Feeding Time Already!
Looked at my starter this morning and thought ' hmm, if this was my recipe it would be ready to be fed again." But it isn't my recipe.
I have waited until at least 24 hours have gone by, (ok, I think its been 20), but I think this starter needs to be fed. This morning it was still domed with tiny bubbles that I could hear crackling just a little when I pulled off the lid of the glass bowl.
The starter is now a slightly deflated, flattened mass that smells a little skanky in a fairly inoffensive way. So I shall continue with Glezer's instructions. Keep in mind that I have not gone the two days as she has mentioned in her recipe.
I still have not gotten a grey skin on top of the starter like one of the listers to the Almanac show managed to grow...that is still puzzling me. I'm still standing by my hunch to that the problem - mould in the flour.
The Fifth Day, Third Starter
1/4 cup fermented starter
3 tablespoons lukewarm water
2/3 cup unbleached bread flour
Measure the amount of fermented starter you need and discard the rest. Dissolve it in the water then add the flour and mix into a fairly firm dough. Tightly cover with plastic wrap and let the dough ferment until it is sticky and slightly expanded, one to two days.
After a day, the starter will appear not to be fermenting at all. But if you smell it, it will smell very sour, and if you pull it open with floured fingers. it will be very gooey, extensible and riddled with tiny air bubbles.