The difference between the loaves on the picture is the levain: one contains a teff sourdough culture that is a few years old, the other contains one that is 2.5 days old, made from scratch (64 hours to be precise). I was already happy that I had been able to create a lively sourdough culture within two days (recipe here), but I didn’t expect much from the bread. But look at this! The difference in appearance is minimal and there is only a 3% difference in volume. So little that it could also be due to the position in the oven, the size of the banneton or the depth of scoring. On average, the crumb also looks almost identical. The only difference is the taste and texture. Slightly milder and stiffer. But not nearly as bad as under-fermented bread. What can we learn from this experiment, with 8% starch and otherwise exclusively wholemeal flours and my PEAGD fermentation method (including same-day baking)?

1. You can create a lively sourdough culture incredibly fast.
2. It is also immediately capable of leavening gluten-free bread, even if it doesn’t seem to be 100% ready.
3. The idea that a decades-old starter would be better at this is complete nonsense.
4. When it comes to taste, there are differences, but they are minimal.
5. The role of a sourdough culture under these conditions seems much less significant than previously thought, because the bread will turn out great anyway. Note that this is different from using a weak starter.

This shows that a very young sourdough culture of barely three days has already produced enough yeasts to leaven a gluten-free dough, but is not quite ready in terms of flavour. But wait another two days of refreshments and it’s at the same level as a very old starter. Please note that this conclusion may differ significantly from dough containing gluten.

Your old starter may have experienced some adjustment problems along the way – change in temperature, humidity, flours, acidity – which could result in an imbalance of the microbiome and may have a suboptimal impact on the bread. A new culture does not have this history and creates a fresh new environment. So in fact, creating a starter from scratch now and then is not something bad, it’s actually advisable! It enables you compare and it might give you a better leavening agent than you had. And if the result is the same, you are glad you checked it out, so know you have the best possible sourdough culture.