Easy Sourdough Kvass Recipe - Natasha's Baking (2024)

FAQs

What is the key to baking successfully with sourdough starters? ›

*When measuring sourdough starter by volume make sure to stir down the starter beforehand in order to re- move air pockets. If you bake everyday keep your starter at room temperature and feed every 12-24 hours. If you bake less often you can keep your starter in the refrigerator.

A 100% hydration sourdough starter is a culture which is kept and fed with water and flour at equal weights. Like for instance 5 oz water to 5 oz flour. A 166% hydration starter is fed with equal volume of flour and water, which most typically is one cup of water (8.3 oz) and one cup of flour (5 oz).

Leave the kvass to ferment in a warm location to ferment for around 1 week. It will start to foam and bubble significantly after 6-12 hours. After one week, strain the kvass into plastic pop bottles or swing-top beer bottles and store them in the fridge.

Dough temperature is the regulating factor when it comes to bulk fermentation speed. To speed up bulk fermentation, keep your dough warmer (though I would not exceed 85°F/29°C). Conversely, to slow bulk fermentation, keep your bread dough cooler (I would not cool lower than 39°F/4°C).

Allow to sit of for 4-12 hours before using in a recipe, once it has about doubled in volume. If not using for baking, feed about 12-24 hours after last feeding or place in the fridge.

For the healthiest sourdough starter, you want to keep it in an ambient temperature between 24C and 28C or 75F to 82F.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour. Why do you need to use these two types of flour?

So, a sourdough feeding ratio is the relative amount (referring to weight) of old sourdough compared to fresh flour and water. Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

And as every chef knows, the best way to test something is to taste it. Kvass can take anywhere between 2-7 days before it's fermented to perfection, so try tasting a little after the second day. What you're looking for is that perfect balance of sweet and sour, with a hint of carbonation.

Can kvass go bad? ›

The shelf-life of kvass is around 4-8 weeks from the moment you receive your order. Always remember that Quas can only be stored in the fridge. This is a relatively short shelf-life compared to other soft drinks or non-alcoholic beers.

You can absolutely leave sourdough bread to rise overnight - but as always - there are some things you'll need to do to make sure that your bread is successful with an overnight ferment.

However, the longer the dough ferments (and especially at warm temperatures), the lactic acid bacteria stimulates something called the “protease enzyme.” The protease enzyme eats gluten and starts to deteriorate your loaf.

No you do not have to stir sourdough starter before you use it. You measure the sourdough starter by weight, not volume, so stirring it or not makes absolutely no difference. What does "fed" sourdough starter mean? Fed sourdough starter refers to a starter that has been fed flour and water (preferably by weight).

Example of How To Increase Your Sourdough Starter

If you have 50g of starter in your jar, but you would like to have 200g of starter because you want to bake a few different things then you would need to add 100g of each flour and water to that starter to make 200g (because 200g divided by 2 is 100g).

Do I have to feed my sourdough starter twice a day? No. You can scale back to once a day or even scale up to three times a day, whatever works for you and your schedule. I like to feed it at least once a day to keep it strong and ready for baking.

Once your starter is reliably doubling in size within 8 hours of being fed, it's ready to bake with — or store for future use. If you plan on refrigerating your fed starter, let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours after its feeding before stashing it in the fridge.