Doughie

After some Internet research, I mixed together 3/8 c of whole wheat flour (likely to contain more of the micro-organisms I was after than white) and 1/2 c of water and crossed my fingers. I read that I might expect to see bubbles after 12 hours, and was dismayed that almost nothing had happened when I checked.

Baby Doughie.

After 24 hours, however, there were signs of life! Doughie got its first feeding then, as I had read that I wasn't supposed to start adding fresh flour until things had gotten moving. Doughie gets 3/8 c flour and 1/2 c water at each feeding.

Check out that bubble near the right edge of the bowl!

More progress.

At this point, I started toss half of poor Doughie at each feeding. If I didn't, Doughie would soon fill the whole bowl!

Looks kind of bubbly...

...but check out everything that's happening below the surface!

Now, Doughie is on a diet of unbleached white flour; I read that I don't want to introduce too much new bacteria after the starter is well-established. Because the new flour has less substance, Doughie is much more watery and paler in color now than when these pictures were taken. It has also started to produce "hooch," a brown liquid which looks like beer (because, I guess, that's exactly what it is) that pools up in a layer on top of Doughie. If Doughie looked dry, I'd mix it back in, but because it's still a bit less solid that I think it ought to be, I siphon it off.

After an auspicious beginning, lately I'm not sure how things are going. Doughie smells exactly the way it is supposed to, a pleasant sort of sour, beery smell, but it doesn't look terribly bubbly. This is a problem, as it's supposed to contain enough natural yeast to make bread rise. I suppose the flavor is what I'm really after and I could add some yeast packets to a batch of dough in a pinch when I'm ready to actually bake something. We'll see. I'm going to give a few more days to see if I can get the micro-organism count back up. I've read that feeding it too much if it's not bubbling "reliably" can dilute the bacteria count, so instead of feedings every 12 hours I'm waiting 24 instead.