Starting a Herman Starter (Friendship bread)
A new start to the year and a new starter!
I have been hesitating a lot to start making a yeast starter for making bread. Firstly I was worried about things like forgetting to feed a starter. Secondly, the temperatures in Singapore tend to be quite high and perhaps not the best to for starters, as they will then grow faster and require more frequent feedings.
That is, until I came across this Facebook group: Asian Herman Recipe Sharing. The moderator and owner of the group kindly offers to share her Herman starter with anyone who asks and looking at the delicious outcomes posted by the group members, I was definitely intrigued and wanted to make my own starter!
But first, understand that any yeast starter is a long-term commitment as the objective is to keep it alive forever. So it requires regular (not necessarily everyday) caring and feeding of the starter. Having said that it is not exactly an intimidating process, neither is it so crazy that you have to squeeze in something into your already (presumably) busy schedule, as you will see in the next paragraphs.
To side-track a little bit, I tried to make my poolish mixture into a sourdough starter and the whole process was rather haphazard. This time I wanted to do things right so I started a diary and took photos daily to track the progress of the Herman starter.
Ok. So after reading some articles on Herman starter and of course in reference to the Asian Herman Recipe Sharing Facebook group, I started the Herman Starter with the following ingredients:
4g instant yeast
1/4 cup UHT full cream milk*
1/4 cup Plain flour **
1/4 cup sugar
* Note about milk: I used the one that does not have additives, or just says 100% milk or lists only Milk as the ingredient. Of course you can use fresh milk from the refrigerated dairy section. But I just wanted to be more 'economical' since I need to keep doing this for a long term.
** Note about flour: In my first batch I used bread flour, but actually most recipes advise that plain flour should be used. It was a mistake on my part. But I decided to roll with it. We should note that both bread flour and plain flour are wheat flour, with the former having higher gluten content.
So just mix these ingredients and stir thoroughly until everything is dissolved as you can see below.
Being inexperienced, I used one of those takeaway bowls, thinking the amount would not be a lot. Little did I know what would happen 2-3 hours later.
What happens next: After mixing these ingredients, we leave the Herman starter until Day 5, where we can do the first bake or the first feed. Before I get ahead of myself, let's go through the day to day process!
Day 1
So as I mentioned, after 2 to 3 hours. Something unexpected happened. Actually it went very well, and it was just that I did not realise that the yeast starter would grow more than triple the amount and nearly reached the top of my takeaway bowl.
Day 3
The Herman starter could look a bit 'still' sometimes, as you can see in the picture above. Nevertheless just give it a stir everyday. It smells sweet and yeasty and has some alcohol smell, like a very sweet ethanol.
Day 4
Again, just stir it. Sweet yeasty and alcohol-y smell.
Day 5
Feeding day! Some action. On this day, it was also the first time I took out some starter for baking. Usually for yeast starters, we have to first discard some before feeding.
Based on the recipe I was following (I will be writing more about them in later posts), I needed 65g of starter. What I did was, I first weighed out 2 tablespoons of plain flour and 2 tablespoons of milk, and top up the remaining weight with starter until 65g. Stir well and use this mixture for baking later.
With the remaining starter, to keep it going, the instructions were to feed it with equal parts of plain flour, sugar and milk. And here is what I added
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water*
*There, now you see that I made another mistake. I mistakenly added water instead of milk and of course I started panicking about whether I had spoilt my starter. Immediately started Googling about what could go wrong, but it seems that it would not affect much. I decided to continue and observe it.
So I stirred the mixture thoroughly into the starter until I got a smooth paste and left it.
Day 6
Still feeling a bit apprehensive, I checked the starter and luckily it still seems bubbly and active. So I just stirred it as per normal.
Day 7
The yeast starter still continued to smell sweet and alcohol-y. It seemed a bit still. So to be safe, I discarded about 2 tablespoons of the starter and stirred in the following until smooth.
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons milk
Day 8
I felt really encouraged. The mixture was looking very bubbly and active again with a sweet, yeasty smell.
Days 9 and 10
I'm getting more confident about the starter now and just give it a stir. Sometimes I stir it more than once a day, or simply whenever I remember to do it. I feel it helps to give the starter a more homogeneous mixture.
Day 11
Following the feed on Day 7, today is the day to feed the starter again. I also used this starter to make another bread.
And this time I made sure to feed it correctly with plain flour, sugar and milk.
Day 13 onwards
So now the starter seems to behave rather predictably and everyday I would give it a stir. I find that the Herman starter is really good for people who don't bake everyday. If you bake once or twice a week, it is ideal to have a Herman starter. Also it is easy to maintain.
I am thinking that feeding every Tuesday and Saturday could work for me, instead of the 5-day cycle, which I would definitely have trouble remembering when I last fed the Herman starter in the long run.
Also I do find that the Herman starter seems to be quite 'forgiving' since it actually survived my mistakes! Similar to sourdough starter, the crux is to develop a stable 'ecosystem' in which the yeast can thrive and once that happens we can stop worrying about mould and things like that, even at hot and humid Singapore room temperature!
Other than baking bread, Herman starters could be used in cooking and cakes to improve the flavours. I hope this blog is helpful in inspiring you to start a Herman starter or if you are hesitating to start one!
Thanks for reading!
I have been hesitating a lot to start making a yeast starter for making bread. Firstly I was worried about things like forgetting to feed a starter. Secondly, the temperatures in Singapore tend to be quite high and perhaps not the best to for starters, as they will then grow faster and require more frequent feedings.
That is, until I came across this Facebook group: Asian Herman Recipe Sharing. The moderator and owner of the group kindly offers to share her Herman starter with anyone who asks and looking at the delicious outcomes posted by the group members, I was definitely intrigued and wanted to make my own starter!
But first, understand that any yeast starter is a long-term commitment as the objective is to keep it alive forever. So it requires regular (not necessarily everyday) caring and feeding of the starter. Having said that it is not exactly an intimidating process, neither is it so crazy that you have to squeeze in something into your already (presumably) busy schedule, as you will see in the next paragraphs.
To side-track a little bit, I tried to make my poolish mixture into a sourdough starter and the whole process was rather haphazard. This time I wanted to do things right so I started a diary and took photos daily to track the progress of the Herman starter.
Ok. So after reading some articles on Herman starter and of course in reference to the Asian Herman Recipe Sharing Facebook group, I started the Herman Starter with the following ingredients:
4g instant yeast
1/4 cup UHT full cream milk*
1/4 cup Plain flour **
1/4 cup sugar
* Note about milk: I used the one that does not have additives, or just says 100% milk or lists only Milk as the ingredient. Of course you can use fresh milk from the refrigerated dairy section. But I just wanted to be more 'economical' since I need to keep doing this for a long term.
** Note about flour: In my first batch I used bread flour, but actually most recipes advise that plain flour should be used. It was a mistake on my part. But I decided to roll with it. We should note that both bread flour and plain flour are wheat flour, with the former having higher gluten content.
So just mix these ingredients and stir thoroughly until everything is dissolved as you can see below.
Being inexperienced, I used one of those takeaway bowls, thinking the amount would not be a lot. Little did I know what would happen 2-3 hours later.
What happens next: After mixing these ingredients, we leave the Herman starter until Day 5, where we can do the first bake or the first feed. Before I get ahead of myself, let's go through the day to day process!
Day 1
So as I mentioned, after 2 to 3 hours. Something unexpected happened. Actually it went very well, and it was just that I did not realise that the yeast starter would grow more than triple the amount and nearly reached the top of my takeaway bowl.
Therefore I transferred it to a much taller container. A note about the container, I used a plastic container which had an airtight lid, however the lid is not completely airtight or the vacuum type. I feel this is important for yeast starters to allow the gases to escape and prevent carbon dioxide build up. The lid is still required to prevent dust or other things from falling into the starter.
Day 2
So now we can see the Herman Starter in its 'permanent home'. The starter produces a yeasty and sweet smell. I could observe a lot of bubbles. The 'duty' to do for today is just to give it a stir. And while stirring I observed that the mixture was very 'stringy'. The texture like a bread dough that has too much water.
Day 3
The Herman starter could look a bit 'still' sometimes, as you can see in the picture above. Nevertheless just give it a stir everyday. It smells sweet and yeasty and has some alcohol smell, like a very sweet ethanol.
Day 4
Again, just stir it. Sweet yeasty and alcohol-y smell.
Day 5
Feeding day! Some action. On this day, it was also the first time I took out some starter for baking. Usually for yeast starters, we have to first discard some before feeding.
Based on the recipe I was following (I will be writing more about them in later posts), I needed 65g of starter. What I did was, I first weighed out 2 tablespoons of plain flour and 2 tablespoons of milk, and top up the remaining weight with starter until 65g. Stir well and use this mixture for baking later.
With the remaining starter, to keep it going, the instructions were to feed it with equal parts of plain flour, sugar and milk. And here is what I added
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water*
*There, now you see that I made another mistake. I mistakenly added water instead of milk and of course I started panicking about whether I had spoilt my starter. Immediately started Googling about what could go wrong, but it seems that it would not affect much. I decided to continue and observe it.
So I stirred the mixture thoroughly into the starter until I got a smooth paste and left it.
Day 6
Still feeling a bit apprehensive, I checked the starter and luckily it still seems bubbly and active. So I just stirred it as per normal.
Day 7
The yeast starter still continued to smell sweet and alcohol-y. It seemed a bit still. So to be safe, I discarded about 2 tablespoons of the starter and stirred in the following until smooth.
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons milk
Day 8
I felt really encouraged. The mixture was looking very bubbly and active again with a sweet, yeasty smell.
Days 9 and 10
I'm getting more confident about the starter now and just give it a stir. Sometimes I stir it more than once a day, or simply whenever I remember to do it. I feel it helps to give the starter a more homogeneous mixture.
Day 11
Following the feed on Day 7, today is the day to feed the starter again. I also used this starter to make another bread.
And this time I made sure to feed it correctly with plain flour, sugar and milk.
Day 13 onwards
So now the starter seems to behave rather predictably and everyday I would give it a stir. I find that the Herman starter is really good for people who don't bake everyday. If you bake once or twice a week, it is ideal to have a Herman starter. Also it is easy to maintain.
I am thinking that feeding every Tuesday and Saturday could work for me, instead of the 5-day cycle, which I would definitely have trouble remembering when I last fed the Herman starter in the long run.
Also I do find that the Herman starter seems to be quite 'forgiving' since it actually survived my mistakes! Similar to sourdough starter, the crux is to develop a stable 'ecosystem' in which the yeast can thrive and once that happens we can stop worrying about mould and things like that, even at hot and humid Singapore room temperature!
Other than baking bread, Herman starters could be used in cooking and cakes to improve the flavours. I hope this blog is helpful in inspiring you to start a Herman starter or if you are hesitating to start one!
Thanks for reading!
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