How to convert rye sourdough into wheat

The recipe for wheat sourdough (also called perekormysh) includes rye sourdough (starter), wheat flour and water. I wrote down the quantity of the last two ingredients that I needed.

So, let's start preparing wheat sourdough in the morning or evening, since you need to feed it twice a day at approximately equal intervals of time. Place the rye starter in a suitable container (preferably clear glass or food grade plastic) and fill it with 20 milliliters of clean water at room temperature.

Mix everything thoroughly with a fork and add the same amount (20 grams) of wheat flour. Mix again until completely homogeneous so that there are no lumps. This turned out to be a wheat-rye sourdough, which we fed for the first time (let’s say in the morning).

Scrape everything from the walls so that the mixture lies in an even layer on the bottom of the jar. We cover it with film, in which we make a few holes with a toothpick, or cover it loosely with a lid. Leave the starter at room temperature until evening.

By evening, the results of the first feeding should be clearly visible — the wheat-rye starter will increase and become covered with bubbles throughout its entire volume.

Here I took it closer so that I could clearly see the different-sized bubbles. Now the sourdough no longer smells like rye — some new notes have appeared. I would say that the aroma of pickled apples was born.

Feeding our starter again. But since now there is more of her (about 10 grams of starter and 20 grams of flour with water equal to 50 grams of sourdough), she will therefore ask for more food. When feeding any starter, remember that you can give it more to eat, but you can’t give it less. She will simply eat everything and start to turn sour by the next feeding. So this time we take 55 (or 50) grams of wheat flour and water. Mix everything again (first dilute with water, and then add flour), cover with film (cover with a lid) and send to rest and grow.

Here, for beauty (I like it when everything is neat), I transferred the starter into a clean jar. Yes, and it’s still better visible. I also used a felt-tip pen to mark the level at which the starter is located immediately after feeding.

The next morning the starter feels great – it’s all bubbling and smells nice. And it has almost doubled in size — this is a good sign. If your starter is not growing and it starts to smell bad, something has gone wrong. It could be bad water or low-quality flour… Anything. Then you have to start again, since the starter is simply dead.

Here's a closer photo again. Now we will feed the starter for the third time. But it has already become quite a lot — 160 grams. This means she needs no less food. That is why now we must decide what to do. There are 2 options: remove part of the starter and mercilessly throw it away, or collect it in a jar and store it in the refrigerator. With such leftover leaven you can make pancakes, pies or flatbreads, but not bread. I chose the second path and now I always have something ready for quick home baking in my refrigerator. This time I removed part of the starter so that 50 grams remained again and fed it with flour and water (55 grams each). Thus, we refeed the starter into pure wheat for 3-4 days, that is, in 6-8 feedings.

As a result, you will get an active wheat sourdough starter, which you can use to bake bread. By the way, do you know what it smells like? Unlike rye, which simply smells like rye bread, wheat has subtle creamy notes mixed with light apple sourness. At least that's how it is for me. Have delicious homemade bread, my dears! Fragrant and healthy! Yes, if I still forgot to write something or you have questions, write here in the comments or email me tanya@finecooking.ru.