Ethiopian Blue Starter

[bradtri]

I had one other post I did on this wheat.  My brother-in-law has a client who organically raises Ethiopian Blue Tinge Wheat.  Here's one description of the grain:  https://uprisingorganics.com/grains-and-cover-crops/wheat-ethiopian-blue-tinge.html

It's an unusually dark wheat that makes a dark flour but doesn't form much if any gluten.  I decided to try making some sourdough starter from it and I'll use this thread to document the rest of the process.  It basically came to me straight from the field and then I milled it into flour.

First pic below is after 18 hours at 80F.  Really surprised to see that much growth and activity already.

Second pic is after feeding and it doubled in just over 4 hours!  So, it's really taking off.

I'll probably switch to just feeding with regular white flour from here on out.

It has a lot of aroma to it just from the wheat itself.

[bradtri]

So things have slowed down dramatically which I think is not unusual.  I've started feeding with regular white flour for a couple days.  This is about 9 hours after feeding this morning

[bradtri]

After several feedings and pretty minimal activity at approx 68F I moved it back into my proofer at 80F overnight and had a nice response.  In retrospect, I probably should have kept it in the proofer the whole time.   Will feed every 12 hours for several days and then maybe give it a whirl for some baking next weekend.

[bradtri]

Just another update as I continue to feed.  I'm anxious to try it out for flavor this weekend.  It smells slightly less acidic than my Ischia starter.

Below pic is after feeding 6 hours ago and at 68F

[bradtri]

And the results of the Saturday Sourdough Standoff were ......


mostly a dead heat.  I’ll admit to not having a highly discerning palate, but others and I could really not detect any differences between pizzas made with the two different starters.  The main test was just a straight cheese pizza. Even just eating the crust no one could really tell the difference.

The starters themselves smell different but seemingly the resulting doughs were basically the same. No sense in maintaining both so looks like Blue will get the axe. 

Btw, only got one pic of a finished pie. A Baby Bella mushroom, onion and some sort of a tangy semi-soft cheese that I can’t remember the name of right now.