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Tartine country loaf fails
I’ve been baking the Tartine country loaf for a few months now, and my bakes have taken a sudden turn for the worse. I was certain I had mastered the recipe after a few glorious bakes. But suddenly I keep churning out flat, dense loaves like the one in the photo. It’s incredibly frustrating. ... | I was struggling with the oven spring
of my loaves until I did a few things that made a difference. 1. I switched to 3 sets of slaps and folds for the first part of bulk fermentation and then to 2-3 sets of regular folds, all on 30-45 minute intervals. 2. I don’t bulk ferment until the dough doubles anymore, I let it b... |
Sourdough proof temps
HiDoes anyone have or know of a chart that shows the difference in time over temperature for slow proof of sourdough in a fridge please. I'm testing a few variables myself but this is becoming a long task. thanks | I use the values below, which
I use the values below, which you could experiment with. Note these are fermentation times, not proofing times. But you can see how they vary and multiply by common factors to target whatever result you're after... fermentation time, proof time, starter collapse time, time to bake. The ... |
Can you help me with my sourdough taste?
This is a picture of one of my recent sourdough loaves. I like how they turn out in general, it's good enough for me - except for the most important thing: the taste.I just cannot get rid of a certain bad smell... it's not super bad but... it completely ruins the loaf. It's not ... | I just realize how difficult
I just realize how difficult it is to discuss things like smell over the internet. I'm certainly not picky when it comes to other types of fermented food, I like smelly cheese and other pungent smells. But belive me when I say that this smell is wrong/bad. |
Do Starters survive relocation?
I have read that a mature starter from one climate will not survive in a new climate, over time. I've also read that once established and mature they protect themselves from new strains and remain unchanged. It seems like these can't both be true. There must be more to the story. | Data point #1
I moved mine from South Africa to Kansas without it missing a beat. Numerous students have taken offshoots of this starter for use at their homes, some as far as Florida. So long as the starter gets fed, it will keep chugging along. Paul |
Bread flour in sourdough
Is it always necessary to add bread flour when using ancient grains like Spelt or Kamut for sourdough bread? | Of course not
But don't expect the same results and appreciate the grain for what it is. |
darker top layer on my starter
Just started my sourdough starter making yesterday, and today at 23hours after my first mix of whole rye flour and water, I found this darker top layer.I'd like to know if it's normal or has it gone bad? (I don't think it's hooch because I didn't see any liquid formed. But I could be wron... | hard to tell with the small image but
I doubt it's gone bad a day in. I assume it's in a covered jar, right? If you're concerned, scrape it off. FWIW I used Maurizio's guide (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/#h-making-an-incredible-sourdough-starter-from-scratch) a... |
Sourdough Starter smell isn't right
I've recently got into the sourdough scene, and defintley have gone through some trial and error. I have two starters and both are almost identical. They are very active and always rise. I've made four successful loaves so far. My problem is that the loaves were great but not sour, e... | Loaves don't have to taste sour
to still be sourdough. How does the starter taste as it progresses from fed to peak? |
Does the hydration of a starter actually matter?
I generally keep my starter at 75% hydration, because I find it easiest to work with at that level. For most recipes which call for a specific hydration of the levain, I just adjust the hydration in the final dough accordingly. However, some recipes call for a drasticall... | There's a pretty good discussion of just this
topic here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10853/stiff-vs-liquidwhat039s-really-difference hester |
Moist/dense crumb and massive airpockets
Hey there. I recently started baking with sourdough and I haven't gotten a hang of it yet. As you can see the crumb is very dense, moist and there are massive holes. I did this:420 grams bread flour, 100%315 grams water, 75%84 grams starter (passed the float test), 20%8.4 grams ... | Here are my thoughts...
and I think your bread looks underfermented which could be the strength of the starter OR the dough needs more time to ferment during bulk. Big air pockets combined with denser dough areas around it often are a sign of underfermentation of some form and it might be interesting to hear what othe... |
Sourdough Starter sample never floats ?
Decided my disappointments were due to a poor Starter ... so started again ... but the results are the same :My new Starter looks as bubbly as before, but again a sample never floats in water.Why ?Superbaker24 | can you tell us a bit about your starter -
how old is it, what is your feeding regime? it might just be immature so more info will help us to help you. |
Can I use OLD PIZZA dough from Fridge as STARTER??
Folks, I have some old left over pizza dough that I had made that I put in a Ziplock bag (about 2 dough balls) that has now been in the fridge for about 8 days and has developed an acidic fruity aroma that probablly smells more intense than my actual stored starter! (... | old dough
I think it might be fun to mix it up and feed it like a starter for a while to see what develops. It might take a while if you fed it with commercial yeast for it to turn into a true sourdough starter, since that stuff is going to stay dominant for a while and, to my knowledge, isn't friendly to anything exce... |
Suggestions to improve (my first post)
First of all, hello there, I've been reading this forum a lot but this is my first post. Also, in advance, thank you very much to whoever helps me out to better my loafs. So I've been baking sourdough only for three times. This are the details: 1st attempt- I made a loaf using a s... | Usually improving the yeast
population in the starter makes many of the other problems go away. Try this first. Take 10g of your refrigerated starter and add 70g water and 100g flour. Stir well and cleanly place into a tall straight narrow glass or see-thru container. level out the soft dough and cover. Note the te... |
Help me with my math, please!
I built this spreadsheet to help me on the calculations of bread making, but I have no idea if the numbers and formulas are right, seems like they are to me. If the image is not enough to analyse, I can post the formulas. The light greens cells are the ones I can edit.Thank you for your h... | Looks Okay
The math looks correct to me.Ford |
How to make a lighter crumb
So I've branched out my baking recently into the world of sourdough, and it seems there is a lot to learn!I finished making a plain wholemeal loaf with a few seeds in, it tastes good but I was looking for advice on getting a better texture. It doesn't seem to have the characteristic large ho... | Gummy
Gummy bread normally means under fermented. So I'd look at that as well as making sure it's baked through properly.Normal range of salt is 1.8% - 2% of total flour.100g sourdough (50g flour)400g wholemeal100g bread flourGives you 550g flour. So 1.8% - 2% salt = 9.9g - 11g.7g is a bit on the low side.You also want... |
poolish using my sourdough starter
I came across a recipe that said to use a sourdough levain. It didn't say how much sourdough starter to use so I just took some our of the container and added the water and flour.I used this formul | 44g sourdough starter200 g flour200g water Mixed it and let it sit for 12 hours I then added to the dough recipe and all went well.My question is this, what would happen if anything if I used less sourdough starter? the bread had a 4 hour RT bulk fermentation and a 45 min proof. Thanks |
That elusive open crumb
The first step is admitting you need help, right? I need lots of it. I've been trying to get a nice open crumb for quite a while, and have had little success. So I'm going to document my most recent bake with photos. I'm sure you guys will be able to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm fairly c... | I don't know why it posted
I don't know why it posted twice. Mods: Please delete. |
RIDICULOUS amount of starter!
I'm not kidding. So much, that I'm embarrassed to tell you. What are your favorite ways to use starter (other than bread). Let's call it discard, because if I don't use it, definitely needs to be reduced.I've read about pancakes (we don't care for waffles) and other things like that. What ... | I never have discard and glad I no longer have to
eat SD pancakes and other stuff made with discard and now eat them because I want to instead....and make a levain for them!I love SD: Rye cookies, Pancakes, waffles, fried chicken, noodles using all kinds of flour, English muffins, cakes breads and anything else you can... |
The starter is very young but it works!
With inspiration from Mini Oven and Dabrownman I tried the ''brown paper bag' method to make a starter. In a nutshell... Make a golf sized piece of dough with whole wheat flourPlace in a brown paper bag submerged in bread flour and keep somewhere warmAfter 5 or so days cut open t... | No need to submerge in flour
No need to waste flour and "submerge" in flour. Just toss in a few handfuls enough to dust and prevent sticking to the bag. :). Congratulations on doing almost nothing! Mini |
Crummy crumb?
Hi! I’m pretty new to sourdough baking, and this was a recent result. I see some great big holes, but also denser spots. It tastes good, but it is pretty chewy (I happen to enjoy that!). I’d love feedback from more experienced folks. Is this the dreaded “fool’s crumb”? This used a home-grown AP star... | shaping?
Overall I'd say this looks pretty good. Crust looks nicely caramelized, crumb has a nice glossy look, so I'm gonna suspect shaping issues here and not your fermentation. |
easy sourdough for newby
Hi Bread folk.I have just started a sourdough starter and looking for an easy recipe how much starter to flour etc there are many recipes which appear quite advanced any help please thanks in advance | I think a 1-2-3 loaf (there
I think a 1-2-3 loaf (there are many explanations on the site) Is a great starter loaf. Easy to wrap your head around, a nice hydration to work with and not much to go wrong or over think. Good luck! |
More oven spring needed
Hi AllIve been baking Sourdough for a few months using the tartine method but still fail to get the oven spring and finish they get, im baking in a clay oven, could this be the problem or are they OK.here are the two I baked this morning | Crumb shot?
Crumb shot will always be welcome. It'll help to see what's going on as well.How do you feel the dough handles? Is the gluten formation done well? Which flour are you using? Have you got the fermentation done just right? etc.A bit more info will help.Looks lovely from where I'm sitting. |
Overfermented sourdough dough with minimal rise.
HiI'm sorry if this is long-winded but I'd like to share as much information as possible.I cannot get my sourdough dough to rise. If I try to be patient and allow for longer rise times, it turns into unshapeable batter. I'm located in Mumbai and our current temperatures ... | The issue may be in your starter
If you're keeping your starter at room temperature, only feeding it once a day and it's 34°C then the issue may be in your starter.Do you keep your starter at room temperature? |
Sourdough Schedule
Ive been making Sourdough for a few months and have had to take my dough to work to do the turns but cant do this anymore so need a new schedule to fit my working day Im sure i saw on this site the following worked, any thoughtsIn the morning before work make my Lievan, at 4.30pm mix dough and do tur... | That is both the bulk ferment
and final proof in the fridge. How about a slight alteration...A high-ish amount of levain - about 30%. Make the dough, do the stretch and folds then refrigerate. Next day, shape and final proof at room temperature. |
Sonora Sourdough Loaf Underproofed?
Hello everyone! Here is my attempt at a 100% Sonora Wheat loaf using a local Sonora grain which clocks at around 15.75% protein!I did a cold extended autolyse and a cold bulk fermentation and a cold final proof.100% Sonora Wheat90% Hydration20% Sourdough Starter @100% Hydration2.3% S... | Sonora Wheat
Did a quick search to learn more about this wheat and while it is high in protein it is considered a soft wheat. It is low in gluten forming proteins according to breadtopia. See here.You've got a soft wheat with very high hydration. What I see would be typical with this combo. Whether it can be improved u... |
Trouble with a starter
Hello all.I just now joined this site. I've seen that there's a wealth of information but I don't even know where to start looking for answers to my questions! I'm not even sure HOW to ask my questions. I hope this is the right place for me to start. I'm new to bread making with starters, and... | Sorry, I have never used a
Sorry, I have never used a potato flake starter, but I have a few answers. Hydration is weight of Flour divided by weight of water. So if you add 200 grams water and 200 grams flour you will have a 100% hydration starter. If you added 200 grams water and 100 grams flour, you would have a ... |
Schedule change & my levain
Hello - I just received a 100 year old starter that has been in my county as long. I read a lot of stuff to prepare for this endeavor but the care and feeding of my starter is so intimidating ... it is like having your child by yourself for the first time! So... my levain is ready, but its... | Jackie, first while it may
Jackie, first while it may seem like your baby, it is not anywhere near as fragile, and in fact it is more like a zombie in a movie - pretty hard to kill. On there other hands, there are many different ways to maintain a starter, and they may impact the taste and texture of your loaf. If you... |
SF Country Sourdough
Thank you to the original poster of this recipeI just got into sourdough bread making and found this recipe easy to make and the taste is excellent. I do have one question though, when I made the levain it asked for a mature culture. So what I did I took my starter out of the fridge and mixed it wi... | I think mature culture in this case
It's a recipe straight out of the book which would have explained on how to make a sourdough culture. So mature culture in this case would mean once your starter has matured into a viable culture.In other terminology it would mean a starter (already matured) which has been fed and le... |
How am I doing ?
Hi forum - First post here, I thought I would share my little bread journey for now and ask for advice and opinions of what I might be doing wrong and what could be better. Beware, English is not my first language. I attached some photos for science. https://imgur.com/a/b5P75Xuafter few youtube videos,... | First, if you are happy with
First, if you are happy with the taste, I wouldn't change too much, since to me taste is more important than looks. I answered the questions I felt I knew the answers to, hopefully others will chime in on the rest. What happens if I cook it longer with the lid on ? or shorter? The longer... |
Underproofed Sourdough?
I just started my sourdough making recently and have made 5 loafs so far. Some of them were disasters and some came out fine. Here is my latest sourdough with the texture showing in the picture. I did bulk fermentation for about 6 hours under 77F and proof for about 2 hours. I am wondering this ... | Underproofed
I would suggest using a more mature levain. That loaf is a tad underproofed. |
Sourdough Hands
Here is a nice interview on how ones hands acquire the microbes in our sourdough cultures. | We are what we eat
We are what we eat and we eat what we are. What a neat interview! Rob Dunn has done some very interesting work! I'll have to take a look at his book.Thank you for posting this. |
First Time Sourdough
Hi,This was my first attempt at a sourdough. I’d appreciate any critiques about what I could do better and maybe what went right/wrong. I thought the flavor was good and pretty mild in terms of “sourness”. However I was disappointed in the flatness of the bread. During the fermentation, the bread w... | Off the top of my head
and from the limited description you gave us, I would say that your bread is way over fermented and overproofed unless your room temperature is very low. A more detailed description of your recipe and the process would be helpful in pinning down what happened. |
Oven spring on flavoured vs plain sourdough
Hoping to see if there's a quick fix for this.I get quite good spring on my plain sourdough but with my sundried tomato and chilli, it is only a reasonable rise.The flavours are added before they go into the retarded overnight prove in the fridgeAppreciate that the dough is i... | I always attributed the
I always attributed the decreased oven spring due to the additional weight of the add-ins. A heavy dough is harder to lift than a lighter one. |
Cool article that might interest Sourdough bakers.
Sourdough Hands | thanks
Thanks, fascinating article!Yes all those little critters that help our bread to grow are connected to us all. For example, researcher SJ Botha idenitified strains of Lactobacillus S.F. on teeth of preschool children. |
A problem with sourdough starter
Hello loafers i need some help so i decided to get into makinging my very own sourdough and i decided to make my own starter i have been following this guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTAiDki7AQA on youtube on day one my starter has clear signs of activity bubbles and rose a bit o... | No problem at all
See hereVery normal! I still see some activity so for now feed 1:1:1 every 24 hours and keep warm. Should they go even more quiet then skip a feed or two till they pick up. If with the 1:1:1 feeds they gain in strength without going completely quiet then increase the feeds accordingly.Read through the... |
Sourdough starter
Hello there,it's day 5 fr my starter.It bubbled yesterday a little bit but today the whole day it didnt even move.It looks like tahini and smell acid and fruity.any ideas how to make it work again?thanks! | Stir it and leave it alone
until you see more bubbles. Might take a day or two. When that happens, you can feed it. |
How can I increase the time between feeding starter
How can I increase the time between feeding starter? I've been watching BreadBabies "Reverse Tutorial" post and became inquisitive about my starter. So I performed a test using 4 different types of starter mixes.5-10-10 Ground Whole Rye5-50-50 Ground Hard White Wheat ... | Good experiment
The purpose of the two I suggested was not for speed. Although I would have expected a difference in how quickly they mature. Both of them should have been slower than a simple 100% hydration with the same percentage of starter. My idea behind the salt version was to encourage just the stronger yeast/ba... |
Wild yeast compared to standard starter
Hi! I'm new to this forum although like most I've been using the site for som time (about a year) prior to joining. I'm glad I did, there's a huge amount of knowledge and skill here from what I can tell :) I've been baking sourdough breads for about two years and gotten really ho... | A Fruit Yeast Water has no sour component
and SD starter does. I use YW to replace the commercial yeast in recipes. If you add flour to YW and cultivate it like a SD starter, it will eventually turn into a SD one in a couple of weeks Happy baking |
Starter from Tartine Bread Book
Hi all, newbie here. I am about 5 days into getting my starter going using the technique from "Tartine Bread." What an awesome book by the way. I've got bubbles with each feeding, and a mildly foul aroma, but not much rise/fall as he describes. Should I really be feeding it 100 grams ... | Hi Eli
my Tartine starter is
Hi Eli
my Tartine starter is about two and a half weeks old, and it's been doing pretty well. During the first two days, I used pineapple juice instead of water (the method published in newer edition of Peter Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice), so I didn't have a foul-smelling stage. In th... |
Dough temp before oven
I’ve been placing my proofed loaf in the fridge overnight for a retard and popping it in a preheated oven the next morning. I’m wondering, will allowing the dough to come up a bit from fridge temps before placing in the oven help with oven spring? | Don’t think so
As far as I am aware (even after a quick search online), no. It’s an easy modification that everyone would probably be doing if it were helpful, but most people don’t do it. Some people even put their loaves in the freezer for half an hour or so to make them easier to score. |
Overproofed?
I gave this recipe a try a couple days ago: https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-version-of-tartine-style-bread/Followed it almost exactly, except I replaced he WW flour with a mixture of rye and spelt, b/c my family prefers the flavor... and I got derailed by a minor family emergency in what should hav... | I've never had a loaf spread
I've never had a loaf spread after the lid opening on a Dutch oven. After 20-25 minutes (you don't say how long) at 220 °C the loaf will have essentially set. My guess is that the loaf did not have enough structure, and actually spread as soon as it got into the oven. But because it was wel... |
Fools crumb?
I've been trying to improve my crumb using the Tartine book 1 recipe, but with 82.5 hydration.. Is this an example of fools crumb, or is my bread moving in the right direction?Either way, how do I get fewer small holes, fewer large holes, and more medium large ones?Method is as follows:45 minute autolyse w... | Not
I don't think so, but it's not entirely clear. It looks very moist, but it's hard to believe it could be underbaked after 50 minutes. Did you take their internal temp? You certainly had a very long bulk ferment, over 5 hours including the bench rest.Your one hour room temp and 1.5 hours cold final rise could be ... |
Getting there!
Hi all,I am a long time lurker here but infrequent poster. Love all the great info and inspiration so thought it was time to chip in.I began my first starter in March and have been doing pretty much weekly bakes since with a few successes (mostly luck to begin with) and many, ahem, lessons. Recently I ha... | Crumb
Look at that crumb! Looks great. Awesome ears as well. |
Problems with sourdough sourness
I love a really tangy sourdough - problem is, no matter what I try, I'm failing to get even a recognizable sourdough taste in my loaves. I've tried very long bulk proofs, retarding loaves for 24 hours, using more salt, inoculating with very small amounts, different hydrations, different... | When you do long proofs what
When you do long proofs what temperature are you keeping your dough? |
Wanting more of a challenge, but-
I've been very quiet on here the last few months, b/c RL has been pretty crazy. But I have been baking regularly, 2-3x a week, 2-3 loaves per bake, and have been really pleased with the progress I've made. After some experimenting I had great luck with Trevor J. Wilson's Champlain Sour... | Have you tried Maurizio's recipes?
He has a bunch of good recipes and techniques to follow. If you're up for a challenge, maybe try this one:https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/It's quite a bit higher hydration than the Champlain. |
Taking this recipe further
Hi everyone, new member to the forum here.I got hold of a nice rye sourdough starter from a local Facebook group and have baked a couple of times with the following recipe: Classic sourdough recipeIt's worked quite well and now I'm looking for the 'next step' to take my bread a little further... | There are many things you can do
But by the time you've finished you'll have a completely new recipe. Why not find another recipe and try it out?Question is what do you want from a recipe?Wholegrain?Different variety of flour?Seeds?More or less tang? |
Vote for Maurizio on 2018@saveurmag Blog Award
TFLers....I hope you don't mind but just spotted this on Maurizio's Instagram and thought there would be many people here who happily would give him a vote..:D Kat https://www.instagram.com/p/BnG4JowgEgc/?hl=en&taken-by=maurizio | done. its a great site he
done. its a great site he well deserves it |
A rising question
I've read lots on this site about underproofing versus overproofing. But I'm wondering - can you proof a sourdough too long? Not in the sense of dough becomes too inflated and drops in the oven, but in the sense of yeast runs out of food? My house is very cool in the winter, (57-60 degrees F at night)... | Basic rule of bread baking
Give the dough all the time it needs. So a cold proof will take longer than a warm proof. So you are correct. But if you are finding your starter is more sluggish than normal! you need to also think about the health of your starter. So you want to ask yourself is your starter behaving within ... |
How to store Italian starter (lievito naturale) in water
I have been working tirelessly to develop an Italian firm starter. So far, it seems to be going well. My question is how does one store an Italian starter in water and what are the benefits of doing so? I saw a video done by Iginio Massari that showed him cutt... | This one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S8CBErq13o&playnext=1&list=PL9F79807DA4B0B5ED&feature=results_main |
Sourdough beginner help
Hey all! Brand new to this forum, sourdough making, and frankly baking as a whole. But I absolutely love sourdough and want to learn! It seems like all the different recipes have a million different steps, so I'll post the recipe I'm following.I've tried this twice and each time I can't seem to ... | So I am by no means a pro but
So I am by no means a pro but in my experience two things immediately jump out at me about this recipe... I'm going to assume that your starter is awake and peaking ...first, it seems like way too much kneading. to me sourdough is something you develop slowly over time and I tend to use th... |
Advice on Ginsberg Provençal Rye
In my slow journey through Stanley Ginsberg’s The Rye Baker, I started with some lower rye percentage loaves to get familiar with the quirks of rye with the plan to move on to more difficult recipes. My latest effort is a loaf of Provençal Rye (Pain de Seigle Sisteron). I was mostly ple... | too much rye sour
hi alcophile!In one of the comments on Ginsberg's blog -- http://theryebaker.com/thoughts-on-how-to-sell-a-cookbook/ -- an alert reader pointed out that the 100 grams of sourdough in the sponge didn't jive with the baker's percentage listed and that the true amount should be 20 grams. Ginsberg concede... |
Another take
on the Do Nothing bread of Yohan Ferrant.I used: 2.5g starter450g water500g flour (400 white bread flour protein 11.5%, 75g wholewheat and 25 wholegrain rye)10g saltAutolyse 30 mins using 375g water and then sprinkled on the salt and mixed the starter into the remaining 75g water; in error the half tsp sta... | Maybe More Strech and Fold
I just made my first successful loaf last night after two initial failures. My first two loafs came out flat like pancakes. I also had hard time shaping the dough to a boule. I found doing more stretch and fold during the bulk fermentation will help to build the structure of the dough and wil... |
Absolute beginner here trying to make a sourdough starter
Day eight of trying to coax flour and water into a viable sourdough starter.I started with a mix of 100g Arrowhead Mills rye flour and 100g King Arthur AP flour and 200g lukewarm water. Marked the level on the jar with a rubber band, covered with a coffee filter... | Hi, I suggest you start with
Hi, I suggest you start with the pineapple solution, it worked great for me. This page describes it, if you go part way down, it gives you the steps http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2Day 1: mix...2 tablespoons whole grain flour* (wheat or rye)2 tablespoo... |
Chocolate Malted Barley
I thought it might be interesting to others, so I decided to post this bake. I got interested in malted barley a while back. I was learning about diastatic malt and one thing led to another. Wendy, aka “LazyLoafer”, among others helped my learning process. I went to a local “Home Brew” shop and ... | that looks wonderful! If you
that looks wonderful! If you livedw closer to NY, I'd invite myself over for a slice? |
Percentage of starter/levain in 75%+ hydration dough
For my sourdough bread I use 25% starter. Should I be using a higher percentage for a more open crumb or more oven spring? I know there are severals other factors to a nice crumb structure but slowly I'm ruling out the rest and this is the last variable on my list.... | I'm barely past being a
I'm barely past being a beginner myself, but the recipe I use is only about 10% starter (I think, I suck at even basic math, forget baker's percentages). And I also start my dough the night before baking with an all night pseudo autolyze (the salt is added in), so it's not quite what you're look... |
Increasing Sourdough Tang
I'm pretty new to sourdough bread, but have made some very nice bread with crust and crumb. I've been lurking and learning from this forum. That said, i desire more tang. I've experimented with adding 1/2 tsp citric acid per loaf and 16 hour fridge proofs, which has helped...but I still want m... | Loren, Debra Wink is the
Loren, Debra Wink is the established expert on this site, and here is her summary of the factors involved in making bread more or less sour. https://brodandtaylor.com/make-sourdough-more-sour/ Like you I am in search of sour. My goal is to eventually get to be able to get a recipe and p... |
Sourdough blues
Hey gang. Used to post quite a bit here but took some time off because we moved to a new home. In Feb I had to depart with a very old starter that I wanted to leave it’s soul at my old Cleveland home and grow a new one at the new house we just built. I started the usual method described in Maggie Glazer... | Hello, danmerk
Welcome back!As you are probably aware, activity at the 3-day mark for a new starter is most likely leuconostoc bacteria, not yeast. Your starter needs to have some additional time to develop a healthy yeast and lactobacillus population.As to quantities, two things. First, work with small quantities, l... |
HELP with Sprouted Grain
I am attempting to bake my first sprouted grain bread. I followed Rienhart’s instructions to soak grain in spring water for 2 days. Use 1 part grain to 2 parts water by weight. Rinse and change water daily. Below is a closeup of my grain after 2.5 days. Is this ready? I don’t see many sprouts.I... | Sprouting grain
I was under the impression that they're soaked for 12-24 hours then drained and left to sprout over the next day or two. Submerging them in water and leaving it for a few days will make them rot, no? |
HE LIVES! Thanks, Dabrownman!
I travel a bit and can routinely be gone for 4-5 months. Being a sourdough enthusiast, I am often anxious that my starters (3 of them) survive. I build up their population and then dry some,take some with me and put some in long term refrigeration with my fingers crossed. Redundancy impr... | Is Fred Dead?
Don't forget Fred.http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/44777/fred-dead-practical-starter-abuse |
Advice on Sourdough Crumbs Obserations
Hi everybody,I have baked chocolate chip sourdough (70% hydration) using KR AP flour (90%) and Oat flour (10%) today. While the bread has a fairly good overspring, the crumbs, on the other hand, doesn't seem right. First of all, I did an overnight autolyse with salt and the starte... | Why?
Why make such a bread? |
Need a little Spelt Help
I was inspired by Abe’s recent spelt bake. Up until now I’ve only used spelt at 10% for extensibility.I originally intended to try 100% spelt, but milling it was a learning process for me. I’ve ground many grains, but nothing so far like spelt. The best way I can describe it is it felt a little... | A new learning curve ahead
DISCLAIMER: I haven't baked with spelt but I have followed a number of posts and assisted with general baking experience of different flours. My understanding is that it behaves a lot like rye( doesn't like a lot of handling), some like whole wheat (it needs time to hydrate),and some like low... |
Do Starters Go Dormant or Hybernate Briefly?
I've noticed something strange that I have no answer for. Every now and then, our sourdough starter seems to go dormant. We feed once a day at a 1/1/1 ratio and keep the culture at room temperature. Most times the starter is very robust and we use it every week to make bread... | interesting!
I guess, I'd mention the usual, predictable things:colder at night and you didn't realise? The water is colder because of outdoor pipes being colder? Flour is colder?different flour batch?change in humidity?Maybe a build up of acid in the mix? Need to do a larger discard than usual?You probably thought of ... |
Am I overfeeding my inactive rye/ap sourdough starter (The Perfect Loaf)? Help! Pics included.
Hi everyone, first time poster here. After seeing all your beautiful loaves of bread, I am trying my hand at it but am feeling discouraged. After having read many similar threads, the one thing I have learned is Mini is the r... | In short, yes!
Take a look here. Not quite the same stage as yours but the advice is the same. Nice that you have joined us on this forum. Persevere and your starter will pull through. Patience is the key. For now take a break and let your starter just do its thing. |
can the sour dough starter kept ok with the 5 min no knead artisan bread dough?
hi. i am very noob home baker from korea who started to make bread about a month ago. i tried some breads and trying to bake 2-3 loafs per week. one of my favorite recipe is the artisan-bread-in-five-minutes-a-day inside the dutch oven, so ... | Wild Yeast
Some people say that wild yeast is caught from the air, but others claims its actually naturally present in the flour. Either way, starter is more in danger of "catching" yeast from bread thats actively baking if its kept near your baking area. If its an established yeast colony kept in your fridge with ran... |
Norwich Sourdough
I like the Norwich sourdough recipe and have had success with proofing in the refrigerator. I use freshly milled hard white and rye flours, add 80g more water to the recipe, and a 100% hydration levain I build from KA white flour. When I remove the proofing baskets from the refrigerator the dough is ... | First, what a gorgeous loaf.
First, what a gorgeous loaf. While I am an expert at overproofing, in general, if it collapses in the oven during the bake, it is overproofed. I have read various suggestions, but generally , you want it in the oven and baking before it reaches full proof. I can't give you much help in ... |
Help! Sourdough shaping sadness! Details below:
Good morning everyone,My first attempt at a sourdough boule went south right as I was doing the final shaping. Here are some details:Recipe: https://youtu.be/APEavQg8rMw 400g water, 200g active starter, 600g bread flour. (12g of salt and a splash of water added later in t... | Hi grey,I used the same
Hi grey,I used the same recipe, playing with the flour combo. I’m a noob but I’m guessing maybe you overworked the dough. Alex’s method does not call for stretch and fold during the BP, so maybe that was no much? I had a hard time deciding when to stop the slap and fold...all part of the learnin... |
Sour Dough Frustration Down Under
Hey there!!!!! I'm new to the amazing site and all things sourdough and bread actually. It had me at the first bubble in my starter! I Like most of you on here I find myself hooked. I have developed a healthy obsession in the past two months and my husband has been awfully overlooked ... | Welcome! The "chewy-fish"
might be the hardest concept. Perhaps fish sauce or ground shrimp might add that flavour. Lol!Dont worry about the rest, it comes with the journey. :). Just bake and have fun. |
par baking vs freezing fully baked
It is now only me and an 8 year old, and we do not consume as much bread as we did when we were a larger family. We no longer can consume a full loaf in less than a week and often I have found myself PURCHASING bread (horrors!) because of time constraints. I am trying to be more effic... | re: par baking vs freezing fully baked
I bake fully then freeze half the loaf wrapped in foil and in a zip lock bag. I let it thaw completely before removing it from the bag. Works well for me. I have considered par baking. I bet it should be based on internal temperature, not time but I haven't done it. |
Hydration question for Five-Grain Levain: "Bread" Jeffrey Hamelman
I made the Five-Grain Levain (page 182 in my copy), and followed the formula exactly except: no added commercial yeast, and did an overnight fermentation in the fridge.The soaker absorbed all the water, and I thought the final dough was pretty firm. Exc... | Absolutely!
I am in the middle of making an adaptation of this recipe and once again, the dough feels very dry to me. I added more water with the salt and I added even more water after the first set of slaps and folds (I don’t follow the recipe for bulk). Start with 10 or so grams and keep adding until you feel the dou... |
Starting seed culture... need help
Hi,I just started making my own seed culture following Peter Reinhart's (A Breadbaker's Apprentice) receipe. It was going fine until the Day 3, where i got maybe 30% rise instead of double, I waited another 24hrs and still no luck. So I went ahead and discarded half and mixed my seedc... | Sounds very typical
Don't worry and read through this post where you'll get all the answers. Best of luck and post anymore questions should you have any. |
New Zealanders, please help
Or anyone, really. I'm preparing an episode of my podcast about a baker in Christchurch, who mentioned as an aside the reweena starters that Maori people make, based on either potato (rewa) or sweet potato (kumara). I looked around online and here for anything that might be considered an aut... | Rewena Bread
Rewena bread, not reweenahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewena_breadYou should be able to find many recipes online.E.g. How to make the best Maori bread in town - NZ Herald |
Rapid fermentation with fresh milled wheat
Anyone using fresh milled whole wheat?I have started grinding my own whole wheat using the Mockmill 100, and since using it in my bread I have found the fermentation time to be significantly faster.I use only 20% of the fresh milled wheat with 80% KAF bread flour at 80% hydrat... | Absolutely! Whole grain will
Absolutely! Whole grain will increase the fermentation activity every time. Great observation!If you want to extend the fermentation time you can keep it cooler, or reduce the percentage of innoculation. Whole grain has the exact affect on your starter also.Isn’t home milling great?Dan |
Maximizing Sourness?
Greetings!My very first post, looking forward to this! I've been working on a trio of starters, sometimes a quartet, and they're all healthy, hearty, and active. The one I'm focused on now is rye based and I want to really amp up the 'sour' in it. My Uncle is a huge fan of sourdough but complain... | Lactic vs acetic and more.
Welcome to TFL!In seeking more sour tang, it pays to know how to maximize bacteria production versus yeast production, and acetic vs lactic. Here are some posts/threads to get you started:To get more tang, and lactic vs acetic:https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62064/want-more-sourhttps://true... |
Sourdough loaf crumb help
First time poster long time stalker, I'm challenging myself to make at least 2 loafs of sourdough a week and just finished my first one. I never tried this recipe before so I'm not sure how far off I am, but I feel like my crumb is off. The uneven and few large holes doesn't seem right, it tas... | Well, the recipe is 65%
hydration but I don't think adding more water will improve the crumb right now. I do think letting the dough bulk ferment longer would help as it looks underproofed with classic large holes and very tiny dense crumb bubbles surrounding them. Also the salt is about 1% of the dough flour amount. ... |
Sour dough starter
In the past I have made starter several times by letting a bowl of milk sit out covered with cheese cloth for 48 hrs. Always smelled like sourdough after a week. However this time it took me 5 tries before I could capture yeast spores an then it smelled terrible! Added rye flour, fermented better but... | Hi, I'm rather new as well
Hi, I'm rather new as well but seems that most people do best either using just plain flour and water or by replacing the water with a bit of pineapple juice the first day or so:-)Good luck! |
Making less sour bread on hot climate
Hey, guys! I'm new on TFL, I've been baking bread for about 7 months, reading posts here about 5 and I created my account quite recently, I knew I'd need some help eventually :PSo, here is the thing, I'm from Brazil and I'm baking whole grain breads using a sourdough starter, which... | Hot climate Sourdough
I once worked with a chef located in Bangkok (Internet conversations) with his problems with sourdough and the climate. The end answer was to have all of the fermentation except the final rise under refrigeration. Right after the mix the dough went into the walk in cooler and spent the time the... |
Advice on score and rise please!
Hi, I’m fairly new to baking sourdough. I have a 75/25 white/rye starter called Bernie who is doing a great job. The issue comes when it’s time to score and bake.I am using the Breadwerx stiff dough / open crumb recipe as I find it very difficult to work with a high hydration dough for ... | First of all
Lovely loaves. Loving that crust. Looks like a nice soft crumb too. I think they did for the crust too quickly therefore preventing oven spring. The gas had nowhere to escape and tried to push out from underneath hence the one on the left with the bulge. More effective steaming will correct that. If you th... |
Issues With Starter
Hey, I'm pretty new here and if you guys don't mind, I need some help with my starter.My starter is 10 days old now. I'ts a 1:1:1 ratio and I started it with King Arthur Whole Wheat flour and I've been using bottled water when feeding and "Great Value" All purpose flour when feeding. I leave it open... | It could be a whole lot of things
happening such as too many feedings, not letting the yeast and bacteria build up, your mixture being too thin, your starter being too warm and so on. I suggest you look up the Pineapple solution on this site and follow it. I baked with a starter made using this method in 10 days.A coup... |
Sourdough loaves tearing in oven
I'm baking for some time now with satisfying results. Two weeks ago, my spiral mixer broke down and I received a new one. Same size (20kg), but a new type. This one is slightly faster than the previous monster.For my normal batch (100% white flour T65, 75% hydration) I used to mix 2 tim... | Wild guess here but,
are the loaves underproofed? Loaves will rip open like that if underproofed. Maybe the new machine is affecting the gluten development and that is affecting the proofing. |
Is it possible to over-proof the BF and then under-proof the final proof?
Is it possible to over-proof the BF and then under-proof the final proof?If this is possible, how should we expect the crumb to look?This question came to be when Kat, on another post posted her crumb.I asked her if she thought the dough was unde... | Can I clarify....
I think you asked me in the original post whether the dough was 'under-proofed' Dan and this might be a typo in your post above. I then said that this was a very long bulk that resulted in a very proofy and gassy bulk and attach fyi the dough in question in banneton....on the left hand side but only p... |
What is the weight of a cup of 100% hydreation sourdough starter?
I am just a little bit dense here and confused at the same time. What is the weight of a cup of 100% hydration sourdough starter? 240 grams? 300 grams? Please help!Thanks,Bill | Depends on the activity of
Depends on the activity of the yeasties, Bill. If they've been working hard and there's lots of CO2, then it would be lighter than if it were just mixed up. It's nothing that can be definitely nailed down, I don't think. That's why things are specified by weight, because volume is not reli... |
Starter Trouble
I need some help with my starter and starter maintenance. It’s a very slow starter- feeding it 1:4:4 (mature starter:flour:water) and keeping it at 69F it takes 12-14 hours to reach peak (doubled and leveled off-it’s never more than doubled). When I use a levain (at peak and passing the float test) in b... | Two thoughts:
What kind of flour are you feeding it?Have you tried making a new starter?Whole grain flour such as rye can liven up a starter so you may want to try that. Secondly, your starter just could be slow and making a different one just might help. |
Classic Sourdoughs by Ed & Jean Wood
Has anyone read or used this book? Would love to swap notes/talk about the book. | I read it, but sorry, can't
I read it, but sorry, can't recall much about it. You might want to check your local library to see if they have it, that is where I found it. |
Starting Out With a Stiff Starter
Hello!I recently converted a portion of my liquid starter to a stiff one. I have been baking for years and decided to switch things up. Now I'm feeling a bit lost. I tried baking with it today using the King Arthur recipe and the first loaf stuck to my dutch oven and the second ende... | Some food for thought.
https://www.google.com/search?q=science+of+sourdough+Puratos&client=tablet-android-samsung-nf-rev1&sxsrf=ALiCzsZQ8pKnM1L8XgtNnd-jcpguK8n8Yw%3A16524982... |
Sourdough starter
hi guys. I am very new to this (5days new to be precise) started my starter day 1 - 75g flour to waterday 2 waited 24 hours not much happened, same quantities of flour and water added. No starter removedday 3 more bubbles slight tang at 24 hours same amount of flour and water added no starter remove... | It's fine, no worries
Your temperatures is rather cool for sourdough, so it will take a while longer than it would if the temperature were 25C.The biggest thing will be to feed the starter enough flour so that it has a thick batter or soft dough consistency. Right now, the starter is too liquid and can't trap bubbles.... |
Favorable temps for Acetic and also Lactic bacteria?
It is my understanding that cooler temps flavor Acetic acid bacteria and warmer temps flavor Lactic acid bacteria.What temperature ranges caters to each? For example, if I wanted to retard a dough in order to build the Lactic Acids using refrigeration, what is the lo... | Doesn't work that way.
It's only Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB)Sourdough starters that are maintained with continuous refreshments are dominated by one or more heterofermentative LAB. These bacteria metabolise sugars to primarily lactic acid but will produce a number of other metabolites such as CO2, acetic acid and ethano... |
I've come to the conclusion...
That with 100% spelt sourdough bread one should...1: go high hydration.2: low inoculation with a long ferment.3: forget perfect shaping with an open crumb and a freestanding loaf but rather take the ferment to the outer limits and make it a pan loaf. 100% whole spelt will never give a cru... | Pictures?
Where are the pictures? Sounds intriguing. |
Wanting a ancient or old starter. Are flakes a good start?
Hello to everyone,Very new here and to the hobby. I am wanting to obtain an old starter and see several for sale in "flake" form. Is this a good way to start or is it best to try and find a starter that hasn't been dried?Thank you! | Welcome
Dry starter is easily revived. Make sure it isn't just sourdough "flavor".Why not start your own starter? ! tbsp. flour, 2 tbsp. non-chlorinated water (a bottle of spring water works well), stir, wait. A little simplistic but there are plenty of posts on "how to" . Best way to learn how to work with a starter i... |
STILL can't get a starter!!!!!!
So well after 10+ tries here, I still can't get a stable rising starter. I've tried Ken Forkish, Reinhart, all the other redundant recipes that exist on this site and others and it's just not happening. I feel I'm getting closer, but it just won't stick. I'm going to explain what's happe... | Now change
To a 1:1:1 feed. See how it fares. The higher the ratio of starter to fresh feed the less it has to eat through and won't rise as much. See what happens over the next few days. If it responds well then up the feed again to 1:2:2. Basically you need to build up strength. I'd say go straight into 1:2:2 from th... |
Sourdough Cookies Puffing Too Much?
Hello All, First time poster and all around sourdough newbie here. I have had my starter for about 6 weeks now and it is a vivacious one. I have had a lot of great breads and other leavened creations with the starter, but it seems that whenever I try to follow sourdough cookie recipe... | I would say to make cookies thinner
and don't let them proof as much so they don't spring as much |
Help Needed – Crust/Scoring Issues with Tartine Country Bread
Hi everyone, I've been having some issues with my loaves recently and wanted to get some more expert opinions on where I might be going wrong.I've been baking Tartine's Country Bread for a little while now, but as I'm trying to get better at scoring it seems... | Under-proofing
Your loaves may be somewhat under-proofed, leading to overly exuberant oven spring. This is amplified by baking in a dutch oven. I am also guessing that your scoring is too deep.To my taste, your crust is a bit light. The lighter appearance of the grigne (bloom) just means the bloom occurred relatively l... |
Sourdough / Poolish / Biga question
I have a sourdough starter I've been feeding and nurturing for about a year and have used it in breads and pizzas mostly backing out flour and water and inserting amounts of starter. I've come to a rustic Italian bread that calls for a Biga. I figure I could use my starter, even th... | Biga to Starter
Biga227 g. Water ¼-tsp. Instant Yeast 72 g. All Purpose Flour 81 g. Whole Wheat Flour 41 g. Cornmeal Total Water: 227g Total Flour: 194gA starter can be any hydration! Simply make an off shoot starter built to these specs. For example...2... |
HELP Needed...(Not much rise!)
The loaf on the left caught a little on the banneton and I think this caused it to spread out more than normal.I am also thinking that I may not have scored it deep enough as you can see it didn't open up much at all! Recipe i'm using is;800g White Wheat flour (Shipton Mill No.4)150g Whol... | I think the final proof
went a tad too long. Try heating the oven a half hour earlier. Great shot of crumb comparing free form to pan bake! Note the crumb bubbles loosing their stricter round shape and becoming larger. On another trial, try tossing one more folding or two during the 3 hour bulk rise which is actual... |
Bulging loaves
Why do I always get these unsightly bulges in my sourdough loaves? | Seems like weak seams
I can't say I have ever seen this precise problem before, but the photo looks like the loaves burst on the bottom. This suggests that there was a weakness in the gluten sheath there, most likely where you sealed your seams when shaping.The only other possibility of which I can think at the moment ... |
Maximizing Yeast in SD Starter
Michael Wilson’s use of the highly yeasted Levito Madre (Pasta Madre) have interested me for years. Unfortunately (as far as I know) all of the definitive literature is written in Italian. Because of this I have not ventured into this endeavor.I recently got in touch with Debra and asked ... | Thanks Danny & Debra
Interesting that white flour would favor yeast over LAB. Why is that?-Brad |
Critique my Tartine loaf
Followed the tartine recipe measurements, played with the timing a little bit.Crumb is a little darker than expected, I think because I used local high extraction bread flour in place of the white bread flour.I would love a little bit of a higher rise, and a little bit of a more open crumb, not... | I think the bread looks
I think the bread looks beautiful! But I completely get you... My bread is never high enough and the crumb could almost always be more open :-D |
Rye starter died on the 5th day
Hi everyone,few days ago I started the process of making my own rye starter and everything was going well, nicely bubbly and triple volume...until the fifth day (after 12hours) when my starter didn't show any sign of life and it lost some of the beer aroma that it was developing. Is it d... | Sounds good to me
Quiet on day 5 is perfectly normal. Time for you to put your feet up and take a break. Keep warm and give it a stir once a day otherwise don't feed till it begins to show signs of life again.Your starter may not look like its doing much but things are happening. The PH level will lower (it's becoming ... |
Sourdough always sticks to board
I've watched videos where even the first placing of dough sticks to their board much less than mine.Every time I have to scrape away hard with my Scraper .... then the dough just sticks to that ... and my hands.And this never gets better, even when I patiently continue.I can improve thi... | I used to have a very similar problem...
Here are a few things that I discovered:1. When you are doing the first or bulk ferment, let the dough go until it is jiggly, has lots of smallish bubbles that you can see through the wall of the container and has some bubbles on the top or sides of the dough where it meets the ... |
Looking for a tangy whole wheat sandwich loaf
I enjoy baking sourdough bread in my pullman pan. It works great for toast at breakfast and sandwiches at lunch. The flavor and texture are just right. But I long for tangy. I'd like to figure out how to get to too sour so I could backoff to just the right level of tang. I ... | Can't help much on the sour
Can't help much on the sour part, but have you looked into Tangzhong for making it soft. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39723/my-tangzhong-roux-faq |
Help please I am in the middle of trying to cook first sourdough loaf!
Hi I made my starting culture and I think it was all going ok. I followed the formula here to try and make my dough so I could knead it then let it sit for 4 hours then cook it. I think this is the basic way to make a loaf of sourdough right?http://... | Sticky dough
Hi,A quick comment, once you add the salt it will be less sticky and if it is such a wet dough using the folding method leaving your dough in the bowl will be helpful.Good luck and let us know how it goes. Don't give up! |
is there a rule for starter to flour?
I am seeing sourdough recipes that call for the following:50g of starter to 500g of flour100g starter to 500g flour400g starter to 700g flour and so on...Is there a rule of thumb to go buy? How does one decide on what the ratio is? Thanks | It depends
basically on how fast you want dough to ferment and taste. Personally, I tend to stick around 10 -13 percent of preferment flour (that is the amount of flour that goes into the levain divided by the total amount of flour including the flour in the levain) because I like to proof my loaves in the fridge so I ... |
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