I’ve got this one, but prefer using whole grain flours. Do I NEED the KA Whole Grain Baking one?
Due to magical thinking, I now have 30# of whole wheat, mixed grain, and bread flour…and no plans to use any of them until daytime.highs are below 70°F. HOPING that WHITE whole wheat flour returns to KA or TJ’S by then!
We use ours a lot. Do you make sourdough? There are some very good recipes that use the discard, including my favorite, Triple-Chocolate Sourdough Waffles.
What I’m asking is if there’s enough difference between them to make purchasing the second worthwhile. I haven’t made sourdough but would like to. I live alone so am unlikely to use up discard.
If you do want to try sourdough, you could use Maggie Glezer’s firm starter. It gets refreshed only a few days before baking, so there is much less discard.
My experience is that you should learn on “regular/popular” sourdough first. Then you have a better sense of how doughs behave and when you adapt recipes to use firmer starters, you’ll be more confident.
That would be up to you. It’s not just sourdough recipes; in fact, I made the lemon-raspberry cake that’s on the cover. Had to purchase WW pastry/cake flour, but it was worth it.
My first sourdough was Maggie Glezer’s firm sourdough starter. This was some 16 years ago. After some time I got careless with the measurements, and the starter died on me. So I created a second one, and have since been very careful with the measurements (10 g starter, 30 g water, 50 g flour) for replenishment. My starter has now been going strong for 15 years. If you can learn on one type of starter, you can learn equally well on another.
The firm starter lives happily in the refrigerator for months at a time. In order to bake with it, you have to refresh it 3-4 days in a row, until it increases in volume by a factor of 4 within 8 hours at room temperature. Then you save a bit for the next bake, and get your dough ready. C’est tout.