Baker’s Percentage: Example:
100% 25 g Flour
20% 5 g Starter (Risen for 12-24 hours)
66% 16 g Water
Hello and welcome to the world of cultivating wild yeast!! First things first: gather and weigh your ingredients. You can use any flour, but we would strongly recommend either a 1:1 mix of freshly milled whole wheat to all purpose flour, or, if you can find it, a high extraction wheat flour. Tap water is perfectly fine to use as long as you are starting with a bit of happy, already thriving sourdough starter as your base. Your water should be slightly warm (around body temperature), not hot or cold. Mix together all ingredients- we find it easiest to thoroughly mix the water and starter together first, then combine with flour, until all ingredients are hydrated (i.e no dry flour patches). VOILA! You’ve just fed and cultivated your “Mom”, an industry term for a sourdough starter. Let Mom ferment in a warm (ideally 78-82*F, but any warm spot in your home will do) place for 12-24 hours. Have no fear if your starter doesn’t triple in size, this is a ratio for a “stiff” starter, which will not rise as much because of the low hydration. After 10-12 hours your starter will look puffy, feel gassy and lighter to the touch but will still be a stiff boi.
When it’s time for Mom’s next feeding, using the same ratios above, feed however much starter your lil bread-making heart desires. Reference the bread recipe that you will be using to see how much starter it calls for. If you’re not planning on making bread for a few days, you can feed it a minimal amount just to keep it going and can bump up the quantities whenever you need. Feed every 12-24 hours, and place any leftover Mom in the refrigerator after every feeding. Your starter will last in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.
IT’S BREAD TIME BABY!
You can use a refrigerated or fresh starter in your bread dough. If using fresh, it must be fermented for at least 8 (ideally 12-24) hours after feeding before mixing your dough. If using refrigerated, make sure to use warmer water to mix your dough so that it will not move at a snail’s pace when proofing later. The ideal dough temperature is somewhere in the 75F-82F range. Should you want a faster fermentation, you can use more starter or boost your refrigerated starter by feeding it once or twice before using it.
Hot tip: if you want bread for dinner tomorrow night, feed your starter tonight enough for your recipe and a little extra to upkeep the feeding. In the morning your starter will be ready to mix into your dough, and you’ll have all day to proof and bake your bread for dinner
What the hell is Baker’s Percentage?? BP is the lifeblood of us bakers’ survival (and sanity). In Baker’s Percentage, flour is always 100%. All other ingredients’ percentages are calculated according to the flour. It may seem silly, but it’s a HUGE help in comparing recipes to each other, as well as tweaking quantities in developing recipes. Bread needs more salt? Bump that percentage up by 1. Cookies too sweet? Take the sugar percentage down by a few. BP can be used in any baking application and comes in handy often.