Sourdough Starters.

Yes. The natural yeast in the starter is just feeding off the flour and water. So like dried yeast you can use it with any flour combinations.

Good luck with your new baby. 😋

I’ve never started a starter but you probably would have been fine. They are very forgiving. If it smells like vinegar, you’re doing something right. 😋

Keep it somewhere warm.

Where do you live PX?

You’re welcome to have some of mine. I inherited some about 5 years ago, still going strong. I believe it came from a bakery in Raheny so it could be 10 years +

I heard of a trick of a couple of drops of honey in the starter to give it a bit more food.

It took mine a week at least to start growing in any way significantly

I used to do half white half wholemeal. There is a good video on Youtube I will try to find it.

edit- I think plain whilte flour is the easiest type to use for a mother and probably a bit quicker to prove.

I haven't made sourdough in years but Jamie Oliver always recommended organic, unbleached flour. I guess the thinking is it's more likely to still have some "life" in it, for want of a better word. Also, if you're in Dublin, Tang on Cumberland place have a selection of jars they give away for free, you might be able to pick something suitable up there if it was handy.

I was gonna do that but then decided I'd rather start it myself. If it takes a few goes thru trial and error, then so be it. I'm in no rush anyway, I've a block of fresh yeast in the fridge and a pack of instant yeast in the cupboard.

I tried it with the course wholemeal flour but I blended it for 20/30 seconds in case it was too course(that made sense in my head)

After 2 days it looked awful, definitely not anything like I've seen in any pics or videos. Maybe it was just the colour from the brown flour but there was no bubbles and surely it should have started with the heat over the last few days. That got binned and I've just done another with a strong bread flower. Maybe it'll be second time lucky. Fingers crossed.

I've had spurts of doing starters using various methods for many years - most prevalently during lockdown. I'm on a lull now as I've a brilliant bakery about 2 minutes walk away and laziness has kicked in. I'll add a few of my observations.

Almost any flour will do, though some are better than others. Rye flour tends to work best, and is probably best for getting a good sour taste. I did use spelt about 10 years ago for a starter and I seem to remember it working quite well. Over the past couple of years I've just used coarse ground wholemeal, generally from Aldi, though occasionally will use strong white bread flour (also Aldi). The wholemeal seems to work a bit better, but it's one drawback is that for pizza making (if that's a consideration) the bits in it can tear the dough. I'll usually feed up a mainly white flour batch for this for a day or two, but if not an issue then that's easy!

So this is what I'd do from scratch with everything measured in grams, and 100% hydration (i.e., 1g water for every 1g flour)

Day 1: Mix of 50g each flour/water in a covered jar where air (but not flies) can get in

Days 2-n: Retain 30g of previous, and add 30g each flour/water (total 90g)

Day n+1: Start baking!

n I find to be about 5 days, your milage might vary, but get it to the stage where it's nice and bubbly. Only keeping a small bit back each day reduces the amount discarded.

Give it 2 weeks before you even judge, 2 days is not enough. Obviously refeed every day for those few weeks.