Thanks for your comment. You are indeed correct; I miscalculated and accounted for extra space in only one direction when there are two directions to fill.

Given the length stays the same, we don’t need to worry about the 13″. That leaves us with a 4 X 4 dimension to start and a 5 X 5 as the goal. So 16 square inches should become 25, which is actually 156.25%, not 125% as I had written which calculated a new size of 4 x 5 (20 square inches) not the correct 5 x 5 (25 square inches).

Good catch! I will update the post to clarify.

Thanks!
Erica
Erica recently posted..The belated announcement

Ah, that makes more sense. And no, it would be best to stay on the now bigger feeding and even head to 1:2:2 in a few more days.

If you can. try to find a warmer, cozy spot for him so that he gets a little help to attain full expansion. You can also use lukewarm water when feeding to help things along a bit. That should get you a nice bit of activity.

Sounds like everything is doing well, so just keep on doing what you’re doing and you’ll have a great little starter soon enough.

Keep feeding two or three times a day for at least two more weeks (better still, three) before he starts living in the fridge. This will give him a good shot at strengthening up and developing a little personal character.

And congratulations on being a new Starter Mom!

The golden rule of bread making: watch the dough, not the clock. SO yes, you should wait until the starter is nearly peaked. Why? Because we don’t exactly know what conditions the yeasties are in right now and it could simply be that the room is a degree or two cooler than they’d like to really get pumping.

“Back to 1:2:2″? Were you seeing better results originally when you were doing a 1:2:2 feed? Was there a specific reason to switch away from that (getting poor expansion, for example)? Without a bit more detail, it’s difficult to diagnose or give pertinent advice.

Lastly, get off the edge, that doesn’t actually help anything and just makes you stressed and the process un-fun. If your starter is expanding, even if not “humongously”, but on a consistant basis, then it’s just a matter of a bit more time AND PATIENCE. This last being the super secret ingredient to making good bread. Good bread is “Slow Food” and patience is necessary. Stressing is not.

So relax, enjoy the process and let your new pal do what he/she needs to do and you’ll get excellent bread from it/him/her in no time. Well, a couple of weeks down the line, anyway.

Got more questions? Ask away!

First, I thank you for this recipe.

Today, I tried it for a second time. The first time was a bit of a messy affair due to my inability to mix the dough well. Still, the bagels were edible. Not a complete loss. Today, the bagels were better. I have found a rather funny way of mixing my dough that works. So the mixing was alright. Unfortunately, at the autolyse stage, I think that the flours I used were a bit too strong, or I had added a bit more gluten than necessary, the mixture ran out of moisture. I panicked and added a bit more water. From thereon, all went fine except at the very end when the bagels were being formed: the dough was not firm enough … obviously, as would say Snape.

Anyway, I’ve made good note of that. I shall try to better monitor the hydration next time. I plan on baking those bagels every two weeks or so. Today has been a good learning experience. I have some confidence that my next batch will improve.

I also should mention that because I don’t have a large refrigerator, I retard all my levain dough at the beginning, i.e. I do the bulk fermentation in the fridge overnight. The following day, I do the stretch & folds, shape, final proof, and bake. The texture of the bagels I just baked is very good. And they taste good as well.

1) The temperature is near perfect for keeping the levain safe, according to R. Clavel who recommends around + 10 C. The cooler offers + 8 C at the warmest. I can’t get it to go over that temperature, to the ideal + 10 C. But + 8 C is not bad. My fridge runs at + 5 C, which although perhaps adequate for the levain, is not ideal.

2) In such an environment, I had kept my youngish levain (about 4 weeks old when I acquired the cooler) and I do not need to feed it for 4 days at least even though it manages to more than double its size in there. I have not gone more than that till now so that I don’t know whether I could have left it unfed longer than 4 days. I presume that I could … although it might be a bit spent by then.

I have also read recently that a levain rather likes consistency in its feeding regimen. If it’s every week, one should try to keep to the same schedule whenever possible. I don’t know about that, but it’s an interesting thought.