Sourdough starter temperature

i bought some sourdough starter from bakery bits, and am looking forward to getting it started, but the notes say it needs to be kept at a constant 85 f for best results. Our house is quite cold, and certainly nowhere stays at that temp overnight. I was thinking of buying a little table top oven, maybe a halogen one, for getting this going and proving. The airing cupboard isn't that warm either. Any advice welcome.

 

Never tried it ... do you have a tall fridge/freezer? Could it sit up there?
Do you have a wide mouthed flask? Possibly put the started into a sealed container, fill the flask with hot water and pop the starter into that? (ok, the water would need changing a couple of times a day, but might be do-able?)

 

This might help: http://nourishedkitchen.com/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/

 

Don't know what your recommendations are, but please don,t do as I was advised and store it in a preserving jar, the ones that are sealed tight with a rubber seal. Mine went ballistic and escaped big time. What a mess. I have never used it since !

Reminds me of the day when I was a lad. My mum used to make ginger beer and store it in a larder. Usually OK until one night one exploded and I think it took out a few more with it. Another mess and the smell was, well, you can imagine.

 

Just started with Sourdough, I've been culturing my own starter from natural yeast present on the flour used and perhaps any natural yeast present in my kitchen.

So far I've followed this guide which encourages the use of Pineapple or Apple Juice instead of the usual flour and water and I have to say it's been fantastic so far! I just used the natural juice from a tin of Pineapple pieces (make sure it's natural juice and not syrup!) as it was only 59p for a big tin from Poundstretcher.

http://www.northwestsourdough.com/index.php/starter-info/make-starter/

only difference is I've just used 100% Wholemeal flour retailed in our small corner shop Co-Op which is from a local watermill just a few miles away

this is it 5 days on coincidentally 5hrs after it's first flour and water feed (Pineapple juice is only used for the first 4 days) it looks very happy!



as capney says avoid sealed containers or at least glass ones! they can often explode if your not diligent with releasing pressure regularly after feeding, usually it's recommended to cover the container with loose cling film or a piece of kitchen roll and a rubber band, the container above I purchased from 99p Stores and it's perfect and loose fitting plastic lid which can be left slightly a-kilter to allow gas exchange.

currently my starter is stored in the same cupboard with all the gubbins for the solar panels and air source heat pump which is always at a temperature around 24°C (75°F) which I'm told is more than adequate the yeast will grow but just at a slower pace at lower temperatures, once the starter is more mature people often keep them in the fridge and feed once a week or so if they are not using it every day to bake with.

 

Thanks for that, I think I'll have a go now it's warming up a little

 

My first attempt this was an interesting recipe from "DO/ Sourdough" by Andrew Whitley which unlike most doesn't use a sponge and is just a combination of all the ingredients with just 5% of your starter and then left over a roughly 18hr prove. Unfortunately the knife wasn't very sharp and as soon as I attempted to slash the dough it just sank into a cow pat however the taste was nice if not slightly under baked (very chewy crumb....) but the crust was just gorgeous!

 

Mmmm I can smell that from here