When I first found mould my on sourdough starter, I thought that I would need to throw the sourdough starter away. But over the years I’ve learned that sourdough starter is fairy robust thing and can survive just about anything.
In today’s blog post I want to have a look at what to do when you discover mould on your sourdough starter, how to revive your starter and prevent mould developing in the future.
Why does mould develop in sourdough starter ?
It can happen when you neglect your starter for a while, leave it out somewhere where it’s too warm or forget to feed it.
The good news is that it’s not the end of the world and your sourdough starter can be easily saved.
First of all you need to understand that by its nature sourdough starter is full of bacteria – the good kind of bacteria, which help to create the natural yeast. When you forget to feed your sourdough starter the natural yeast bacteria start to die (as they haven’t got anything to feed on) and creates the opportunity for mould spores to start to develop.
The mould spores can be also brought into your starter by unclean utensils or equipment. By ‘unclean’ I don’t mean necessarily dirty or not washed, the mould spores are so small you won’t even notice them.
The mould spores could be also present in the flour that you feed your starter with. This is why it’s really important to check your bread flour from time to time, to make sure your flour hasn’t gone off.
So, as you can see there are lots of ways the mould spores can just sneak in to your starter. But how do we stop them?
- How to make your own sourdough starter >>
- How to tell if your sourdough starter has gone bad >>
- What to do with discarded sourdough starter >>
How to prevent your sourdough starter from developing mould
Feed your starter regularly
If you leave your sourdough starter out of the fridge and don’t feed it for a long time, not only it will go flat, but you might end up with a mould on it.
Depending on how you keep your sourdough starter, it always needs fresh flour and water to carry on developing the good bacteria and stay active. Even if you keep your sourdough starter in the fridge and don’t use it as often, it still needs to be fed to survive.
- Sourdough starter in the fridge – feed every week
- Sourdough starter in room temperature – feed every day
Use clean mixing spoons, container etc.
To make sure that your sourdough starter remains without mould, always use clean mixing spoons for feeding and stiring your sourdough starter.
Always check your sourdough starter container, in case you see any mould developing on the sides. If the container doesn’t look clean, wash it first before you use it again.
Keep sourdough starter covered
While you don’t need to keep your sourdough bread starter sealed with a lid, it makes sense to at least keep it loosely covered with a lid or breathable plastic or a textile. It’s good if your sourdough starter can breath a little, but if you keep it completely uncovered it will start drying out plus you might get mould spores starting to develop.
Use fresh flour every time
Always make sure that you use good bread flour to feed your sourdough starter and learn how to recognise if your bread flour has gone bad (it usually taste bitter!). Spoiled flour might have invisible mould spores living inside which get activated with the water as you stir it into your starter.
Keep your starter in a correct temperature
This tip is not as much about temperature as it is about temperature related to the frequency of sourdough starter feeding.
If you keep your sourdough starter too warm, the bacteria growth will speed up and you will need to feed it 1-2 day.
If you keep your sourdough starter in the fridge, everything slows down and you only need to feed your sourdough starter about once a week.
- How to make your sourdough starter stronger >>
- How to dry sourdough starter to preserve it for later >>
How to save your sourdough starter when it developed mould
Scrape off the top mouldy layer, but be careful so that you don’t contaminate the starter underneath.
Keep going until you get starter mixture that’s not mouldy.
The minimum amount you’ll need is about a teaspoon, but obviously the more you save the quicker your new sourdough starter will flourish.
Depending on how much sourdough starter you manage to rescue, measure out the same amount of fresh bread flour and water.
For example, if you managed to rescue a tablespon of your old starter add a tablespoon of bread flour and a tablespoon of water. Mix it together and keep in a freshly cleaned plastic tub with a lid.
Treat it as a semi new sourdough starter, which means you’ll need to discard 1/2 of your sourdough starter each day and add the same amount of bread flour and water to replace it.
You might need to continue for at least the next 5-7 days, but this is still quicker than starting a new sourdough starter, plus I find that the flavour is usually much stronger and deeper than if you have a new starter.
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