… what happened to day four, you ask?
A summer party happened! It was a sunny and hot-hot-hot Saturday (those happen in Sweden in the summer!), and we had guests over for an evening of fresh strawberry daiquiries, margaritas, food and fun. No, I did not take any photos of any of it, I was too busy slurping daiquiries and trying to keep my cooking straight while intoxicated.
In any case, it is not as if a yeast and bacillus culture does that much exciting stuff every day, so I did not feel the need to elaborate on how it was doing. It was, in fact, doing fine yesterday and the same today, only more so. I had remembered to feed it twice yesterday as I’d planned, for which I am still congratulating myself, as I believe I was both, tired and not too sober before bed last night.
But, less about drunkenness and more about yeast! As I mentioned, it was doing fine yesterday and more so today – but what is “fine” for yeast? Well, the sweet off-smell I’ve mentioned in “Day 3” has disappeared by yesterday (Day 4) morning, and was replaced by a lovely well-remembered from the visits to my favourite bakeries American-style sourdough bread scent. I’d fed the starter twice yesterday, and this morning awakened to see it had risen well, though not yet quite to twice its volume I am looking for. The sourdough scent has further deepened and intensified. So far, so good.
I am not sure I have mentioned this before, but I keep the starter in the not very hot corner of my kitchen, under a vent. The vent does not provide a draft in the summer, but it does freshen the air a little, and the starter is kept out of direct light of the window, but not very much so (it’s just to the side of it against a well). The temperature in the kitchen (unless I am cooking) is a comfortable +20°C +/- 3 degrees between day and night, and the starter appears to like it.
Five days done, minimum of two days to go before baking according to starter-maturing instructions, though as mentioned before, the plan is to give it until next Friday to mature and grow. I have been discarding half of the starter per feeding the past few days, but I will start building up its volume starting Thursday, so that by Friday morning I will have enough to scoop it out and raise bread with it.
Now that it began to both, rise properly between feedings and smell oh-so-yummily like a bakery, I am getting really impatient. But then, patience is a virtue that I never had in good supply.
Eat The Roses 