How to make liquid sourdough (licoli)

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Create the liquid sourdough first of all it requires three ingredients: attention, perseverance and passion. If you have these you are already one step away from success 🙂

Below I will show you how to make liquid sourdough starter (Licoli, liquid culture sourdough starter) from scratch. Unlike solid sourdough, it is more quick to refresh (food) and more simple to manage. For example, once active, you can leave it to sleep in your refrigerator for even a week or two, without it being excessively affected.

The points below, should be understood as one general track to start from, reminding you that each yeast, as a living being, is different from each other, just as the bacteria and yeasts that populate it, the air it breathes and the hands that take care of it are different. You will learn, over time and with practice, to know your creature, its needs, its rhythms, and to organize refreshment times taking into account your daily commitments, so as not to become their slaves but not to neglect them either.

How to make liquid sourdough (licoli)

Basic formula: water and flour

Necessary

• Two tall, narrow glass containers, with edges perpendicular to the base and straight, or two graduated containers (to store the sourdough starter)
• Transparent film (to close the jar)
• Fork (for mixing)
• Balance (for weighing ingredients)
• A food thermometer (to measure the temperature of the air, yeast, water)
• A place where there are 24-26 ° C or where to create this temperature or a leavening cell (for refreshments)
• A place where there are 4-5°C (to rest the liquid sourdough starter)

Ingredients

• Wholemeal rye flour and type 00 soft wheat flour medium-high strength (350W or approximately 13% protein)
• Natural water (if not too calcareous, tap water is also fine)

Method

Day 1

1. Take the glass container, clean and without soap residue;
2. Pour 50 ml of hot water (30-40°C) and 50 g of wholemeal rye flour into it (it is used to facilitate the start of fermentation);
3. Mix with a fork, mixing the ingredients well and incorporating as much air as possible;
4. Cover the glass container with cling film. Make some holes in the film with the clean fork so that some air can pass inside the container, but at the same time it is protected.
5. Leave the mixture in 24 ° -26 ° C for 48 hours (If you don't have that temperature at home, here's how to build a DIY cell with a thermostat).

Day 3

1. Take your sourdough starter. Look at it. Smell it. It may be darker than the flour you used. And it smells unpleasantly of acid. At this stage it is normal. If it has grown in volume compared to the first day, that's fine. If he hasn't moved, that's okay too.
2. Remove the film, and take a second glass container, the same as the previous one, clean and without soap residue.
3. Pour in 50g of inoculum (the mixture you created two days before), 50g of warm water (25-30°C) and 50g of type 00 soft wheat flour.
4. Mix well with a fork until the ingredients are well blended. Try to incorporate as much air as possible.
5. Close with clean, perforated film and place at 24°-26°C for another 24 hours.

Day 4

1. Take your yeast. Look at it. Smell it. It should be lighter in color than two days before. It should have some bubbles on the surface. And maybe even have grown in volume. If so, it means it has become active! Congratulations 🙂
   If by chance it is split in two, with water on it, don't worry. After many hours of stopping it can happen. Remove the fork and proceed with the refreshments as on the previous day.
2. So, take 50g of sourdough starter, place it in the clean container, add 50g of warm water and 50g of 00 type soft wheat flour. Mix well, and cover with cling film with holes in it.
3. Place again at 24°-26°C for 24 hours.

Day 5

1. In most cases, on the fifth day the sourdough is already active, and grows predictively. It means that once refreshed and placed at a controlled temperature of 24-26°C, in about 4 hours it will double or will triple.
2. Then refresh like the previous day, and pay attention to the volume. If it grows to at least double, wait for the peak (i.e. the maximum level of growth, after which it will begin to decline) and at that point refresh again.
3. If you see that it works, and is therefore regular, your liquid sourdough starter is ready! Compliments!
4. However, if it still doesn't double, wait another 24 hours, and try again the next day, until it doubles in a few hours.
5. If the liquid sourdough starter is active, you can refresh it with more water and more flour, i.e. with a refresh report higher (1:2:2 or 1:4:4) rather than 1:1:1), so that at the same temperature the next refresh is later in time. For example, if you put it at 23°C, with a refresh of 1:4:4 it could cover 12 hours.
6. Otherwise you can refresh it 1:1:1, wait a couple of hours at 26°C for it to reach 50% of the volume, and then move it to the refrigerator at 4-5°C until the next day, and refresh it again when it's doubling. And so on.

Important notes

THEredundancy, or the waste of the sourdough, should always be thrown away and never tasted until the fourteenth day, or until it is considered fully ready and safe. Then the excess can be stored in the fridge for a few days and used in other recipes.

If after 14 days the sourdough has not activated (it does not grow or grows very little) there may be a problem. Sometimes it is the type of flour used, other times the importance of temperatures is underestimated. If in doubt, I invite you to use il forum di PanBrioche.

There are different methods of maintaining and using liquid sourdough. I recommend browsing the liquid sourdough section to find out what they are, how they work, and understand which one is best for you. In particular, I suggest reading the guide it covers cold liquor management, and that which deals with the hot liquor management.

The liquid sourdough starter is active, can I use it?

To find out if your sourdough starter is liquid ready to bake, the best way is to test it with a first loaf of bread! But if you don't want to run into easy disappointment, make sure that:

1. At least they passed 14 days from day 1 of your liquid sourdough. In fact, a minimum maturation time is often necessary for the acetic acids and those lactics find their balance;
2. Make sure you have done at least 2 consecutive warm refreshments (22-26°C) before kneading, especially if you have left the sourdough to rest in the refrigerator for too long.
3. Trust your senses (train them!) and use smell and taste. Does the smell seem pleasant to you? When tasting, is it pungent and stays in the mouth, or sour-sweet that disappears immediately? If the smell is pleasant and the sour note on the tongue dissipates immediately, you're done.
4. Knowing the pH, at this stage, is not absolutely necessary. Train yourself to read the liquid sourdough through thesensory analysis. Only when you are able to independently understand how he is doing and when he is ready, use a pH meter It could be of some use to you (maybe).
5. If the first bread doesn't come out well, don't be discouraged, it's normal! With experience you learn and it will get better and better. In the meantime, it is enough to know that a bread made with sourdough must not be acidic. If it has tips of of lactic acidity there's something that needs fixing. If you want to know more about bread-making techniques, I refer you to the section Dough technology.

Having said that, go for it 🙂
It is only by making bread that you will really know how your yeast is doing liquid mother, what does it need, does it need to be fixed or is it perfect as it is! I assure you that as soon as you take it out of the oven first bread done with your licoli, you will be fully rewarded for your efforts! And going forward the yeast refreshments will become so systematic and natural, that you will do them without thinking about it!

Post scriptum

Please, do not underestimate the importance of temperature!