Working the aerated starter technique

I'm still working at using the aerated starter procedure for my loaves. This can work with the higher hydration formulas that I've also been flogging but there's work to be done on making my understanding and technique into a coherent approach.The goal is consistency of being able to produce a loaf that is appealing in appearance and appealing in flavor.     

This paticular loaf is a simple sourdough with 33% stoneground whole wheat. Just for fun, I added 15 g of non fat dry milk.I can't say that there was any drastic alteration to the flavor from the dry milk but the crumb does seem to be bit softer in this loaf. In any case, as long as it tastes good, it is a good loaf of bread.

Starter
140 g at 75%  hydration, 90% organic AP/ 10% whole meal rye

Main Dough
267 g bread flour
133 g stoneground whole wheat
292 g water
15 g non fat dry milk
11 g kosher salt
All of starter

Aerating the starter is just dispersing the starter into the water used in the main dough. In this case, I also added about 60 g (a large spoonful) of flour to help keep the starter/water slurry from splashing while I mixed it up with the whip attachment for my mixer. So far, taking this step seems to enable a more reliable bulk fermentation time. It also means another piece to be washed but I can live with that. It does seem possible to do something similar for folks are doing their mixing by hand.

The late Spring peony bloom has come and gone after a brief display. There has been a lot of rain lately so many of the plants had their stems fall over. The lawn is still going well and starting to thicken up as well. I've been picking lettuce about every other day. My three tomato plants all have small green tomatoes and it can't be too soon to present me with ripe ones as a reward for my efforts. I don't expect to see that reward in the next few weeks. I've found some wild garlic of reasonable size growing in a flower bed and I'm looking foward to harvesting that just to see what it tastes like. We have no idea if its purely wild or somehow got started from a seed or clove from one of my crops over the past ten years.

There were unexpected pageviews from Finland and Libya in the past week.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.