g ripe starter and add 100g room temperature water and 100g flour (or your standard refreshment flour mixture). Place your starter in a warm location or a proofer, and let ferment until the morning.
Friday
In the morning, you can see above that my starter is still a bit sluggish to rise and overall still not up to total activity (compare the above picture to the one at the beginning of the schedule). However, it has only had a single refreshment since you pulled it from the fridge, and with 24 more hours to ferment after this refreshment, we’ll see the activity pick up quite a bit by Saturday morning.
Morning: Refresh Starter
Before heading off to work, refresh your starter with whatever ratios you typically use to have your starter last for 12 hours before needing another refreshment. For me, I discard the contents of my starter container to 20g ripe starter and refresh with 100g flour and 100g water at room temperature. Then, stir, place the loose-fitting lid back on, and put the jar into your proofer or on the counter. Let ferment until later in the evening.
Evening: Refresh Starter
You’ll see that by the evening, your starter will display signs of even more vigorous fermentation—things are starting to pick back up to normal. So, in the evening, before bed (or when your starter needs refreshment), do a regular refreshment. I made the same refreshment as the morning.
In the morning, we’ll finally build a levain to mix the dough on Saturday.
Saturday
As seen above, my starter is back at full strength by Saturday morning. Super strong signs of fermentation occurred overnight with lots of bubbles, nearly the same height as usual, and a smell that’s ever so slightly sour and yet relatively mild—pleasantly reminiscent of creamy yogurt.
Morning: Build Levain
First thing in the morning, make a levain that will be used in a dough mix later that day. The recipe I decided to use here is based on my Beginner’s Sourdough Bread formula, but you could make a levain from any of the recipes here at my site.
After mixing a levain, place it in the proof box or somewhere warm in your kitchen, and let it ferment until it’s ready to be used later in the day. From there, autolyse (or not), mix, and continue to follow whatever bread recipe you’re baking.
Morning: Refresh Starter
After making a levain, refresh your starter and place it in the proofer or the counter until the evening. Why do we bother refreshing the starter? I do this to give my starter enough food to get through the day to nighttime, where I will prepare sourdough pancake batter for Sunday morning. If you want to skip making pancakes (why would you?), refresh your starter (as outlined Sunday morning, below) to prepare it for cold storage until next week.
Afternoon: Mix, Bulk, Pre-shape, Shape and Retard Dough
Proceed to follow whatever sourdough bread recipe you started this morning, then place the dough in the refrigerator for an overnight retard for increased flavor (you will bake the bread Sunday morning).
Evening: Make Pancake or Waffle Batter
If you feel like light and fluffy pancakes, use my overnight sourdough starter discard pancake recipe to make the pancake batter at night and let ferment until the morning. Alternatively, if you feel like something crunchier, make my overnight sourdough waffles.
Evening: Refresh Starter with Maintenance Ratios and Refrigerate
After making the pancake batter, refresh your starter using the maintenance ratios I described at the beginning of this post. Let sit out 30 minutes to 1 hour and then finally place back into the refrigerator until next week (or whenever you want to bake again).
Sunday
The past few days have built up to this final day, the day we get to enjoy not only fresh sourdough pancakes but also fresh sourdough bread later in the afternoon. Remember, at this point, your starter is in the fridge and resting until next week. So there’s no need for refreshment this morning.
Morning: Make Pancakes, Preheat Oven
In the morning, preheat the oven to prepare bread after breakfast. Additionally, get that smoking hot griddle (or 12″ steel skillet like I use) going and get ready to make some pancakes. Finish making the pancake batter, cut up some fresh fruit, and whip some heavy cream. Finally, make the sourdough pancakes and enjoy while the oven preheats.
Afternoon: Bake Bread
Continue to follow whatever bread recipe you started and bake the sourdough bread once the oven is preheated. Let cool and enjoy just in time for lunch. Again, your starter is still resting in the fridge, waiting until you want to bake again.
Lately, I’ve also been experimenting with baking my usual 900-950g batard shape (instead of being forced to make a boule in a combo cooker) in a 5.75 qt Staub Cocotte and, as seen above, the resulting bakes have been fantastic. The steam trapped inside is sufficient to blister the crust and the radiating heat from the cast iron colors the crust beautifully. I will continue using this, especially for single loaf bakes (it’s also pretty amazing in the kitchen for roast chicken!) when steaming the entire oven isn’t necessary.
Alternatively, you could use your typical Dutch oven or even the Challenger Bread Pan for long, oval loaves.
The various bread shots used my refrigerated starter throughout this post—all fantastic bakes! I’ve found using a schedule like this to help offset workload during busy weeks while still ensuring I enjoy fresh bread on the weekend and into the following week.
At first glance, this weekend baking schedule post might come across as packed with many steps, but the fridge does most of the work. This way, our starter only needs attention a few days at the end of the week, removing many maintenance refreshments while still allowing us to make great bread. The key is using the cold temperature of the fridge to slow fermentation Saturday through Thursday and then only three refreshments before baking. And while our starter is out for bread, we might as well make some sourdough pancakes that make the weekend go from great to excellent. Buon appetite!
Weekend bread baking schedule FAQ
How do you schedule sourdough?
In most cases, your starter can be kept in the fridge, taken out a day or two before you need to use it, given two to three feedings, then used to make a levain or mixed directly in the dough.
How can I increase my sourdough activity?
To increase sourdough starter activity, keep it at a warm temperature and give it timely feedings. I like to feed it every 12 hours and kept around 74-76°F (23-24°C).
How do I make my sourdough schedule fit?
In the end, this is a personal thing! Your starter can go 12 to 24 hours between feedings when kept at warm room temperature, and at each point when you feed it, it can be used to mix into bread dough. This gives you multiple opportunities throughout the day to make fresh sourdough bread.
What’s Next?
Now that you have a go-to method for a weekend bread baking schedule check out my weekday sourdough bread for when you want to try and squeeze a loaf of fresh sourdough in during the busy workweek.
If you use the tips in this post, tag @maurizio on Instagram and use the hashtag #theperfectloaf so I can take a look!
234 Comments
Hi Maurizio, thank you for your generosity, it is so encouraging and I am looking forward to lots of good bread.
What do I do with the starter when I go on extended holidays?
hey maurizio, it’s necessary to build levain from the ready starter or, if i have enough ready starter i can use him into the dough ?
thank you.
Hi Maurizio love your website, information and pictures. I’ve been trying to bake the last few weeks and I’m having issues with my loaf rising. I’ve ensured the starter and levain are active before proceeding the the bulk fermentation and proofing. In this last loaf I checked temperatures as well. I’ve uploaded a photo not sure if you can help out and let me know what you think might be going wrong with my bakes. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6al1ornaeff227x/bread.jpg?dl=0
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Hi Maurizio, I made my sourdough starter completely using whole wheat. Its around 18 days old now. I fed it once for every 24 hours for first 6 to 8 days and then I have been feeding it twice a day (every 12 hours) with 100% whole wheat in 1:1:1 ratio for last 10 days and it gets 2.5 times in size every time in 4 hours and maintain the peak for next 4 to 5 hours before slowly falling down. Now I am thinking about dividing my starter in two parts. One would go in fridge with the ratio you mentioned (20g + 100g + 80g) and I shall keep feeding it weekly basis. The second portion shall remain on my counter and I shall keep feeding it every 12 hours (some times I feed after 15 to 16 hours due to busy schedule) and use it for regular baking. I want to divide the starter maintenance because I have kids in home and there is always risk of the starter at the counter to be thrown at floor 🙂 I have following questions in this regard:
1) Will the strength of over the counter starter with every 12 to 15 hours feeding be more than the starter in fridge that shall be fed on weekly basis?
2) My room temperature is currently 30C (86F). I expect it to rise to 34 C (93F) during the summer. Will this affect the quality, taste and strength of my over the counter starter being fed every 12 to 15 hours?
3) Does starter behaves the same in fridge? I mean does it rises as it rises over the counter and then slowly falls down? If yes, can we feed the starter in the fridge after every 3 days instead of one week?
I shall greatly appreciate your response.
I know this sounds like blasphemy, but if I don’t plan on baking every week, how would you feed a refrigerated starter? Do you still recommend feeding it multiple times, or can I just feed it 1/week to maintain?
Hello again,
Can I refrigerate the dough mixture before adding salt to control my timing? Can you mention all the times during the whole process where dough can be refrigerated? I find it difficult to control timing!
Thank you Maurizio for great information on weekend bake! Is it possible to create a printable timetable that we could follow? I will frame it and hang it on the kitchen wall!!!!!!
Hi Maurizio,
Thank you for your amazing blog! I have learned so much. What sized oval brotform basket do you use in your 5.75q oval staub? Do you have a link where I can buy it? thank you in advance
Hi,
Thank you for your blog, I have started the starter few days ago, can’t wait till weekend to bake! But I have one point I would like to clarify with you. The refreshment section you have mentioned at the beginning of this post, is it the one I shall follow if I am not planning to bake soon, which you have mentioned could last for 3 weeks? And the starter you have taken out on ‘Thursday’, is it the same thing? And the feeding will be the same even if the starter have been hibernating not just from ‘last Saturday’?
Thank you
Yes, that refreshment is what you’d do prior to placing your starter in the fridge. When I take my starter out of the fridge and plan to use it I’ll resume whatever refreshment ratios I’d normally do when it’s not in the fridge. For example, I’d typically discard what’s in the jar down to 15g starter and then feed that 100g type 85 flour and 100g water at room temperature — use whatever ratios and flours you’d normally use at this point.
Essentially I reduce the hydration of the starter when I place it in the fridge to slow things down a little more. When I take it out I feed it whatever I normally would (100% hydration, for me).
I hope that helps!
Hi,
I have tried your “best sourdough” recipe today. I was so excited and I am glad that it turned out very nice, Thank you! Though I am not sure if it is because of the cold environment in general ( I live in Stockholm), the fermentation takes way longer than expected ( both in bulk fermentation and the levain step). So I actually left the dough for autolysing way longer than written in the recipe, will it be the reason my dough is pretty wet and doesnt look as stable as the one in your photo? Or I didnt stretch and fold enough?
This is a dram coming true, exactly the information and help I needed. Clear and detailed. Wonderful, thank you!! Just one question. Refreshing and feeding the started is the same thing?
Glad to hear that! Yes, refreshing is the same thing as feeding. Happy baking!
Hello. I just did this weekend bake. The bread was “only” my 3rd attempt at your beginner sourdough loaf. My 3rd attempt at any sourdough bread. It was the best yet. I am very excited at how it turned out. Wish I could post a picture. Still a little tweaking like figuring out how not to have a nearly burnt bottom that is almost impossible to cut. It did not slow down the 4 teenagers who spent the night and finished both loaves. (Need to make more now.)
I also did the waffles/pancakes. I did both because I wanted to try both though I had my batter a little too watery. Stilll, very delicious!!
Thank you for these awesome recipes!
So, so awesome to hear all this! It’s so fantastic to have fresh (and super healthy) bread at home 🙂 Enjoy!
If you are getting the bottom of your bread too done, try placing a baking sheet on the bottom rack of your oven. That will reflect the heat from the bottom element in your oven, and the bottom of your bread will not get done before the top. HTH!
Super suggestion, Warn, thank you!
Just wanted to clarify something.
Under the heading Evening: Remove Starter from Fridge you mention “Before going to bed, discard the contents of your jar down to 30g mature starter and add 100g room temperature water and 100g flour” while earlier you say “My starter usually takes about 11-12 hours to get to there using my
typical refreshment (15g mature starter, 100g Type 85 flour, 100g water
at room temperature) when it’s kept in my proofer at around 76ºF.”
My question: what is your feeding formula for the (first) Thursday night feeding? Do you start with 30 grams or 15 gram starter?
Thank you!
Great question, and somewhat conflicting information presented there. When I take my starter out of the fridge for the first time I usually leave a bit more than the 15g in the jar to ensure the process starts up in a timely fashion. The mixture will be cold and a little extra mature starter left in the jar helps with this.
I hope that makes sense — great catch.
Hi Maurizio, first I’d like to say thank you for your site and sharing great information! I’m a new home baker and your posts have really helped me out… I have a question for you, at what point should I be putting my sourdough starter in the fridge? Is it when it is doubling in size?
Glad my site has helped! You want to put it in the fridge 30 minutes to 2 hours after a feeding (refreshment). So discard a portion of your starter, feed it new flour and water, let it sit on the counter for a bit, then place it in the fridge. If you place it in there too soon after feeding it might be too far along metabolizing the new food. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the response! This is very good to know. And to be more specific about my question… (This is a new starter and it’s been about 2 weeks now, feeding it twice a day)… How do I know when the starter is at its optimum use and be able to store it in the fridge to bake with it once a week? I don’t want to put it in the fridge if its not ready… Its pretty cold where I am at, maybe thats why…
Thank you so much for your help!
That’s a valid concern: you want to wait till your starter is strong enough before placing it into the fridge. I’d say once your starter is ready to leaven bread, it should be fine to store in the fridge for a week or so at a time. You can tell when it’s ready if it’s reliably rising and falling each day at around the same time when in the same conditions. You should see signs of solid fermentation that happen each day — bubbles, smell changes, a rise and fall (the amount isn’t super important, just that it does).
Hello Maurizio!!! I’ve got more thanks to you! 🙂 I keep on reading your articles, and I decided to try the schedule for weekend baking which you offered and keeping the starter in the fridge. I put my 10 days old started into the fridge (later I read in some comments that you recommend to wait till the starter is strong enough before putting it into the fridge, but I didn’t know that before)
So, I put it into the fridge, and took it off in 3 days and refreshed 5 times before baking (two refreshments a day, in the morning and in the evening). The first day it was weak – you predicted that in your article, then it became strong again, and I baked one more wonderful loaf of bread with it! I am so grateful for your precious articles!
Happy holidays to you dear Maurizio and to your family and close friends and people in your life!
Love!
Hey again, Elena! Glad you’re still reading through all my posts! Yes, I always like to wait until a starter is very strong before placing it into the fridge (which weakens it somewhat). Sounds like yours is doing just fine, though! Glad to hear your bakes are going so well.
Happy holidays to you and your family as well!
thanks!!!
I cooked my starter. I put in oven with light on thinking it would be like proofing to be ready for Saturday Levain mixing. I’m very sad..
Ahhh so sorry to hear about that! I just posted about how I deal with the winter weather in my post on the importance of dough temperature, too. Bummer!
Hello Maurizio,
Thank you so much for this beautiful website!!!
Small question – why feed the starter so much (100g) if you don’t use most of it? Why not 40g (or 60 or whatever) of water and flour? Wouldn’t it produce enough starter for levain? Sounds like it would.
Thank you again!!
Daniel
You’re very welcome, Daniel! Yes, you can adjust the actual amounts to whatever makes sense for you and your starter (and baking requirements). I feel like my starter requires this amount to make it through the day at the temperatures here and the flour I use, but this may not be the same for everyone. Try adjusting yours to use less flour and I’m sure it’ll be just fine! Thanks and happy baking 🙂
Thank you maurizio for your reply!! It is so nice to talk w a patient expert 🙂
A cold weather means i should feed it less or more?
Also, i find that i need to add 15-25g extra water for the starter to be thin enough to rise. Otherwise it is very thick. It is a rye starter.
Again, thanks 🙂
I have been struggling with this for a couple of months…still havent gotten a decent rise. So, i am trying to understand fermentation a bit better before i bake again (inspired by the quote you like about the good baker).
Daniel
You’re very welcome. Usually when it’s colder you’ll have to feed less because lower temperatures reduce fermentation activity. No worries about adding more water, this is all very flour and environment dependent — do what you need to do with the flour you have.
Have a look at my latest post on dough temperatures, this will hopefully give you a deeper understanding of how temperature plays a role in fermentation!
Hey Maurizio! Curious, what brought about the change from the white rye blend to T-85 to feed your starter? I recently got my hands on some Central Milling T-85 among other flours (was so stoked to realize Central Milling is based only an hour north of home), and am considering making the same change. Thanks in advance!
The change was simply an experiment! I really liked the results: the fermentation is nice and strong, the flavor still great, and maintenance is even easier since I don’t have to mix any flour myself 🙂 I’d say give it a try, it works really well!
Hi Maurizio, amazing blog and I’m learning so much, although I’m still a newbie. We’ve eaten some fantastic sourdough bread thanks to you! For the first time, I’ve left my starter in the fridge for a week or so. I’ve now pulled it out and I’m trying to bring it back to life again. Just wondering why you feed only 15g of starter with 100g of flour and 100g of water? While I was making the starter from scratch, it was a 40gstarter/40g flour/40gwater ratio. Do I now use the 15/100/100 ratio each time I feed until I’m ready to make the levain and before I put the starter back into the fridge again? Hope you can clarify this for me.
Thanks, I appreciate that! Welcome. I switched to 15g mature starter left in the jar to ensure my starter can make it a full 12 hours at warm temperatures before it needs more food (flour + water). That amount fluctuates with the seasons: in the winter it might be 30g, in the high heat of the summer I might go down to even 10g. Feeding your starter is a fluid thing that changes as the weather changes. The more you tend to it the more you’ll learn to read the signs for when it needs refreshment, these changes happen gradually and become instinctive.
If you haven’t had a chance, check out my sourdough starter maintenance routine post, I go into detail there on what signs to look for when your starter needs a feeding. The most important thing is the amount left in the jar isn’t a hard and fast rule, it’s a moving number you’ll adjust per your weather and schedule.
Hope that helps!
Hi Maurizio, thanks so much for your awesomely helpful blog! It is now my bible… 😉 I have a couple of questions… Your starter jar always looks very clean in your pictures, do you clean it? Mine is all crusty with starter scrapings around the edge and on top half of the glass inside… Have just been reading this post of starter maintenance for weekend bakers – my starter is 50/50 rye/all-purpose white, would you still refresh it with 50/50 white/wholewheat flour?
You’re very welcome, Rosie! I try to keep my jar as clean as I can after each feeding but I don’t obsess over it — if some flour gets on the sides I’ll try to scrape it down into the jar when it’s still wet. I also sometimes wipe the sides to keep it clean when I feed. After about 2 weeks I change my jar to a clean one.
Either of those refreshment flour ratios work really well, it’s up to you! Each one will ferment most likely at a different rate and provide you different flavor to your bread so try each out over time and choose which you like best.
Hope that helps and happy baking!
I want to do every day what I do
Urgent help! My starter has been going for about a month now. I switched it to a weekend baking schedule keeping it in the fridge, and it has started to smell horrible. It use to smell good, and not it smells somewhat of farts…I’m worried to bake with it. It looks fine. No discolouration. What’s wrong with it?! Thanks in advance
Hey, Corey! Sorry for the late reply. Bummer about the smell, but honestly it’s probably just fine. It might just be that the starter needs a bit more food for when it’s in the fridge, or you could try reducing the water in the mixture before placing it in there to slow fermentation even more.
I find an “off” smell to mine sometimes as well but this always goes away after a day of regular refreshments after I take it out from the fridge.
Hope this helps!
Hi Maurizio. First of all, thank you so much for creating this blog! Every recipe is so detailed, and I am very inspired by your passion for baking sourdough.
Now to the question: sometimes, I don’t have time to stay at home all day to prepare the dough. Is it possible to perform bulk fermentation overnight in the fridge, like we do with the final proof? So I would do the leaven/autolyse one day, the shaping the other, and then the final baking on the third day. Thank you!!
You’re very welcome! Thanks so much for the kind words, I really appreciate that.
Yes, you can absolutely do bulk fermentation in the fridge, much like the proof. I know many bakers who do this regularly with much success. You’ll have to experiment with the times and temps but generally I’ve been playing with a 1 hour bulk on the counter, then into the fridge for 12 hours or so, then take it out, preshape and shape. Then, proof the dough for a few hours on the counter until the “poke test” passes and bake them. You could also cold proof at that step — I have not done that myself but it should be just fine.
Let me know how it goes! I’m working on a post regarding cold bulk that should be up here some fairly soon 🙂
looks like you create the leaven in the same size wrek jar that you use to manage your starter. Is that jar the right size to both manage a starter and create the leaven?
I do! Sure, you can certainly use the same jar, or different jars, if you’d like. It really depends on how much levain you need to make for a recipe. When I make larger batches of dough I have to use a larger jar.
Very helpful post, Maurizio.
I try to keep my starter out of the fridge as much as possible, but as it’s now summer here in the UK (and temperatures are a whopping 85 degrees ????) I’m finding it can easily take 3 or even 4 feedings a day, which isn’t practical, so leaving it dormant in the fridge is a useful, if not entirely desirable stopgap.
To deviate slightly, I’ve found a good timetable for weekday baking is as follows: evening; feed starter, morning before work; build leavin and leave in the fridge, after work (12 hours later, double the time usually alllowed); remove from fridge for one hour the whilst autolyse takes place, then prepare dough using preferred method and afterwards the bulk can take place in the fridge; next morning shape before work and then retard in the fridge for the usual 12-16 hours and bake after work. I have also extended the bulk to 24 hours and final proof to 24 with some success, but your fridge temp will have to be pretty low. Not ideal, but it works and you will get to know the idiosyncrasies of your fridge.
Cheers,
Nick
Thanks, Nick! I love these modifications — and totally justified if temperatures are out of control hot like you’re describing. It’s been 102ºF here lately (!!) and I’ve had to really adjust my processes to suit: super cold water for mixing, using the fridge to cool the dough, etc. A cold bulk fermentation like you’ve described really can help, it’s not something I do often but I’ll have to start experimenting more for sure.
Thanks for sharing your process Nick, much appreciated. Happy baking!
The more I do this, the more I understand that precision is essential, but at the same time will be the end of you! Trust your senses, poke, prod, smell and go from there. Recipes are a framework to build on and adapt to your circumstance.
It’s nowhere near 102 Fahrenheit here, but will be around 95 tomorrow and I’m planning a bake so looking forward to the challenge! Two hours till the last feed and I still haven’t worked out my early morning cycle and swim schedule ????
Hi Maurizio – quick question about starter feedings – you feed 80g (40g flour,40g water) to just 40g mother starter each day. I have been following a schedule that requires the equivalent of just feeding 40g (20g flour, 20g water) to 40g mother starter. Then the next day, feeding another 80g (40g flour, 40g water) to the now 80g mother. Then the next day, feeding another 160g (80g flour, 80g water) to the now 160g mother. Then discarding back to original 40g and starting again. So essentially doubling the bulk each day for 3 days, then discarding and repeating. Have you tried this? If not, what do you think the difference would be, as opposed to following your schedule? I’ve just finally tracked down some rye flour (hard to find in Australia) and plan to really throw some energy into my starter.. Love your website by the way! Everything explained so clearly and I’m having success with your recipes!
Alison — I have not tried that method but I don’t see any problem in doing that. Just keep an eye on your culture as you get to the second and third additions, fermentation might pick up pace and you want to try and add the flour + water when it looks like it’s ready for some more food.
Thanks for the kind words and glad to hear my bakes have gone so well! Happy baking 🙂