Big Fat White Woman

i wasn't going to give any of them twee names but in writing the abbreviation BFWW on the jars for 'bread flour/whole wheat,' as she is made of a 50/50 mix of king arthur standard bread flour and bob's red mill organic whole wheat flour, i started calling her the big fat white woman. and so forth she shall be known. maybe its beginner's luck or the stability of commercial flours, but this one has worked so far! it took a while but i trusted the process and she's making bread now.

DAY 1 • 12/30/2025

the madness begins. this was way too much starter it exploded in the cabinet during its false bloom but thats okay. it started!

DAY 3 • 1/1/2026

first discard and feed at a 1:2:2 ratio. a more sensible level of starter but still a lot.

DAY 8 • 1/6/2026

jar got moldy overnight :( but luckily on day 7 i put the discard in a fresh baggie and put that in the fridge as to not stink up my compost, so i revived that and restarted day 8. i tried to do some experimental shit with rye and it didn't really work. it's fine but that's why there's two

DAY 10 • 1/8/2026

i left for anime los angeles and forgot to put the jars in the fridge. rip jars.

DAY 15 • 1/13/2026

now back home, i was yet again able to restart from the baggie of starter in the fridge. winning decision made on day 7. it had ofc developed in the fridge over a week but it was ready to feast!

DAY 17 • 1/15/2026

was feeling like no progress was being made, probably because of the fridge stay, but it wasn't molding or looking bad, so i changed to feeding 1:1:1 on this day to give the yeasts a better advantage.

DAY 20 • 1/18/2026

finally got rising on the night of day 19!!

DAY 21 • 1/19/2026

got a rise after 3 hours! the yeasts are alive!! i fed her again after 12 hours this day to keep them going and got a full double at 3 hrs. then i decided that was unnecessary idk it might be in other cases

DAY 22 • 1/20/2026

went back to 1:2:2 feeds now that she's cookin. 1:1:1 is just a lot of food for the yeasts. she still doubled, yay! her bubbles...

DAY 23 • 1/21/2026

got impatient and decided she was probably good enough to make a levain. it's a new color due to making it with the central milling great northern plus bread flour i got at the same time as the joaquin oro flour, the guy at the shop recommended it and i said okay thank you :) the rest of the starter i'm continuing to develop separately in search of more complex flavors!

DAY 24 • 1/22/2026

a day of making bread dough... the levain exploded in the cabinet again lol oops but i was following the ratios of the main country bread recipe in the tartine book. got the dough mixed, it got a long autolyse because i had to leave and do errands with my mom. then i spent all evening aerating it as it did the bulk ferment, bench resting, and shaping the loaves to long proof in the fridge overnight. starter was behaving consistently!

DAY 26 • 1/24/2026

didn't originally intend to do a 46 hr cold proof but i am baking out on my grill bc i'm sensitive to indoor gas fumes and don't like using the full size oven and my toaster oven doesn't go quite hot enough for the first phase. so the grill works but it needed to be cleaned very thoroughly after a rainstorm and drying out took forever. i think a long cold proof might be part of what i'm after anyway! once i got baking, i was having trouble holding temperature, which turned out to be the propane tank running dry. Okay. i finished it in the toaster oven but the temp issues definitely affected the final product. oh well. it still turned out pretty good, maybe a little overproofed? just a smidge? but my shaping could use some practice, the loaves were kinda loose, i was too worried about smushing too much gas out. the crumb looks good! the bread is nice and spongy how i like it. i think i'd like a little more salt in the dough next batch. on the starter side, i fridged it kinda hungry on day 25 bc i was gonna be gone all day and didn't wanna risk it growing mold while depleted at room temp, so it was a little bit starving and smelled strongly of alcohol when i got back to it. it immediately started rising so maybe it needed that hunger lol

DAY 28 • 1/26/2026

baked off the other half of the dough. i think i'll be halving the recipe from here out, no reason to have 2 loaves at once when it's mostly just me eating it :P got fresh propane ofc but still had some temp issues, this time it ran too hot. the bottom got burnt but it was still pretty tasty after cutting that off. the extra 2 days in the fridge didn't seem to bother it, maybe it made the flavor better too.

WEEK 6 • 2/8/2026

okay i've been baking with the joaquin oro for a couple loaves and i think i like that flavor better :P i think ms BFWW still needs some development before i dry flakes out for very long term storage, so i think i'll keep her in the fridge and feed once a week or so from here. honestly i'm tired of doing the feeds every day now too lol the cleanup is annoying. i've already skipped a few days at a time with intermittent fridging

Joaquin Oro

i really wanted to make something with as local flour as i could find! i went to the king's roost in nela to pick things up and got some lovely joaquin oro from gonzalez-siemens family farms in the san joaquin valley. it's got a really interesting nutty, buttery smell to it, i can't wait to get it baking!

DAY 1 • 1/18/2026

stirred up a starter! took no photos apparently

DAY 3 • 1/21/2026

it got kahm yeast... that's not explicitly harmful, it just tastes bad. in a more mature starter it'd be worth trying to save, but not really on day 3 before any feeding, so i tossed it and mixed a new one. i'll have to consider freezing this flour too. still no photos it was yuckyyy

DAY 3 • 1/23/2026

made sure the jar was sealed well for this starter, seems to have helped! it made it through the false bloom without mold or kahm. i fed 1:1:1 and it rose a little in under 3 hrs, i'm impressed! i transferred it to a new jar as to prevent unwanted spores, i think i'll keep doing that with this and the rye too. smelled really sweet and acidic, almost wine-y, before feeding.

DAY 5 • 1/25/2026

also fridged this one hungry on the morning of day 4 because i wasn't gonna be home at feeding time. it was fine. the yeasts are quite adaptable, so many comments i see on reddit are afraid of the fridge but it's just like a pause button.

DAY 6 • 1/26/2026

back to near doubling! handsomely gassy at 24 hrs after feeding.

DAY 11 • 1/31/2026

a stretch of dutiful feeding and growing without photos oops. it was time to make another loaf and i got impatient again and made a levain from this one. it wasn't quite ready honestly, didn't have the gluten-y texture at/after peak like BFWW has, needed a day or two more. it turned out mostly okay anyway i think.

DAY 12 • 2/1/2026

this dough turned out super slack since the starter wasn't quite there. i was struggling to shape it tbh and then i thought i overproofed while trying to warm it up bc it was kinda flat altogether. ah well.

DAY 14 • 2/3/2026

baked the little flat bastard. it wasn't nearly as bad as i expected, and it actually tasted way better than the BFWW loaves. idk if that's the flour or more acetic acid from a hotter bulk ferment. crust turned out nice and crisp. i had a better handle on the grill temperature but i still haven't quite sorted it out, i need to experiment with which burners to use.

DAY 19 • 2/8/2026

new loaf time again! starter is more ready for sure, rising better and has the gluten web. levain came together nicely, dough looks good if still a little flat. i think i actually need to use some ap flour in the mix with a whole wheat starter, it's just not got enough gluten going around. that's fine, i already need to buy more fancy flour, 7 lbs doesn't go very far! i start classes tomorrow, maybe i'll go on the weekend.

Rye Flour

mmm rye bread. i think it could have some really interesting sweet applications. it's really reactive and different from wheat flour! the smell of it is incredible, like hoppy beer and honey.

DAY 1 • 1/16/2026

after adding a little rye flour to a branch of the BFWW starter as a test and it molding terribly, then again even worse and different from BFWW when i forgot to fridge the jars before leaving for 5 days, i froze the rye flour for 24 hours and then started an all rye batch. the rye flour needs a little more water than the wheat flours, normal 1:1 ratios come out too stiff. i think i've been doing about 1:1.25

DAY 2 • 1/17/2026

it got kickin fast! or at least it looked like it. smelled so so so good compared to the stank of the BFWW, it smelled like fresh roasted hops and ripe fruit.

DAY 5 • 1/20/2026

already tripling in 24 hours, wow! super bubbly and gaseous at 3 hours post feeding too, i think i was doing 1:1:1.

DAY 8 • 1/22/2026

mold again x_x why... i think it might want twice daily feedings at this stage. or maybe i need to learn the lesson of taking day 7 discard and putting it in the fridge. something to consider next time! i was focusing on the big dough this day so i didn't make a fresh batch right away. i'll get back to it soon.